Nothing punctuates your feelings like throwing an ax, and now there’s a new place to do it while drinking a beer in Alexandria’s West End.
Bad Axe Throwing opened at 617 S. Pickett Street in October, offering walk-in and appointments for customers to hone their axe and knife-throwing skills. After signing a waiver, it costs between $30 and $40 per-person to hurl the sharp objects at the wooden targets.
Staff joke that the experience is cheaper than getting therapy, but just as rejuvenating. The business also serves alcohol and some food.
“We’re all about getting people out of the house, the office, and having fun together,” said Skylar Mills, Bad Axe’s operations manager. “We’ve got team games, mini tournaments, and even a reoccurring league to get those competitive juices flowing. More chill and laid back? Our trained staff will always show you the ropes, make sure everyone’s throwing safely, and will gladly serve you some drinks and food on-site.”
Manager Alissa Henkel and her staff teach customers one and two-handed throwing techniques.
“It’s all about finding your throw, your technique,” she said. “Once you get it’s a lot of fun, and you’re like, ‘Oh, this is awesome.'”
The Canadian-based company has more than 40 locations, with 21 locations in the U.S. The nearest to Alexandria is the Fairfax location, which opened in 2019.
Alexandria’s location has seven lanes and 14 wooden targets.
Bad Axe Throwing is open Tuesday and Wednesday from 5 to 9 p.m., on Thursday from 4 to 9 p.m., Friday from 4 to 10 p.m., Saturday from noon to 10 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 6 p.m. It is closed Monday.
Cold, wet and exhilarating: Alexandria parent Southerlyn Marino learned so much about her high schooler’s crew-rowing that she wrote a book about it.
Marino’s youngest son Pierce (now 17) started rowing for Gonzaga College High School three years ago, and learning about the sport was a step-by-step, word-of-mouth process for her. Last month, Marino published Crew: A Guide to Rowing for parents who quickly want to get up to speed on the sport and know which side of the boat is starboard.
“I wanted to share what I learned,” Marino said. “It’s early, it’s muddy, it’s cold. You think it’s gonna be this grand sport. It’s not. You’re more like a birder, and you see your child for like six seconds, and you’re not really sure which one’s yours because they all kind of look alike in the river.”
Marino is a public relations consultant and started writing the book last summer.
“There’s a parent culture in every sport, for sure,” she said. “Like football has a super different culture from crew, and I couldn’t find any books about it to understand crew races, the structure, any of that.”
Marino said that the sport is a good outlet for her son.
“It’s a sport that can really transform them, and it can really help them develop and grow.
The book includes:
- How and where to get started
- Key features of rowing boats, gear and equipment
- Crew and seating positions
- Rowing strategies
- Training techniques
- Nutrition
- Rowing etiquette
- Competition and racing tips
- How to support your child’s crew journey
- Recovery and injury prevention techniques
- How to balance rowing and academic study
- The lifelong lessons of crew racing.
If Alexandria’s tentative deal to see a sports arena and entertainment district built in north Potomac Yard, it must include a rehabilitation and renovation fund, Mayor Justin Wilson said Monday night.
Wilson told the Alexandria Democratic Committee that the agreement, which is still in its initial planning stages with Monumental Sports, needs a funding source to account for the wear and tear that time and throngs of annual visitors will have on the arena and numerous planned amenities. The renovation fund is included in Alexandria’s deal with Monumental Sports.
Wilson said that no such rehabilitation and renovation fund was included in D.C.’s deal with Monumental Sports when the Capital One Arena in D.C. opened in 1997. He also said that it was no accident that D.C. recently approved a fund to maintain Nationals Park.
“I’ve gotten a lot of emails about a lot of bad sports deals around the country, and I think we have tried to use those as a lesson,” Wilson said. “One of the things that I think we’ve tried to learn really from some sports deals here in this region is first of all, obviously having a long term lease, having relocation provisions that prevent the team from going away.”
Wilson said one of the lessons is not repeating the Capital One Arena mistake.
“What happened in Capital One, which open the year I graduated high school, and I’m not that old, was that there was never any funding source or funding plan for how to renovate and rehabilitate an arena over time,” Wilson said.
