Capitals owner unveiling plans for new arena in Northern Virginia

[GordonGraham]

Will they change the name of the team or will it be like the New york jets/giants playing in new jersey

 

[Djp]

About 25 years in Maryland, about 25 years in DC, this is just the logical next step.

In other news…..

the NFL team is also seeking a new stadium. The moved out of DC for Maryland in 1997.
now baltimore has a team. So thr long talk has been a Virginia location. Team HQ is near Dulles airport.

EThere was a plan possibly to do a stadium along 95 just before you’d get to quantico. Press broke news on a sale of land through a third party killing it.

Will they change the name of the team or will it be like the New york jets/giants playing in new jersey

Name would not change.

for Kraken, one of the talked about arena sites would have been near the airport.15 miles outside of downtown.

 

[AchtzehnBaby]

…and we will call the location Kanata.

 

[cptjeff]

Guys, this location can't even be described as suburban... It's just a different part of the urban core. Well inside the beltway and even within the original boundaries of DC.

 

[Hockey4Lyfe]

Yeah a lot of cases of "moving out of the city to the suburbs" are stupid, but this one makes a lot of sense IMO. The DC public transit is amazing and Alexandria (if it will be located there) isn't even far out of the city center, and I imagine that will be the furthest location it might be. I could see it being in Arlington close to the Capitals practice rink as well.

This isn't the Coyotes moving from Phoenix to Glendale, let's just put it that way.

Washington DC is almost forced to have amazing public transit because driving within the city is absolutely horrific. Like routinely voted one of the worst drivable cities in the country bad.

This news will absolutely suck for anyone that is to the east/northeast if the final spot agreed on is Alexandria.

 

[Borsig]

DC and Nova are the same....... thing.

Literally. The only difference is NoVA has a shred more of sanity because it isn't a totalitarian prison camp of.... you know. DC shit.

Va will be easier to do business in and whatever, but make no mistake NoVA is basically DC. Much to the disappointment of us Va residents who live elsewhere in the state. We would love to give everything from Loudoun to Alexandria back to DC and be rid of that area. It runis the dynamics of what is elsewise a mostly sane state. Nova..... is disliked by literally everywhere else in Va.

As to the arena it's probably better, a lot better than the phone booth or whatever it's called now. But I'm a canes fan living in the southeast coast of VA so, I don't go up there any more.

This thing will literally be probably less than 5 miles from where it is now, and DC is just an extension of the MD/NoVA area that encompasses everything from Waldorf to Loudoun to Chevy chase and whatever else.

 

[AKL]

What is "Northern Virginia" in this context? Are they just moving to Arlington?

Kinda seems like a ploy to get money from DC for renovations and such.

 

[Borsig]

What is "Northern Virginia" in this context? Are they just moving to Arlington?

Kinda seems like a ploy to get money from DC for renovations and such.

NoVA to a virginian is anything from Potomac Mills to Loudoun / Alexandria.

In this context it will probably be in Alexandria. IDK where you'd put a rink in Arlington. Crystal city is like parking in a phone booth already. We stay there when we go to Echostage in DC every month or so.

 

[cptjeff]

What is "Northern Virginia" in this context? Are they just moving to Arlington?

Kinda seems like a ploy to get money from DC for renovations and such.

North end of Alexandria, so yes, effectively Arlington. Right by the new Potomac Yards metro station.

 

[John Price]

Be curious to see what happens.

I am a Capitals season ticket holder. I lived in MD around Silver Spring when I was a ticket holder, took the train from Forest Glen to Gallery Place. 25 minute ride or so. Mostly over ground. It was very convenient for Maryland people to hop on the Red Line and ride the train down, from both Shady Grove and the Glenmont direction.

I moved around 2017 to Virginia and it's about 50 minutes or sometimes more, depending on how stable or cooperative the silver line is. It'll still be that much when they move to Potomac Yards, just that I won't take one train there but two.

They're moving 4 miles or so to the west, across the river. They're actually moving closer, but the commute time will be about the same for me. For those people in MD though, they got royally f***ed. I feel for them having gone through such an easy commute in the olden times.

