Cap One Arena Facelift

Last night the Washington Wizards hosted an open house for season and non-season ticket holders to get a look at what they've done with the Capital One Arena over the summer. Before the end of last season, Monumental Sports and Entertainment was making a good amount of noise about this renovation that's been about 20 years in the making. Seriously, some design decisions about the then-MCI Center should have been corrected immediately.

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.

They don't look it in this pic but trust me these seats are black.

New Seats
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!).

New Signage
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.

New Concourse
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.

Fewer VIP Seats
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.

Brand new seats in the brand new PwC Club.

If this renovation is supposed to be finished for opening night, they got three weeks to get this done. Seems possible from my walk through last night but then again I'm not scheduling crews to get into the building before October 18. I'll start breaking my seat in Section 109 that night. In the meantime, there's always preseason to check out the renovations in an almost empty building.

Looks way better without the purple.

The 2018-19 NBA Schedule

Every year since 2013, I've included a post on this blog about my thoughts on the Wizards schedule for the upcoming NBA season. I'm late this year. Like way late. That's what happens when I pledge to take the summer off and then do just that. In the interest of making up time, let's get right to my annual seven thoughts on what's in store for Wizards fans this year.

1. Start At Home

After a string of just twice in 13 seasons from 2004-2005 to 2015-2016, the Wizards are opening their season on their home court for the second year in a row. Not only that, it's the second time in a row that the Wizards are playing their first TWO games at home. 

What does all that mean other than we get to watch our favorite team at home in their first game of the season? Well, apparently not too much. The Wiz won their two home openers last year and barely scraped into the playoffs in the eight spot. The only other two times the Wizards opened at home since '04 they lost both times to the New Jersey Nets and missed the playoffs badly both years. Maybe they should stick to starting on the road.

2. No Banner Angst

I'm taking a glass half full approach on this one. Two seasons ago, the Wizards won their first Division Title since 1979 and looked poised for a years long run in first place of the Southeast Division. I wanted a banner as a reward for my 18 years of sitting game in and game out and finally having the team win something. I didn't get it. I got 2017 tacked on to the bottom of a brand new Bullets Division Champs banner. I whined and complained. I still didn't get it.

All that optimism was really short lived based on last year's performance. The Wiz ended up second in 2017-2018, a full game (plus the tiebreaker) behind first placed Miami. They had no business being second but they for sure didn't deserve a banner. This year, they won't get one. And I won't complain or lose any sleep over it. There's still probably space for two more Division Champions lines on the current amalgamated banner so it's going to take three more probably to force management's hand on this one.

3. Home Stands

Over the last couple or three seasons, the NBA has made a conscious effort to make the rigors of an 82 game schedule easier for teams. They have done this in a variety of ways, including extending the season by two weeks to stretch out the space between games; eliminating back to back games as much as possible; extending the All-Star break; and making four games in five nights stretches a thing of the past.

In the past couple of seasons, the NBA's effort hasn't manifested itself in any really obvious ways for us fans that I could see other than the longer schedule. This year, things seem a little more obvious in that the Wizards have noticeable long home stands. Like two five game home stands and one of six games (although admittedly one of those six is not actually in Washington). That means concentrated every other day trips down to F Street for a nine days or so followed by longer periods of road trips. 16 of the Wizards 41 home games are tied up in just three homesteads. Pretty obvious that these are designed to cut down travel back and forth to roadies and then back home again. I'd prefer shorter home stands but I guess I don't get to make that decision.

4. London!

Yep, that's right, the Wizards are playing in London. Three thoughts on this one, I think.

First, as a English-born person and on a purely selfish level, I'm annoyed that the NBA chose this year to send the Wizards to England to play since I just got back from a trip there earlier this month. No way can I justify another trip there so soon.

Second, I'm concerned about the travel for the team although they do have just that one game in a whole week. I suppose that means the rest of the season for them is a little compressed. It's just an unusual ask that other teams (well other than their opponents, the Knicks) don't have to go through.

Finally, for someone who complains about the cost of season tickets on a regular basis, I'm actually thankful the team is refunding me the cost of a home game (the Wiz are the home team in the U.K.) in exchange for one fewer game against the Knicks. No way could I have sold this game and recovered what I paid as an average game cost. Got to look on the bright side of things, right? Maybe next year, they can schedule all the preseason games overseas.

5. Balanced Schedule

Two years ago the Wizards played an incredibly front loaded home schedule. At one point in the season they had played an astonishing ten more games at home than they did on the road. That all came home to roost at the end of the year when the team found themselves on the road way more than they cared to be in March and April.