On transportation, Wilson said congestion at the arena will be lessened by patrons using thousands of available parking spaces at neighboring Metro station parking lots and arriving via Metro and shuttle buses.
The deal is projected to generate 30,000 jobs in Alexandria, as well as bring in the Monumental Sports headquarters with about 600 professional employees, the arena itself that would house the Washington Wizards and Washington Capitals, a practice facility, concert venue, television studios, hotels and apartments.
“A big part of the vision is how to use those spaces as a way to get people into the area and then use transit in different ways to get people on to the site for events,” he said. “We’ll have a lot more planning to go as we as we determine whether this use is compatible.”
Wilson also said that one of the advantages of the arena property being owned by the Virginia Stadium Authority is that if the teams decide to relocate at the end of the 40-year lease, the facility would be owned by the city.
“We could knock down and build something else,” Wilson said. “We would have the resources as well as the ownership and control of the property to be able to do what the community would like to do.”
Don Dinan, the cofounder of the Alexandria Aces summer collegiate baseball team, died after a period of declining health on Monday. He was 74.
A D.C. resident, Donald Robert Dinan spent decades as an international trade and intellectual property attorney. He was born in Nashua, New Hampshire, and was raised in Ellicott City, Maryland, and met his future wife Amy at Mt. St. Joseph High School in Baltimore. Dinan earned degrees from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1971, Georgetown University Law Center in 1974, and the London School of Economics in 1975. In addition to being a practicing attorney, for 30 years he taught a course in international trade law at Georgetown University.
Dinan was active in local politics, volunteering as president of D.C.’s Ward 6 Democrats and as General Counsel for the D.C. Democratic State Committee. He also represented D.C. as a superdelegate at three Democratic National Conventions and served on the DNC’s rules and bylaws subcommittee.
In 2006, Dinan founded the Alexandria Aces with Alexandria’s Pat Malone and was the executive director of the nonprofit for more than a decade.
“Without Don there would be no Alexandria Aces,” Malone said. “He was an amazing guy, the kind of person you could call up any time to pick up a conversation that you’d had with him weeks before.”
Malone said that Dinan contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars toward the Aces, and that he’ll be thinking of him at the first Aces game this summer.
“Losing Don is a gut punch for me personally,” Malone said. “He loved Alexandria and being a part of the community with the Aces. It was his pride and joy. He bought all the equipment for the team, and he paid for the dugouts. The dugouts at Frank Mann Field are 55-feet-long. They’re huge, and he paid for them.”
Dinan is survived by his wife, his daughter Emma Ellenrieder and her husband, Matthias, his siblings James Dinan and his wife Elizabeth Miller, William Dinan, Mary Anne Dinan and Barbara Guiltinan with her husband Edward.
A visitation will be held at DeVol Funeral Home (2222 Wisconsin Avenue, NW) from 2 to 4 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 11. A mass will be celebrated in his honor at St. Peter’s Church in D.C. (313 2nd Street, SE) on Monday, Feb. 12 at 9:30 a.m., followed by an internment at Congressional Cemetery (1801 E Street, SE). Dinan’s family asks in lieu of flowers that donations be made in his name to Mount St. Joseph High School in Baltimore, or to The Society to Preserve H.L. Mencken’s Legacy.
(Updated 2:30 p.m.) A group called the Coalition to Stop the Arena at Potomac Yard is holding a rally tomorrow near the site of the proposed arena.
For those just now waking up from a month-long coma: Washington Capitals and Wizards owner Ted Leonsis announced, along with city leaders and Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, that the teams would be moving to a new arena in Potomac Yard — pending a series of approvals from various levels of government.
City, state and federal representatives said at the announcement that the announcement would be a significant economic boon to the city and accelerate development plans for Potomac Yard.
Public backlash was swift, with protestors gathering outside of the tent where the announcement was being held and jeering at officials inside.
The Coalition to Stop the Arena at Potomac Yard was formed, hot on the heels of another coalition protesting against zoning changes. Former Vice Mayor Andrew Macdonald, chair of the Environmental Council of Alexandria, said the Coalition to Stop the Arena at Potomac Yard is holding its first event on Thursday, Jan. 4, at 11 a.m. just north of the Potomac Yard south station.
