Ted Leonsis' huge proposal to take both the Washington Capitals and the Washington Wizards out of the District and Capital One Arena and move them to an arena complex to be built in Potomac Yard near Alexandria, Virginia is a big story. It impacts fans, taxpayers, and just about everybody who calls D.C., Maryland, and Virginia home.
So Kevin Sheehan had Eric Flack on the Kevin Sheehan Show on Tuesday to discuss the latest news from the statehouse in Richmond about how the deal to get some public money for Leonsis' new sports playground was going.
Sheehan said on Wednesday's show that he got a lot of "interesting" follow-ups from listeners. Jonah wrote in to praise the guest as "tremendous" but said he "doesn't care about the move of the Wizards and Caps to Virginia. I would rather they stay in D.C. but the whole subject is boring and really rather irrelevant to the big picture. You've said it before: the Commanders moving to D.C. moves the 'needle.' ... are that many people really invested in this?"
Mike wrote in: "Ted can move the Wizards to St. Louis for all I care. This is a nothing topic."
And Denny: "Kevin, I don't wanna tell you how to produce your show, but the move of the Caps and Wizards to Virginia has turned into a he said, she-said between blowhard Ted and late-to-the-party [D.C. Mayor Muriel] Bowser and it's just going on and on with fewer and fewer interested. And that's because Ted's teams stink!"
Sheehan agrees that Flack was a good guest. [Catch that here if you missed it!]
"The move is a story here. It's not a non-story," Sheehan responds. "I'm a D.C. resident. I don't want them to leave D.C. I think it's going to hurt the city. I think it's certainly going to hurt that area of the city, which has been a vibrant area, regardless of how much it's changed... but we know what will happen when the two teams that matter in this big, mammoth, Monumental property if they move that area is going to shrivel up and die and I don't want to see that happen. I have very much enjoyed the last 27 years which, really, Abe Pollin began with the move to Chinatown which was this renaissance of downtown D.C."
Sheehan gives his full take on why the story is big news, should be worth your attention, and Leonsis' role in all of this – while also agreeing with many people that the news is getting a bit less significant "because the teams that he owns just aren't as relevant" – on the audio player above!