This year, the Wizards have a pretty friendly schedule from that standpoint. After playing their first two at home, they make an early season west coast swing that puts them in a slightly road heavy mode for the majority of the season until they catch up on the home games in March. The largest home-away difference is just five games and that's towards the road side of things. Best of all, three of the last four are at home which could make for a strong finish, especially if home court can be wrapped up. Might get a little sleeping in your own bed type of rest before the postseason.

6. Slim Traveling Pickings

One of the things I love the most about the schedule release is to see where I might be able to see the Wizards on the road in the coming season. This year? Not so much. The Wizards are playing a paltry four road games on Saturdays this year, which is the best day of the week to make a trip out of town for a game. This year my Saturday options are Miami (already been), Cleveland (was there in April, although not for a game), Chicago (already been) and Minnesota (already been).

Last year I made it to Memphis and Detroit. This year I'm settling for Brooklyn on a Friday in mid-December as my only roadie of the year. I've seen a couple of All-Star events at Barclays before but never a Wizards road game. While I was maybe hoping for a trip to Houston or Dallas or even Charlotte, I'm comfortable with a trip to Brooklyn. Plus there's nothing like New York before Christmas. Nothing. No city does Christmas (or most other things for that matter) like NYC.

7. Lucky Threes

Each year every team in the NBA plays each team in their division four times; every time in the opposite conference twice; and the rest of the teams in their own conference either four time or three times. There aren't enough remaining games to play every remaining team home and away twice so each year there are just three games against four other teams. If those teams are the worst four in the conference, your favorite team might be looking at a tougher schedule; if those teams are the best in the conference, you might see a couple or three or four more wins.

Last year winning a couple of more games would have gotten the Wiz the six seed and a second consecutive division title, although let's face it, they blew a lot of easy ones last year and could have gotten those two wins any number of ways. But it can't hurt to have an easier schedule, right?

This year, the Wiz luck out a quite a lot by getting just three games against Philadelphia, Boston and Milwaukee, three teams that look like some of the tougher outs in the conference. Maybe avoiding each of those teams for one game in the regular season gets them an edge in the standings enough to secure a home court advantage in a playoff series. The other three time opponent is the Pistons, a team that the Wizards handled pretty easily last season. Three out of four ain't bad here.

Somehow I feel this has been one of the least dissectible schedules since I've started writing this blog but that's my take on how things shake out for Wizards fans this coming year. It all starts in less than a month. Can't wait!

Summer Of '18

On the last day of May of this year, I promised I would take the summer off from writing about my beloved Washington Wizards on account of their good-for-nothing, underachieving, casual, completely overconfident, waste of money 2017-2018 campaign. After a 43 win season where they lost to just about every terrible team in the NBA right on the heels of their first division title in like forever I had had it with this team. I got out of D.C. for the draft, didn't watch a single minute of Summer League and tried to resist looking at Twitter during free agency (yeah, that didn't work out so well). Now it's September, the summer is over and I've been off this blog for more than three months. Mission accomplished! I'm back! The cheesesteak thing still doesn't count.

So what the heck happened around here this summer? Anything notable sports-wise over at 601 F Street NW? Umm...yeah, maybe just a little.

June

OK so first of all, the Washington Capitals won the Stanley Cup. Yep, seriously. Perhaps you might have noticed that a little in mid-June, either through Alex Ovechkin and Co. going on the most extreme multi-day bender in Washington sports history all over the District and Virginia and maybe Maryland (and fully documented on Instagram) along with a parade downtown that drew an estimated half a million fans. That's half a million!!!

I'm super happy for the Caps and their fans here. It's been 44 years since the Caps started playing hockey and this is their first one. Ovi finally gets the non-championship winner monkey off his back (actually the non-advancing past the second round monkey) and Washington has its first big four sports title since the 1990s. Caps fans that have been suffering (and I use that term lightly here because it's not suffering like Wiz fans suffer) including my friend Mike who's been heading to games since he was a teenager finally got some relief.

Oddly enough, I'm happiest for guys like Jay Beagle and Tom Wilson who have stuck with the Caps all these years. I have a soft spot for those two guys because they shoveled mulch with me and a few others in the summer of 2013 building a playground at an elementary school in D.C. Always appreciated them doing rather than showing up for a photo opp, doing very little and splitting like Glen Rice, Jr. and Bradley Beal did that day.

So did I celebrate like it was a team I absolutely loved that had won it all? I did not. I didn't feel I deserved it. I've been at Caps games throughout the years and I still have a Matthew Perrault shirt but I don't feel like I earned the right. That's me in the top left of the photo on the Cup clinching night with a bunch of crazed (trust me, there was some crazed) Caps fans. I swear I'm not asleep.