“The Coalition to Stop the Arena at Potomac Yard will be holding its first media event at Potomac Yard to explain why we oppose the plan to build a sports arena in Alexandria,” Macdonald wrote. “We will answer questions about the project’s impacts on the community and taxpayers in Alexandria and Virginia.”
Macdonald led the charge, along with former Natural Resource Manager Rod Simmons, against the city’s Taylor Run Stream Restoration plans in 2021.
Last month, the Alexandria Economic Development Partnership (AEDP) released a summary of an economic report from consultant HR&A advisors. The summary noted that the district would generate 30,000 jobs and nearly triple the economic output compared to what was currently planned for the Potomac Yard development.
The summary faced some criticism, though, from methodology to AEDP releasing a ‘summary’ rather than the full report.
The Alexandria Economic Development Partnership (AEDP) released a summary of an economic impact report for the new Potomac Yard arena, but so far, much of the online reception has been skeptical.
AEDP hired HR&A Advisors to write an economic impact report in June. The full report has not been released, but AEDP released a summary of the report last week.
According to the summary:
Key takeaways from this analysis are provided here, with additional detail on methodology and findings provided in the sections below.
- Development of an entertainment district would generate approximately 30,000 permanent jobs for the Commonwealth of Virginia.
- An entertainment district is projected to generate roughly 2.5 times the economic output of what would otherwise be built based on current development plans.
Terry Clower, professor of public policy in the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University, told ALXnow the project would likely be a “spectacular amenity for the City of Alexandria,” though Clower said it remains to be seen whether the new development will bring new economic investment to the region or just cannibalize development from the Gallery Place arena.
However, other Alexandrians are skeptical about the economic benefits of the project. Several concerns were raised about the summary, both in the comments on this site and across social media.
The summary said HR&A Advisors used the IMPLAN input-output economic impact modeling tool to analyze the project’s economic impacts.
IMPLAN is frequently used in economic impact studies, though it’s also come under fire in the past as a model that only shows benefits to a potential project rather than the total economic impacts.
Another issue raised multiple times was that, while the study was independent, there are accusations of bias due to the study being paid for by AEDP. One of AEDP’s board members, AJ Jackson, is executive vice president of JBG Smith, the real estate investment trust that would develop the site.
Of note: AEDP has also not released the full analysis, only a summary of information from the report, and no date has been set for a release of the full report.
Again, reports commissioned by people who want to spend tax dollars on a stadium are not "studies," they are PR documents. Actual economic studies have demonstrated time and again that stadiums do not spur economic development are bad public investments. There are no exceptions. https://t.co/C0IXxq6gO0 pic.twitter.com/ceMrjJpNID
— J.C. Bradbury (@jc_bradbury) December 26, 2023
We’re working on it now, but would like to take some time away for everyone to enjoy their holidays, including you and your family. We’ll expect to be in touch after the holidays.
We’d also like the full impact analysis to be published ASAP.
— S (@sc7128) December 24, 2023
Yes —That's essentially the response that several people have received from him when they asked that question. The teams should stay in DC and we should look at other ways to redevelop PY.https://t.co/cLWs6KlADo
— Environmental Council of Alexandria Virginia (ECA) (@EcaAlexandria) December 25, 2023
The economic arguments over the Potomac Yard arena are, in part, tied in with broader questions about the impact of sports stadiums on local economies.
While a portion of the funding will come from Ted Leonsis — a $400 million downpayment — the City of Alexandria and the Commonwealth of Virginia are funding the project through the same tax mechanism that paid for the Potomac Yard Metro station. The city and the state are taking out debt on the project to be paid off in revenue from the project.
Stadiums are almost always bad investments for cities, with some reports showing stadiums don’t bring in the jobs or tourist revenue claimed.
“There are a lot of bad stadium deals around the country,” Mayor Justin Wilson said. “That’s why, when we went into this discussion, we had to have private money in this… A public-private partnership should not be entirely public. There are stadium deals around the country, even in this region, that have been entirely public. We, as we went through this process, tried to ensure that we learned the lessons of those failed deals.”
