It's always interesting to come back down to Penn Quarter after a summer off to see what's changed (the answer seems to be not much this year) so I wasn't going to miss this chance to dip my toe back in the Wizards pool after a few months off. And for me, it really was a few months off. So even though the first preseason game is just next Monday, I couldn't miss this opportunity to get down to 601 F Street NW and check the (new) place out. Plus they said they'd have free food and I'm never one to turn down free stadium food.
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| They don't look it in this pic but trust me these seats are black. |
The purple seats are gone!!!! I have no idea why they put purple seats in MCI Center to begin with (maybe because it was an MCI color?) but it never should have happened. The color isn't (and never was) in the Bullets, Wizards or Capitals color scheme so unless it was corporately driven from MCI, I just don't get it.
The new seats are black (which is fine I guess) and each one in the lower bowl features the Capital One logo. Guess who paid for the arena makeover, by the way? After sitting down in one I have to say they are no more comfortable than the old seats; in fact they might be less comfortable at this point because they haven't been broken in (if you long for the old seats Monumental was selling them off at the beginning of the summer; of course, you can't bring them to the game with you). We'll reserve full judgment once I (and other folks) have had a chance to rough them up a little.
I do have a small question about the logos, though. This is an awfully big gamble by Monumental, isn't it? I get that it's never easy to turn money down but Cap One's naming rights deal as I understand it is only for 10 years and we are already a year in. If we consider the first batch of seats took more than 20 years to replace, what happens if Capital One doesn't extend their naming rights deal? Do we have Etihad Arena with Capital One seats? Or do we get new seats?
Or maybe the deal has already been extended. Monumental has a habit of secretly extending deals (cough! Ernie Grunfeld! cough!).
The purple signs are gone!!!! When I wrote above the certain design decisions that should have been reversed a long time ago, those God awful purple seat-matching signs with the garish colored (and fonted) numbers were what I meant. Thank goodness those things are gone.
But they aren't just gone, their replacements are actually pretty cool. The color scheme is simple black and white (I guess we are going all in on no colors, although I guess black and white are actually colors) which is fine but the cool part is each sign features a muted photograph of some event that occurred in the history of the building. Or something like that.
Some of these are cool, like Dale Hunter's 1,000th point. Others are kind of lame, like Faith Hill and Tim McGraw in concert (I mean who cares, really? Washington was just a stop on their tour). In a very me-centric moment here I'm proud to say that the sign outside Sections 109/110 where my seats are features a picture of John Wall with the caption Southeast Division Champions. Two thoughts here: (1) you can make fun of celebrating a measly division title if you want but this is the only thing the Wiz have won in the 18 years I've been a season ticket holder and (2) the Wiz won the division in 2017 by beating the Lakers in Los Angeles. I'll never forget that because I was there. I'm still proud of this sign anyway.
This one's a work in progress. Like literally. They are clearly not done with part of this renovation. One of the account representatives last night assured me everything would be buttoned up for the season opener. I work in the design and construction industry; excuse me for being a little skeptical about construction schedules being maintained. I'm sure the original plan wasn't "let's not finish for the Caps' season opener but make sure we are good to go for the Wiz."
We visited the first and second levels and skipped the 400 level. We did this strictly based on where the food was and with no offense intended to the upper deck. There just wasn't any grub up there. The Club level showed little change, although there's clearly been a bit of work up there. The major changes are downstairs.
So what does this mean for the 100 level? It's tough to say. The floors are clearly new, they have added new tile outside every toilet room and there are some new baffled ceilings but the rest is so incomplete that's it's difficult to say whether there will be more or less room on that level. There's no doubt based on my having visited about half of the league's buildings that Capital One Arena is one of the smallest venues in the NBA. More concourse space would be good. I guess we'll find out when they are done but it looks on first blush that at least the bar area in the southeast corner of the building (what I believe used to be called the Bud Light Corner or something like that) is reduced in size, returning more space to circulation.
New Food
Two years ago way back when it was Verizon Center, a José Andrés food stand showed up in the building. I'd been begging for something more than Papa John's or Dunkin' Donuts for years. José in the building was a welcome addition. Having it change throughout the year from one Andrés restaurant to another was interesting but I think it worked.
Last year, they move José out and got Alex McCoy to move a version of his Lucky Buns joint into the building. This year, they are moving Alex along and getting more celeb chefs into the building (I guess you can debate whether McCoy was a celeb chef but let's say he is for this post).
Andrés and McCoy both put their food stands into the building under a Launch Test Kitchen brand banner. This year, their spot on the east side of Capital One Arena is occupied by Maria's Greek Kitchen serving up dishes created by Maria Menudos, who I see as the woman who talks to me in the preview section of the movies when I'm over in Courthouse AMC in my recliner waiting for the feature to start. We sampled a lamb and beef gyro last night that I thought was tasty but the texture of the bread and meat was off (the bread broke while folded and the meat was plastic-y). I'd maybe go back in a pinch hoping they have these kinks worked out later in the year.
It's also apparent that both David Chang and Cat Cora (who I definitely would call celebrity chefs) are going to have some presence in the building although I'm not sure where. Chang's chicken tenders (branded under his Fuku restaurant) and Cora's chicken and salmon (from her OLILO stand) were available for consumption last night. We passed on Cora's stuff because honestly Chang's chicken was freaking awesome. I'm not sure where these two are going to be (last night they were both in the PwC Club on the Club level) but I'd eat David Chang's food any day, even at a Wizards game. Chang is just good.
There's also a new taco stand where the brat / sausage place used to be on the east lower level. I found their steak taco salty and fatty. Not impressed on the first take but tacos are definitely good arena food.
When season ticket renewal information was sent out to season ticket holders, a whole lot of folks behind the baskets at both ends of Capital One Arena found out they'd be denied access to VIP treatment during the coming season. It's kind of surreal looking at an empty Cap One and thinking about people in the first row behind the walkway having access to the Etihad Lounge and the people right behind them having nothing. I still feel bad for those folks. We did check out some of the available seats for purchase at the west end of the arena. Got $24K to blow on a single seat? Yikes! When did this stuff get so expensive?
There are some additional all-inclusive seats that have been added in the PwC Club at the west end of the arena. That whole area is now all you can eat and drink. Those seats are nice padded chairs with individual tables attached to the arm of each chair to hold your chicken tenders, InBev brew of choice or whatever else you happen to be consuming on an all-inclusive basis. Of course, they are also pretty darned expensive for an endzone seat on the second level. I'll be interested in seeing if there's any availability of this space on an individual game basis.
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| Brand new seats in the brand new PwC Club. |
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| Looks way better without the purple. |
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