The bad side about all this? Ted Leonsis can now say he knows how to run a sports team and just wait like six years or so and the Wiz will be NBA Champs. Hockey ain't basketball.

On the basketball side of things, the Golden State Warriors put the rest of the league out of its misery and won their third championship in three years by easily rolling over the Cleveland Cavaliers and squashing the hopes of any fan who longs for competitive balance in the NBA. Finally, we can get on to the offseason.

First up, the NBA Draft, which I exclaimed on Twitter to be a "complete waste of hope and time" after the Wizards selected Troy Brown, Jr. with the 15th overall pick. To say this pick was a surprise to about everyone might be an understatement. I'm not saying Brown was a poor pick; time will be the only judge of that. I'm just saying that the Wizards might have been able to trade back a couple of spots for Brown and maybe a second rounder (or about $500K in cash in Wizards speak). With the second round selection of Issuf Sanon, Ernie Grunfeld officially broke Wizards Twitter.

Sanon is from the Ukraine, the same country that produced one of the most memorable Wizards draft picks ever in Oleksiy Pecherov. Memorable from a character, not basketball, standpoint. I got buckets, son!

Brown played collegiately at the University of Oregon, where I happened to be three nights after the Draft on my way from the Napa Valley to Portland. In a moment of desperation longing for some hope that the Wiz got the steal of the draft, I quizzed our bartender Cam at Trev's Sports Bar and Grill right on the edge of the U of O campus about our young Mr. Brown. His thought: "got taken way to early." Like I said, time will tell.

Then just when it seemed that the Wizards were just going to start play in the fall with the exact same core of the team that finished last year in the eight spot, they went and traded Marcin Gortat to the Los Angeles Clippers for Austin Rivers. Marcin leaves Washington with five solid consistent game-in, game-out years of service as one of the franchise all-time leaders in rebounding. He also gets ushered out with a reputation as a little bit of a locker room malcontent, especially when he's feeling neglected or blamed for the Wizards woes in some way. I'll say no more on this subject for now except that as of late June the Wizards needed a center and they didn't need anyone with locker room chemistry issues. I know you know what's coming.

Rivers, by the way, definitely upgrades the guard spot on our bench.

Also in June...Jodie Meeks picked up his player option for this coming season. Because of course he did. Who else but the Wizards is going to pay Meeks $3.4 million this year?

July

First day of July means free agency. So much intrigue. Will the Wizards get LeBron? Will they trade Otto? Who are they going to use the stretch provision on? They gotta use that thing, right? What about Mike Scott? What kind of deal are the Wiz putting in front of that guy? Who is out there that's a hidden gem that the Wizards can pluck from the trash pile? Jamal Crawford, maybe? Heard he wasn't that happy in Minny...

The answers to all that? In sequence: no, no, yeah...nobody, umm...no, he's gone with Gortat, apparently not a good enough one, nobody? and no. But they did pick up a guy named Bryant who was recently released by the Lakers to make room for LeBron. And no, not THAT Bryant.

I'm actually OK with what the Wizards did in free agency. I know, I'm only OK with it because of the situation they had to deal with, namely Ian Mahinmi, Jason Smith and Meeks being paid so much damn money and taking up so much damn cap space and that's absolutely nobody's fault but this front office's. It's difficult to give someone credit for making the best of a super bad situation that they themselves created. I'm glad the Wizards picked up an athletic big man in Thomas Bryant and I like Jeff Green on a one year deal.

And this whole Dwight Howard thing? Yeah...I don't know. Dwight is one of my least favorite NBA players because he's got too much whining and not enough dog in him. He's a diva and he's not worth it. Think you got problems with a slightly upset Marcin Gortat? Wait 'til D12 (or is it D21 here?) starts to feel unappreciated. The last guy I'd get to solve a locker room issue is Dwight Howard. I mean like the LAST guy. Having said that, why not? It's not like the Wizards are making the NBA Finals with Ian Mahinmi starting at center. Let's see if this can work. Fourth team in four years for Dwight? I'm willing to give it a chance. You can tell I'm a Wizards fan, right?

I still want them to use the stretch provision on someone but I'm not sure I'd let Mahinmi go that way. I'd go with Smith or Meeks. Or both. I see Ian making way more of a contribution than Jodie or Jason.

Summer League after all that? Yeah, didn't watch. The Wiz went 1-5 and finished 29th out of 30 teams. Apparently Troy Brown, Jr. impressed. I hope so. The Wiz need someone good on a rookie deal. Not saying Kelly Oubre, Jr. isn't good. Just that a year from now he won't be on a rookie deal. God, the Wizards really need draft picks to pan out when they only make one like every three years.

Anything else going on D.C. sports-wise in July? Well, yeah. 