The Potomac Yard arena faces challenges in more than just economic analysis though: one of the biggest questions is how to handle transportation demands at the arena.
Wilson said the city would deliberately keeping parking levels low at the site to discourage car traffic, but Wilson and Metro General Manager Randy Clarke both said the Potomac Yard Metro station doesn’t have the capacity to handle sports arena traffic.
A new Change.org petition opposing the new Washington Wizards/Capitals arena at Potomac Yard is slowly gaining steam.
Last week, Ted Leonsis, the CEO of Monumental Sports & Entertainment and owner of both teams, announced the move alongside Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and Alexandria Mayor Justin Wilson. The $2 billion proposal would mean a new entertainment district for the area, which critics say will worsen traffic and decrease property values.
The petition, posted “on behalf of residents in the Alexandria and NoVA region,” launched on Dec. 13 and has garnered more than 300 signatures. It says that Virginia lawmakers are finalizing a deal that “will bring a new, disruptive entertainment and sports arena to Potomac Yard.”
“We call on our state and local officials to listen to their constituents and stop this initiative from ruining our communities,” the petition states. “Bringing this enormous commercial facility to the area will completely undermine what Alexandria is and the value it brings to residents, homeowners, families, and local businesses. Everything that makes this area great will go away.”
The petition says that the development will:
- Greatly worsen traffic
- Deteriorate integrity of historic communities
- Disrupt lives of families & children
- Decrease property values
- Increase crime
- Diminish small neighborhood dynamic
- Negatively impact natural environment
- Bring noise pollution
- Put taxpayer money into billionaire pockets
A recent ALXnow poll on the subject garnered more than 2,500 votes, with 46% voting that the new arena plans are terrible, 31% voting that it’s a great idea and 23% reserving judgement until more plan details are released.
The development has raised serious transportation concerns, recently from Metro General Manager Randy Clark, who said that the nearby Potomac Yard Metro station can’t handle arena-size crowds.
Updated at 2:45 p.m. New posters are lampooning the recent announcement that the Washington Capitals and Wizards are moving to Potomac Yard by demanding one more thing — for the Washington Commanders to also move to the neighborhood.
“BUILD THE STADIUM COMPLEX,” headlines the five posters, which say, “We must act fast! This mega complex will be suitable for (football, basketball and hockey stick emojis) and T Swift concerts. The streets of Del Ray will become sanctuary for riotous celebrations of multiple championships. We must not lose out to suburban Maryland!! Let’s make our suburb great again!”
This week’s announcement was met with dismay by some Potomac Yard residents who say that moving the Capitals and Wizards will destroy the fabric of the neighborhood.
The poster’s creator, known by the X handle @ArlingtonAF, also created a number of other humorous work in Arlington, most recently with a pro-pickleball posters.
“My official position is, I’m glad Potomac Yard is in Alexandria and not Arlington, and it’s not like Jeff Bezos trying to put a football team in Pentagon City..err.. I mean Nala (National Landing),” @ArlingtonAF told us. “That said, I believe Alexandria is holding a royal flush of trump cards, they should be demanding Leonsis pay for solid gold libraries, and flying school buses, the city has the leverage.”
The Wizards/Capitals move also inspired an AI-generated parody of the proposed $2 billion complex’s transportation infrastructure.
While the whole team @DDOTDC is sad to see the Wizards/Capitals move across the river, as transportation professionals we were excited to see these updated renderings of the arena and surrounding infrastructure from @VaDOTNOVA @GovernorVA: https://t.co/R4sFGTBsYR pic.twitter.com/ovNuNJDZ31
— DDOT Director (Parody) (@DDOTDCDirector) December 15, 2023
(Updated 11:10 a.m.) It’s official: the Washington Capitals and the Washington Wizards are moving to Alexandria’s Potomac Yard neighborhood.
The Alexandria Economic Development Partnership (AEDP) confirmed the news this morning ahead of a 9 a.m. announcement from Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and the team’s owner, Monumental Sports & Entertainment Chairman and CEO Ted Leonsis.
