Anonymous
Post 12/13/2023 09:08     Subject: Wizards and Caps could be moving to Potomac Yard
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Why do people here keep talking about an arena like it draws football or baseball crowds? We’re talking about crowds 1/3rd the size at best. This isn’t a traffic nightmare.


Rush hour traffic is already a pain. Caps games draw about 18,000 fans. Figure that translates to at least a couple thousand more cars coming through that area at peak rush hour for a 7 pm game. Just not very appealing for me - I'd much rather take the metro downtown.


Ted will be making more money by virtue of the deal Virginia is giving him, but Wizards fans simply won't go anymore and the Caps fanbase will turn south. People want to go to the middle of the region. Potomac Yards is logistically much more difficult for people from the northern and western suburbs. It is different for football because it is only a handful of times per year and often entails a day long commitment to tailgating etc. Basketball and hockey are not like that. Having a 7PM game where the metro closes at 10 and people are forced to drive will simply not be a viable option for thousands of current fans of the teams.


Ted has always cared about the capitals more than the wizards. Most of the fanbase already lives in Virginia. I'm sure they've done enough market research to know how fans will react. If I had to bet, it would be that they think the Virginia fans they'll attract who otherwise don't like driving to Capital One will outweigh the DC and MoCo fans they'll lose. I think for large portions of PG, it's actually an easier drive
Anonymous
Post 12/13/2023 09:08     Subject: Wizards and Caps could be moving to Potomac Yard
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Ugh. That will suck big time. Traffic is already horrible there. Leave them in DC.


You know there is a Potomac Yard metro stop now.


DP. That's not going to make a difference. People are going to come from Ashburn with their bigass 3 row SUVs and want to drive/park. PY has metro, but's it's nowhere near as convenient.


People from Ashburn. Heaven forfend!


Ashburn's on the Silver Line. As an Ashburn resident, this move doesn't benefit me at all, and in fact, makes it somewhat less likely to head to games. It's easy enough to drive to DC, when I need to do that, and the DC parking garages already fit SUVs. Not seeing any benefit to me personally having these teams in VA vs DC.
Anonymous
Post 12/13/2023 09:07     Subject: Wizards and Caps could be moving to Potomac Yard
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:This is going to such a huge hit to the quality of life for nearby residents who NEVER SIGNED UP TO LIVE NEAR AN ARENA.

I live less than 3/4 of a mile away and I am livid.


LOL. The small area plan for Potomac Yards always envisioned an Uber dense, walkable community with thousands of units of high-rise residential living. Not sure why you feel livid. This was never going to stay as is.

If it was something geared towards the use of people who actually live there, fine, but there is limited land and they are going to allocate that amount of space to something used for less than 1/3rd of the year?
Anonymous
Post 12/13/2023 09:07     Subject: Wizards and Caps could be moving to Potomac Yard
Anonymous wrote:Michael Wilbon speaks for probably 90% of Wizards fans



Good luck recovering that part of the fanbase, Ted.

And personally, I have been a season ticket Caps supporter since the last year of US Airways Arena/capital centre (I bought them because they were moving downtown) and will not renew. Most of the people who sit around me have also said they will not renew.

Sad day.


Why does DC attract crappy sports team and owners?
Anonymous
Post 12/13/2023 09:07     Subject: Wizards and Caps could be moving to Potomac Yard
Gov. Youngkin is speaking now. This is a huge win for him.
Anonymous
Post 12/13/2023 09:06     Subject: Wizards and Caps could be moving to Potomac Yard
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:So I just looked at a map of where the professional hockey and basketball teams are located. LA and NYC, cities on par with DC, each have 2 basketball teams and 2 hockey teams. This area could definitely support more.
Additionally, there are places in the middle of no where, like Oklahoma City, Calgary, Winnipeg, or Edmonton that have teams; there are hockey teams in places that make no sense - Florida (?!?!) has two hockey teams. It doesn’t even have any snow there.
Let Leonsis sell out DC and take his precious teams to Virginia and we’ll simply go and get new teams from somewhere that doesn’t really need/deserve them because of geography.


DC is on par with Baltimore now, not NYC or LA.

Sorry that you are hemorrhaging businesses and amenities but DC is run by incompetent morons who turn a blind eye to crime because “they still babies.” You’re getting exactly what you deserve.


I agree that much of DC's issues are self inflicted and are generated from the mayor's office, city council, general attorney's office, etc. They have all turned a blind eye to the increase in crime that has occurred starting with the BLM marches and were only augmented by COVID and the resulting decisions to allow all the goldbrickers to WFH. This has caused DC to be an absolute ghost town. It has been 3+ years since COVID hit and 2 years since a vaccine and only now am I hearing friends that work in DC government talk about edicts on number of days they need to be in the office. It is only now that some of DC's courts are requiring in person hearing.

Saying all that some of this is on the federal government and its complete lack of pushing federal workers back into their offices. You want to solve the crime issue and business closure issue, get the feds back into their buildings. That will push the workers in the office above the current rate of somewhere around 40%.

The House has a bill that directs agencies back to prepandemic levels of in-person staffing. This could be attached to a bill to avert the partial shutdowns in January and Biden and the Dems could say in the interest of keeping the government open they had no choice. Won’t happen but it would be something positive for the District.
Anonymous
Post 12/13/2023 09:04     Subject: Re:Wizards and Caps could be moving to Potomac Yard
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:How will this affect airport trafffic?