There are a lot of potential reasons behind this move. The current location is great for MD and VA and DC fans. It is a centralized location. But there was talk that the relations between DC and Leonsis had been decaying, as they squabble over arena improvements and funding. Leonsis is basically threatening to go west to an area that is growing (the new Amazon HQ moved there) in Potomac Yard. With Chinatown and DC generally getting worse (spate of crime and carjackings lately, businesses leaving Chinatown) plus the DC police providing less officers (they used to provide hundreds for Caps games now they cut it down) it'll be curious to see how this further develops, and what more details we learn from the 9 AM conference tomorrow.

I am not as affected by the move as the MD breathren who are the most affected as their commute will significantly get worse. I will likely continue to keep my season tickets when they move to VA.

 

[mrv52]

This is (not so) covertly about crime. DC is all messed up.

 

[cptjeff]

Be curious to see what happens.

I am a Capitals season ticket holder. I lived in MD around Silver Spring when I was a ticket holder, took the train from Forest Glen to Gallery Place. 25 minute ride or so. Mostly over ground. It was very convenient for Maryland people to hop on the Red Line and ride the train down, from both Shady Grove and the Glenmont direction.

I moved around 2017 to Virginia and it's about 50 minutes or sometimes more, depending on how stable or cooperative the silver line is. It'll still be that much when they move to Potomac Yards, just that I won't take one train there but two.

They're moving 4 miles or so to the west, across the river. They're actually moving closer, but the commute time will be about the same for me. For those people in MD though, they got royally f***ed. I feel for them having gone through such an easy commute in the olden times.

There are a lot of potential reasons behind this move. The current location is great for MD and VA and DC fans. It is a centralized location. But there was talk that the relations between DC and Leonsis had been decaying, as they squabble over arena improvements and funding. Leonsis is basically threatening to go west to an area that is growing (the new Amazon HQ moved there) in Potomac Yard. With Chinatown and DC generally getting worse (spate of crime and carjackings lately, businesses leaving Chinatown) plus the DC police providing less officers (they used to provide hundreds for Caps games now they cut it down) it'll be curious to see how this further develops, and what more details we learn from the 9 AM conference tomorrow.

I am not as affected by the move as the MD breathren who are the most affected as their commute will significantly get worse. I will likely continue to keep my season tickets when they move to VA.

South, not west. Potomac Yards is roughly 3 miles directly south from the Washington Monument. It is still a little to the west of where they were.

 

[Borsig]

Don't forget DC's covid stuff was far more strict than anything in VA, and that crime and the whole anti-police situation in DC have really changed. Certain parts of DC were already crime ridden but some places have gotten way worse.

It's just better business in VA.

 

[John Price]

So how far is the move approximately ?

Is it enough they would have to be the West Virgina Capitals ?

like 4 miles west

 

[AKL]

NoVA to a virginian is anything from Potomac Mills to Loudoun / Alexandria.

In this context it will probably be in Alexandria. IDK where you'd put a rink in Arlington. Crystal city is like parking in a phone booth already. We stay there when we go to Echostage in DC every month or so.

North end of Alexandria, so yes, effectively Arlington. Right by the new Potomac Yards metro station.

So close enough that they can still call themselves the Washington Capitals, and they're still going to be serving the same general area, but they just get some type of better deal being on the Virginia side of the river. What are the chances that they just take the 500 million DC is gonna give them and stay where they are?

 

[Borsig]

This is (not so) covertly about crime. DC is all messed up.

We go there once a month to our favorite EDM club / venue on the east coast because its an amazing space and they have great acts, but at this point, I'm carrying dirty because there's no way I'm going into Brentwood unarmed.

 

[John Price]

So close enough that they can still call themselves the Washington Capitals, and they're still going to be serving the same general area, but they just get some type of better deal being on the Virginia side of the river. What are the chances that they just take the 500 million DC is gonna give them and stay where they are?

yes. supposedly they'll get more taxpayer money for a new stadium in VA.

 

[Borsig]

So close enough that they can still call themselves the Washington Capitals, and they're still going to be serving the same general area, but they just get some type of better deal being on the Virginia side of the river. What are the chances that they just take the 500 million DC is gonna give them and stay where they are?

Not a caps fan so no idea about the money, but NoVA and the MD burbs are their fanbase anyway, mostly NoVA.

