Mike Wilbon is one of the Godfathers of this generation of Washington sports journalists, so this one word will carry more weight than many: when Wilbon was asked by Grant & Danny about the news of the Monumental move to Virginia, he turned Ted Leonsis into Benedict Arnold.
"It's so complicated, it's difficult, it's layered, but to move particularly the Washington basketball team out of Washington, DC, that feels traitorous to me," Wilbon said. "I don't blame Virginia for going after them, I blame ownership for turning his back, particularly on the fan base of the Wizards. This is a one-way blame: I blame Monumental Sports and Ted Leonsis. Period."
He's not a DC lifer (shout out Northwestern and Chi-Town), but as someone who spent 30 years at WaPo and was deep in it when the Caps and Wizards moved from Landover to Chinatown and the Redskins made the reverse move from RFK, Wilbon has seen literally every team in the District scene either relocate or begin.
So, this clearly wasn't out of the blue, but Wilbon can't believe Leonsis is doing this over what turns out to be $100 million given all the DC cache he's losing.
"I knew a few weeks ago that Virginia interests were courting Ted, and hey, these are business opportunities, so anyone will listen," WIlbon said. "But, to get to this point where Monumental asked for $600 million and the Mayor offered $500 million and they can't bridge that gap? Was that a lie? Was the $600 million ask a lie? Because if I asked for $6 and someone gives me $5, I can figure out how to bridge – but bigger than that, I know it's an umbrella conversation, and if the Capitals want to play there, they have a broad fan base, but the Wizards? How many NBA teams are moving from the city to the suburbs in the last 40 years? It's been the opposite, and it's unthinkable to me that you would take a basketball team in this day and age, this basketball team in this community especially, to the suburbs. Ted went to Georgetown, and to turn your back on DC is unthinkable to me, if there's a suitable option on the table, given how you've put no real product on the floor for 20 to 25 years."
Grant is from a little further south in Virginia, and remembers going to Landover as a kid to watch the Caps and Wizards, so why can't it work both ways now for those in Maryland? Well, Wilbon compared it what's happened in the Bay Area.
"There are a whole lot of people who have bailed on the Niners, even as successful as they are, moving to Santa Clara. I know how contentious that was," Wilbon said. "And by the way, the Warriors, four-time champions, moving in from Oakland and San Francisco, that was contentious too – and when they first played in Landover, they were the Capitol Bullets, by the way."
However, what about the notion that future money isn't in PSLs and RSN money, it's in real estate and development, which the suburbs can offer?
"Owners seen want to get rich, we know that, but look at the Bears: they have Soldier Field, one of the most iconic stadiums in the league on the lake, and they are trying to go out to Arlington Heights," Wilbon said. "Maybe, you know, the owners are gonna do this; it's how millionaires become billionaires and how billionaires become completely detached from the communities in which they made their money, but we've seen it mostly go the other way, especially with basketball. There are places in cities where these things can be done, and you needed these cities when you built these places, and need them to support your team."