Washington Post first reported the development on Monday. The Post said that Virginia’s Major Economic Investment Project Approval Commission unanimously voted to approve a complex that was tantamount to a mini-city, with a music venue and hotel in addition to the sports center.
The project will be adjacent to the Virginia Tech Innovation Campus in the Alexandria portion of National Landing — the collective term for Potomac Yard, Crystal City and Pentagon City.
“After many years of dreaming, many years of discussion, I’m pleased to announce that right here, in Alexandria’s Potomac Yard, we have a plan to unleash a brighter, more extraordinary future,” said Youngkin. “We will build a spectacular $2 billion dollar sports and entertainment district.”
Leonsis said the move to Virginia is a “transformative step forward.”
“I have always believed there is a higher calling in sports — to unify our community, build a lasting legacy over multiple generations, and lift all our neighbors towards a shared sense of prosperity,” Leonsis said. “Today, we deepen that commitment as we enter a phase of rapid expansion in service to our fans, employees, and partners.”
Leonsis said starting a new stadium with a sense of tabula rasa was a big part of Potomac Yard’s appeal.
“When I saw 70 acres and the ability to start with a clean slate… to build a digital first experience, it really is a very romantic but also pragmatic vision that we can’t do anywhere else,” Leonsis said. “I got goosebumps again when I came here a week ago and looked at all of the expansion capabilities.”
As part of the deal, the construction and ownership of the arena would be overseen by a new Virginia stadium authority, and the arena would be leased to Monumental.
“Subject to legislative approval by the Virginia General Assembly, the Entertainment District will break ground in 2025 and open in late 2028,” said a press release from the governor’s office.
This morning’s announcement is being made in a large makeshift tent next door to the Potomac Yard Metro station and near the under-construction Virginia Tech campus.
“Pending completion of agreements and General Assembly and City Council approval, the new Entertainment District will feature an industry-leading arena for both the Washington Capitals and Washington Wizards, the global business headquarters for Monumental Sports & Entertainment, an expanded esports facility, and a performing arts venue — in addition to new retail, restaurants, and conference and community gathering spaces,” AEDP said.
A map of the planned Monumental development, directly adjacent to the Metro station, also includes a fan plaza, a practice facility for the Capitals and Wizards, and a TV studio for the Monumental Sports Network — formerly NBC Sports Washington. The map also notes the future development of the current Potomac Yard shopping center.
AEDP said the development will still need to go through a community engagement process, with community meetings and workshops, which it said will kick off in early 2024.
In the release, Alexandria Mayor Justin Wilson called the move a direct result of the work on the Potomac Yard Metro station.
“Alexandria’s ability to attract this ambitious project is a direct result of the success of previous investments made in Potomac Yard and across our City,” said Wilson. “A project this special will help the City realize our collective strategy and the vibrant vision for this neighborhood and for our City as a whole.”
The move comes with a $2 billion investment into the new entertainment district. AEDP said the new arena is estimated to generate 30,000 jobs and a total economic impact of $12 billion over the next few decades.
“This includes millions of dollars over the project term to create affordable housing, offer rental and homeownership assistance, and to invest in transportation improvements and education,” AEDP said.
“This exciting new project is the result of decades of thoughtful long-term strategic planning and a clear vision for growth across Alexandria,” said AEDP President and CEO Stephanie Landrum. “From the Virginia Tech Innovation Campus to the new Potomac Yard-VT Metro Station, Alexandria has created the ideal environment and location for this exciting project.”
Battles ahead in the arena
With large-scale development in Alexandria, though, comes arguments around density and traffic impacts. Some Alexandria residents already aren’t happy with the move, which comes 30 years after Alexandria leaders rebuffed a proposed football stadium for the Washington Redskins (now the Commanders).
“Imagine typical rush hour traffic on the George Washington Parkway and Route 1 and then throw in a playoff hockey game at 7 p.m.,” said Mark Haney, a local resident. “Madness.”
Fresh off a fight over single-family-only zoning, Roy Byrd, Chair of the Coalition for a Livable Alexandria, told WJLA there was real concern about gridlock and traffic along Route 1 that would be exacerbated with the new arena.