Airport traffic already sucks. Didn’t you see any the Thanksgiving holiday coverage? Take metro.


The virginia governor has refused to fund metro and as a result, the agency has announced plans to stop service at 10PM and cut many bus routes. Good luck getting back to the Wheaton or Herndon metro stops after a weeknight game.


Most games tip at 7 and are over before 9. I take the red line home to friendship heights and am usually home by 9:15.


Hockey is more of a 3 hour game, usually ending around 9:45 unless they go to overtime.
Anonymous
Post 12/13/2023 09:03     Subject: Wizards and Caps could be moving to Potomac Yard
Michael Wilbon speaks for probably 90% of Wizards fans



Good luck recovering that part of the fanbase, Ted.

And personally, I have been a season ticket Caps supporter since the last year of US Airways Arena/capital centre (I bought them because they were moving downtown) and will not renew. Most of the people who sit around me have also said they will not renew.

Sad day.
Anonymous
Post 12/13/2023 09:02     Subject: Wizards and Caps could be moving to Potomac Yard
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Why do people here keep talking about an arena like it draws football or baseball crowds? We’re talking about crowds 1/3rd the size at best. This isn’t a traffic nightmare.


Rush hour traffic is already a pain. Caps games draw about 18,000 fans. Figure that translates to at least a couple thousand more cars coming through that area at peak rush hour for a 7 pm game. Just not very appealing for me - I'd much rather take the metro downtown.


Ted will be making more money by virtue of the deal Virginia is giving him, but Wizards fans simply won't go anymore and the Caps fanbase will turn south. People want to go to the middle of the region. Potomac Yards is logistically much more difficult for people from the northern and western suburbs. It is different for football because it is only a handful of times per year and often entails a day long commitment to tailgating etc. Basketball and hockey are not like that. Having a 7PM game where the metro closes at 10 and people are forced to drive will simply not be a viable option for thousands of current fans of the teams.


Metro is currently open much later than 10. But with the proposed budget cuts, Metro will close before 10 and numerous stations will close.
Anonymous
Post 12/13/2023 09:01     Subject: Re:Wizards and Caps could be moving to Potomac Yard
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:How will this affect airport trafffic?


Airport traffic already sucks. Didn’t you see any the Thanksgiving holiday coverage? Take metro.


The virginia governor has refused to fund metro and as a result, the agency has announced plans to stop service at 10PM and cut many bus routes. Good luck getting back to the Wheaton or Herndon metro stops after a weeknight game.


Most games tip at 7 and are over before 9. I take the red line home to friendship heights and am usually home by 9:15.
Anonymous
Post 12/13/2023 09:00     Subject: Wizards and Caps could be moving to Potomac Yard
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Why do people here keep talking about an arena like it draws football or baseball crowds? We’re talking about crowds 1/3rd the size at best. This isn’t a traffic nightmare.


Rush hour traffic is already a pain. Caps games draw about 18,000 fans. Figure that translates to at least a couple thousand more cars coming through that area at peak rush hour for a 7 pm game. Just not very appealing for me - I'd much rather take the metro downtown.


Ted will be making more money by virtue of the deal Virginia is giving him, but Wizards fans simply won't go anymore and the Caps fanbase will turn south. People want to go to the middle of the region. Potomac Yards is logistically much more difficult for people from the northern and western suburbs. It is different for football because it is only a handful of times per year and often entails a day long commitment to tailgating etc. Basketball and hockey are not like that. Having a 7PM game where the metro closes at 10 and people are forced to drive will simply not be a viable option for thousands of current fans of the teams.
Anonymous
Post 12/13/2023 08:59     Subject: Wizards and Caps could be moving to Potomac Yard
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:RIP Chinatown


You understand what Chinatown was before the arena, right?


It was a crime ridden dump. It was unsafe. Sure, it had Chinese restaurants going for it.
Anonymous
Post 12/13/2023 08:58     Subject: Wizards and Caps could be moving to Potomac Yard
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Why do people here keep talking about an arena like it draws football or baseball crowds? We’re talking about crowds 1/3rd the size at best. This isn’t a traffic nightmare.


Rush hour traffic is already a pain. Caps games draw about 18,000 fans. Figure that translates to at least a couple thousand more cars coming through that area at peak rush hour for a 7 pm game. Just not very appealing for me - I'd much rather take the metro downtown.


+1

It’s already terrible.
Anonymous
Post 12/13/2023 08:58     Subject: Wizards and Caps could be moving to Potomac Yard
Anonymous wrote:RIP Chinatown


You understand what Chinatown was before the arena, right?
Anonymous
Post 12/13/2023 08:55     Subject: Wizards and Caps could be moving to Potomac Yard
Anonymous wrote:Why do people here keep talking about an arena like it draws football or baseball crowds? We’re talking about crowds 1/3rd the size at best. This isn’t a traffic nightmare.


Rush hour traffic is already a pain. Caps games draw about 18,000 fans. Figure that translates to at least a couple thousand more cars coming through that area at peak rush hour for a 7 pm game. Just not very appealing for me - I'd much rather take the metro downtown.