DC is bad man. NoVA is safer, but DC is literally everything a big city is whithout a state government to keep it in check. I can't imagine trying to do business there.

 

[Enniskillen]

Congress Thrashers? Alexandria Renegades? Alexandria is a great area, most of the fans live in Virginia anyway.

 

[cptjeff]

So close enough that they can still call themselves the Washington Capitals, and they're still going to be serving the same general area, but they just get some type of better deal being on the Virginia side of the river. What are the chances that they just take the 500 million DC is gonna give them and stay where they are?

Before they gave the Virginia part of DC back to Virginia for slavery related reasons, the place they are moving was literally part of DC. This is still core urban area inside the beltway. Not right dab smack in what was nearly the exact literal center of the city and region like they are now, but y'all are acting like it's Richmond or something. Their original stadium in Landover was further away than this will be. They'll absolutely still be the Caps.

As for the chances they take DC's last minute $500M, no idea, but I would be surprised. If there's a press conference lined up I'd expect it to be a done deal.

 

[AKL]

Before they gave the Virginia part of DC back to Virginia for slavery related reasons, the place they are moving was literally part of DC. This is still core urban area inside the beltway. Not right dab smack in what was nearly the exact literal center of the city and region like they are now, but y'all are acting like it's Richmond or something.

As for the chances they take DC's last minute $500M, no idea, but I would be surprised. If there's a press conference lined up I'd expect it to be a done deal.

I'm not acting like anything, I literally don't know the situation so I'm just trying to figure out the why and where of it.

 

[John Price]

Sad this marriage between Caps and DC is coming to an end but you could see it materializing, Leonsis has been more and more unhappy about funding for his stadium toy

 

[cptjeff]

I'm not acting like anything, I literally don't know the situation so I'm just trying to figure out the why and where of it.

Sorry, not you specifically, but some of the collective crowd. Longer story is that the Potomac Yards area was an old rail yard area and the metro bypassed it when built. Railyard left ages ago, a giant strip mall was built over most of it, with some railyard area still undeveloped, and the neighborhood around it was fairly low income. In recent years it's been developing, a metro station was added (opening earlier this year), and VA has been wanting to redevelop the old rail yard area and strip mall into new housing and office space for Amazon HQ2. The new arena would be the centerpiece of a new neighborhood built more or less entirely from scratch, a la Hudson Yards in NYC or the Wharf here in DC. So it's a big open site, not tightly constrained like the current one, and the overall development project will be the multiple billions in profit kind.

 

[CheckingLineCenter]

What is "Northern Virginia" in this context? Are they just moving to Arlington?

Kinda seems like a ploy to get money from DC for renovations and such.

Yes. Raw site to build a few blocks of walkable live/work/play mixed use buildings around the stadium.

You seem familiar enough- but for those who are not- Arlington/Alexandria/Bethesda would be part of DC if it was say, Pittsburgh. They are all well developed with urban cores of their own and extremely close to downtown.

Many (including myself) thought what you did- this seems real. Word is they reveal tomorrow morning. Tents are set up.

So close enough that they can still call themselves the Washington Capitals, and they're still going to be serving the same general area, but they just get some type of better deal being on the Virginia side of the river. What are the chances that they just take the 500 million DC is gonna give them and stay where they are?

They initially wanted $600mil and were denied. $500mil is below initial ask. Youngkin (remember a veteran deal maker from Carlyle) and VA have reportedly gone to near $1bil. I’d say it’s a miracle for the city if Leonsis changes his mind tonight.

 

[Borsig]

As a business owner, why would you not go to the more business friendly area? Va business tax is lower, the government is far less hostile to business, better LE support, less crime, etc etc.

Its not like these sports teams are the first business to flee DC or other similar areas for more business friendly states / regions / etc.

One look across the country and you will see all kinds of this sort of thing, even where NHL players sign. Ever wonder why FLA teams get better contract values out of players than say, CA or Canada or NY teams?

Never forget Youngkin is a business guy and a deal maker. He has been very popular in VA and just brought a HUGE supercomputing DOE project to the Hampton Roads area, and now this.

Hell, they've been pushing to get the Richmond arena back in shape but Mayor Stoney is kind of an idiot and the thing is going to waste. It would be a great AHL venue.