I do NOT want this increase in traffic if they decide to build the arena here, omg. This is my literal back yard 😩😩😩 https://t.co/Se7FDcsinu
— An (@annleeee) December 13, 2023
At the meeting, Youngkin’s speech was accompanied by a chorus of boos and jeers from outside of the tent.
“We want you here,” said Wilson.
“We don’t want you here,” someone outside of the tent shouted.
Some protestors gathered outside of the tent.
“There’s been no plans presented to the public,” said one Potomac Yard resident protesting the move. “What about the environmental impact? There are wetlands here. We found out about this plan this week. Where’s the transparency?”
One of the only acknowledgements of the battles ahead came from Senator Mark Warner.
“Our job is to make sure neighborhoods adjacent, here in Potomac Yard and in Del Ray, feel engaged and know their quality of life will be protected and, at the end of the day, their quality of life will be improved,” said Warner. “We’re going to need to be missionaries out in to the community to hear concerns, legitimate and otherwise.”
City Council members said after the announcement that transportation planning would be a major focus of the public planning process following the announcement.
“This is not a done deal yet,” said City Council member Kirk McPike. “There is a lot of negotiation and a lot of discussion, both between the people on the stage but also between Alexandria and our residents. Traffic conditions are going to be a major concern.”
McPike said the city will try to incentivize Metro use over driving, but there will also be improvements to the nearby roads to accommodate drivers.
“We will address transportation issues, a lot of our investments locally will be about improving the roadways and improving the flow of traffic, which we’ll have to do anyway as this area develops out.”
City Council member Sarah Bagley said the project will still need to have a public development special use permit process.
“[This project] is going to go through a similar public process, though the Planning Commission and public hearings,” said Bagley. “The public will have ample opportunities to weigh in with questions about transportation, about housing, about environmental impacts: all the normal SUP and DSUP processes.”
“Nothing here is finalized,” said City Council member Alyia Gaskins. “What we’ve presented is a framework and a concept, now begins the work to engage with our community to figure out what we need to protect against, what are the benefits people want to see, and what is the vision that the community wants integrated into this process.”
City Manager James Parajon said the city will continue to work on transportation planning.
“We have a pretty good game plan for how to manage the traffic and the amazing visitors and residents who will take part,” Parajon said. “It involves several hundred million dollars in improvements we’ll be working with the state on.”
Parajon said Potomac Yard was ideal because it featured multiple routes to get to the station: via driving, bus rapid transit, Metro and bicycle. At the end of the day, though, Parajon said the area was always going to see an uptick in traffic with new development.
“This has always been planned to be a fairly intensive and significant area for activity, which means there is going to be vehicular traffic in this area,” Parajon said. “But this site has been designed to offer maximum choice for people to get to and from the area.”
Parajon also said, like McPike, that the new arena was far from a done deal — though with the presence of every City Council member at the announcement, a future rejection of the arena development seems unlikely.
“What’s occurred is the development of a proposed framework that still requires multiple improvements, multiple approvals, by the legislature and by the city,” Parajon said. “It will be a robust and very involved public engagement process.”
Local residents outside the building had little faith in the city’s promises to address their concerns.
“We will tie this up in litigation,” said Adrien Lopez. “If this is being shoved down our throat without public consultation, we’re going to have to lawyer up and tie this up in litigation if they’re talking about bringing it here by 2028. That’s crazy.”
“Leonsis is worth billions of dollars and could finance his own stadium if he wanted to,” said Patrick Hedger. “If it’s such a great deal, taxpayers shouldn’t be asked to pay for it.”
Upon being told the new sports arena was going to be build next-door, a barista at a nearby Starbucks shook her head and muttered, “oh god.”
The broader impact
The topic came up at a meeting of the Local Emergency Planning Committee, on which ALXnow editor Vernon Miles serves. In the meeting, committee members said the arena could serve as both a hub and hurdle for emergency planning.
“In theory, it does offer a facility for such things as large mass care and large reception centers,” said Red Cross representative Paul Carden said. “At the last inauguration, the convention center in downtown D.C. brought together a medical team to set up 20,000 cots. It was a place to send large numbers of people that might need care.”