At the end the month the Washington Valor won Arena Bowl 31. Yep, that's right, two Ted Leonsis-owned teams won their league championship since the last time I blogged. Before you get too high here (and excuse the extreme cynicism that's about to follow because I feel this is rare for me) the Valor won two games in the regular season and lost 10. They made the playoffs because there are only four teams in the whole league and everybody makes the playoffs. They then managed to win both playoff games which, hey! gets them a championship.

Congrats to the Valor players. Sincerely. This has to be one of the least thankful jobs in sports playing in that league. Think anyone's paying attention to this sport? The championship celebration was held at the Greene Turtle at Capital One Arena which can't hold much more than like 250 people. By the way, I was offered four free tickets to the Arena Bowl by Monumental Sports. I turned down the tickets.

The bad side about all this? Ted Leonsis can now say he knows how to run a sports team and just wait like six years or so and the Wiz will be NBA Champs. Arena football ain't basketball. Plus you went 2-10 in the regular season.

August

So this was a legitimately busy summer for me. I moved, dealt with the aftermath of moving and got out of town for a bit to celebrate a milestone birthday. I feel bad but I had no time to get to a Mystics game. That had to change in August so we decided to pick up some tickets to see the home game on August 3 vs. the Las Vegas Aces. Washington's team was making a run at the playoffs and the Aces weren't far behind. Seemed like a great time to get back to Capital One Arena and watch some hoops again.

The Las Vegas Aces apparently didn't think so. Weather and connection and the WNBA's prohibition on charter flights got the last parts of the Aces' team to Washington at about 4 p.m. or so on game day. The WNBA moved the game back an hour to accommodate them but ultimately they decided to not show up. Like legitimately. The Aces decided just to not show up. Game cancelled. Of course we found this out after we paid for parking downtown. No Mystics regular season game for me.

In the end, the WNBA awarded the game via forfeit to the Mystics. Monumental Sports apologized to us fans and promised a refund (which we received) and free tickets to a future Mystics game (which never got actually offered; sort of like SummerFest that's in the Wizards list of benefits but which never actually happens). Great that the Mystics won without playing. By the middle of August they had the three seed locked up and were poised for a playoff run.

By the way, the fact that the WNBA prohibits charter flights by teams is insane. I get that not every WNBA team owner doesn't also have an NBA team in their portfolio but come on...the league has to find a way to make this happen. This is some awesome kind of stupid.

September

The beginning of September found yours truly out of town again and the Mystics rolling to the WNBA Finals. Yep, that's right. Monumental was three for three (actually four for four since the Baltimore Brigade who the Valor beat in the Arena Bowl are also owned by Monumental) this summer in finals appearances. Unfortunately for me, my being out of town meant that the Mystics played both their home semi-finals games while I was away so I STILL hadn't been to a Mystics game this summer. Hey...why not spend $20 and get to a Finals game?

I get that it's great that Capital One Arena has been renovated this summer, although I'll reserve final judgement on all that when I actually take in an event there. I also get that it's awesome that the Mystics will be playing next year in the brand new and right now super blandly named Entertainment and Sports Arena in Congress Heights. But what that situation did to the Mystics playoff run this year sort of sucked. They played their first three games at George Washington University's Smith Center but by the time they made the Finals, that spot was booked for the two nights needed to face the Seattle Storm. They would have to move again.

Fortunately, for the Mystics, the renovations at Cap One were complete by that time. Unfortunately, they were complete to host Drake and Paul Simon (separately) on the two nights needed. So it was off to George Mason in Fairfax for the Mystics. But only one game. The team got swept by the Seattle Storm 3-0 and ended up runners-up.

The Mystics run was awesome this year and if Elena Delle Donne hadn't gotten injured in Atlanta things might have been a bit more competitive in the Finals. Hopefully they can add a piece or two in the offseason and come back stronger next year and take another shot. But from my spot in the cheap seats of Eagle Bank Arena on the GMU campus in Fairfax, the Seattle Storm were no way going to lose that title. Natasha Howard absolutely killed it for Seattle. Despite the Mystics making a run at the beginning of the fourth, they had no real shot. I feel lucky to have made it to my first finals game in American sports and was proud to represent Washington. I promise I'll try to do better next year.

The bad side about all this? Well, honestly there is no bad side about the Mystics. Maybe Ted Leonsis will get Mike Thibault to run the Wizards as well as the WNBA franchise.

So that's my summer. It's now almost time for Wizards season again and the joy and inevitable agony that comes with that proposition. I'm ready to get back to it. I think this summer off has been good for me. And, yes, I'm saying that like I'm a true Wizards fan. Let's get back to it.

GMU's campus is not built to accommodate 10,000 (or maybe fewer) fans from off-campus.