Others noted that the facility must be factored into the city’s emergency planning.
“It does add a [chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear] element to the city,” said Jerome Cordis from the city’s Public Health Advisory Commission.”How they staff up and what types of threats are things to be considered.”
While the discussion of the merits and costs of a new arena in Potomac Yard are just starting to be discussed among the Alexandria public, D.C. residents have already begun lamenting the loss of the teams — though Washington Wizards fans at least should be used to that.
Goodbye Caps & Wizards. Deal with Virginia being announced tomorrow morning at Potomac Yards (where celebratory announcement tents are being prepared now). A significant blow to DC and its ailing downtown. Sad part is, it could have been avoided if city had acted.
— Tom Sherwood (@tomsherwood) December 12, 2023
I have to see it to believe it. Capital One Arena being an empty spot in Chinatown/Penn Quarter would be devastating to Washington, DC. The #Wizards and #Caps moving to Virginia would be a disaster. #NHL #NBA https://t.co/WkToq27bdB
— Faisal Hassan (@Faazzla) December 11, 2023
What this means for Potomac Yard
Terry Clower, professor of public policy in the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University, said the proposed development is a game changer for the city’s Potomac Yard plans.
“Certainly, it is potentially a real changer for the visioning for what they were going to do in Potomac Yard,” Clower told ALXnow. “It is a spectacular amenity for the city of Alexandria and for folks that live nearby who happen to be basketball or hockey fans, or fans of concerts in the venue”
Clower said it remains to be seen whether the new development will bring new economic investment to the region or just cannibalize development from the Gallery Place area.
The impact to watch, Clower said, will also be on how the Monumental Arena affects the plans for Potomac Yard to be a technology hub.
“The interesting piece is — this might change, in some ways not necessarily good or bad — what was originally envisioned for development there,” Clower said. “Now you’re talking about a distinct shift into more entertainment, as opposed to technology businesses and residences.”
Clower also said protests from nearby residents aren’t particularly surprising, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t raising legitimate issues.
“One thing we have in this region whether we’re talking about data centers and arenas, you will definitely have folks who will bet in that ‘not in my backyard’ category,” Clower said. “But there are legitimate concerns. Traffic is not easy even today.”
Lastly, Clower said there’s little hope for a change to the Alexandria Wizards and the Alexandria Capitals.
“I don’t think there will be a name change,” Clower said. “This is not like moving them to some outer ring suburb, this is very much the team identity. It still remains a regional asset, in large part because they’re doing it at what amounts to an inner ring suburb Metro.”
The press release from the governor’s office is below.
Updated at 8:35 a.m. — It’s official.
Earlier: A big announcement about the Potomac Yard sports arena — possibly a new home to the Washington Capitals and Washington Wizards — could come tomorrow morning.
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin will join Monumental Sports & Entertainment Chairman and CEO Ted Leonsis at an event tomorrow morning in Potomac Yard, the Washington Business Journal reported.
The Journal reported that negotiations are coming down to the wire, with D.C. still haggling over the stadium even as tents are being set up at 3405 Potomac Avenue.
The location of the meeting is directly adjacent to the Potomac Yard Metro station and near the under-construction Virginia Tech campus. Multiple members of Alexandria’s City Council have also confirmed that they will attend, including John Taylor Chapman, Alyia Gaskins and Canek Aguirre.
The Washington Post previously said reports indicate the Major Economic Investment (MEI) Project Approval Commission met on Monday and voted to approve a complex that was tantamount to a mini-city, with a music venue and hotel in addition to the sports center.
The construction and ownership of the stadium would be overseen by a new Virginia stadium authority to be leased to Monumental.
At 6:30 p.m., ESPN NBA Insider Adrian Wojnarowski posted on X that the event will “unveil plans for a proposed new arena complex and entertainment district for Wizards and NHL’s Capitals.”
ESPN Sources: Monumental Sports and Washington Wizards owner Ted Leonsis plans to join Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin in Alexandria, Va., for a news conference on Wednesday to unveil plans for a proposed new arena complex and entertainment district for Wizards and NHL’s Capitals.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) December 12, 2023