Wizards Practice Facility...Or Future Arena?

[DFW HOYA]

Saw this story and hadn't seen any discussion on it. You don't put 5,000 seats on a practice facility unless you a) expect a lot of people to come to practice or b) it's an arena for teams or events that can't fill Verizon Center.

"The new facility, which would be housed on city-owned land near the Shaw Metro station in Northwest, would cost between $30 million and $40 million and seat approximately 5,000...There are at least two other competing plans for the practice facility in Northern Virginia -- one in Arlington and another in Tysons Square. If built, the facility could be used to host WNBA and high school basketball games."

Or conceivably, college games.

www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Leaders-Hope-Wizards-Training-Facility-in-Shaw-Could-Lure-Players-to-City-Living-281970211.html

[SFHoya99]

It's unfortunately a little small for us. Don't we have about 10,000 season ticket holders?

[CaliHoya]

I'm sure with more limited seating, they could charge more for season tickets to offset any loss in total tickets sold.

I'd love this idea if Georgetown could pull it off. But I'd assume the university's ties with Leonsis would get in the way? Either way, it'd be nice to use this as a bargaining chip.

[CO_Hoya]

More here.

Can someone please tell Ted (or whoever) about the Key Bridge Marriott arena idea that was floated a few months back.

[njhoya78]

Isn't there a minimum seating capacity requirement for Big East men's basketball league games? I thought I'd seen that someplace, but I could be wrong.

[hoyabinx]

Nov 11, 2014 13:08:32 GMT -5 DFW HOYA said:

Saw this story and hadn't seen any discussion on it. You don't put 5,000 seats on a practice facility unless you a) expect a lot of people to come to practice or b) it's an arena for teams or events that can't fill Verizon Center.

"The new facility, which would be housed on city-owned land near the Shaw Metro station in Northwest, would cost between $30 million and $40 million and seat approximately 5,000...There are at least two other competing plans for the practice facility in Northern Virginia -- one in Arlington and another in Tysons Square. If built, the facility could be used to host WNBA and high school basketball games."

Or conceivably, college games.

www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Leaders-Hope-Wizards-Training-Facility-in-Shaw-Could-Lure-Players-to-City-Living-281970211.html

Interesting. First, the idea of a small arena is likely to accommodate the Mystics. The 1-3K they draw at Verizon looks horrible, and probably loses Monumental Sports money. Second, an alternative venue in Shaw is not likely to interest Georgetown very much. Shaw is less accessible to students and alums than is the Verizon Center. Third, I remember the minimum for Big East games used to be 6,500 so it probably couldn't house anything but non-conference games.

That all said, build a 6,500+ arena in the Rosslyn--Ballston corridor and I see that as viable for Georgetown games.

[hoyasaxa2003]

The best usage of any new smaller capacity arena would be to have a place where you can play your smaller games and still have a nice crowd. The ideal would be to do that on campus at a renovated McDonough, but assuming that's impossible, this could probably be a really good second option. Something in Arlington could work even better if it was on Rosslyn.

I don't think there is any scenario under which you want Georgetown playing every game in a 5K facility, but if you could have games against St. Francis, Robert Morris, etc. there, that would be ideal, because you'd get a pretty good turnout and something approximating a nice home-court advantage.

Of course, if you could up the capacity to 8-9K and put it in Rosslyn, then I might support having all games there.

[SFHoya99]

Nov 11, 2014 13:36:05 GMT -5 CaliHoya said:

I'm sure with more limited seating, they could charge more for season tickets to offset any loss in total tickets sold.

I'd love this idea if Georgetown could pull it off. But I'd assume the university's ties with Leonsis would get in the way? Either way, it'd be nice to use this as a bargaining chip.

Here's the issue: First, you have to account for 1-3k of student seats. Let's call it 1,500. But that puts us at 3,500 season tickets. I doubt they could triple season ticket prices to account for the cutting off of 1/3 of them. Plus the huge drop in HHC donations when that happened. Most of the HHC donations are for seats.

It's a bad long term strategy to cut your fanbase to a 1/3rd. This isn't the NFL, where it's better at home anyway. You need YA to grow into old Alumni.

The only viable option here is a joint strategy with Verizon Center. But there's functional issues with that as well. I think the vast majority of fans would want the reduced season ticket package -- only the good games -- and even with the reduced costs there donation levels and ticket prices would likely have to stay whole. So most people would be getting a lot less games for the just a little less money at best.

5,000 is simply too small.

[boxout05]

Imagine 5,000 is too small. If you're gonna have a pipe dream, it's 9,000 - 10,000 with the 3 biggest games of the year to fill Verizon. Then Verizon remains a possibility for tourney games.

[ColumbiaHeightsHoya]

Shaw would be very accessible. Green/yellow line with gallery place close enough. Host five to ten of the early games there and it is a win. I still think a curtain in the 400's is the optimal solution for those smaller games while keeping everything at Verizon. They could scramble the 400's season ticket holders for those games into other spots as frequently students are gone on break for a lot of those.

[aleutianhoya]

I would think that Georgetown could talk to Leonsis about a mutually agreeable number that makes sense for all concerned. But I do think if the number could go up just a bit, you could be creative in a deal with Verizon and make it work. If you're just talking about the four or so least popular games in a given year, you don't need to reserve 1,500 seats for students and far fewer fans (be they season ticket holders or not) are going to want to come. I'd look at any low-major opponent that isn't local and look to move it. This year, that'd be St. Francis, TAMCC, RMU, and Radford. You tell the season ticket holders that they'll get one or two of the crappy games as part of their package, but no more than that (unless they want more in which case they pay more), and they can prioritize their choices when they order. Quite likely, the season ticket base is happier with that arrangement anyway. And that splits the season ticket base at least in half and maybe by 75%. You lose some revenue, but presumably that's mostly or entirely offset by lower rent payments there. You keep the donation amounts the same, and you don't lose any of your base.

Sure, a 8-12K arena closer to Georgetown is truly ideal, but I think this would be better than the status quo if we could pull it off. I'd be surprised if Monumental weren't talking to us. If they're planning on hosting events there, they must be looking for tenants. And it sounds like Monumental may look to Virginia if Shaw doesn't work. And that would truly be ideal.

[TBird41]

Nov 11, 2014 15:07:14 GMT -5 ColumbiaHeightsHoya said:

Shaw would be very accessible. Green/yellow line with gallery place close enough. Host five to ten of the early games there and it is a win. I still think a curtain in the 400's is the optimal solution for those smaller games while keeping everything at Verizon. They could scramble the 400's season ticket holders for those games into other spots as frequently students are gone on break for a lot of those.

Games over winter break / thanksgiving would probably work, as it would mean a lot fewer students

[hoyabinx]

Nov 11, 2014 15:07:14 GMT -5 ColumbiaHeightsHoya said:

Shaw would be very accessible. Green/yellow line with gallery place close enough. Host five to ten of the early games there and it is a win. I still think a curtain in the 400's is the optimal solution for those smaller games while keeping everything at Verizon. They could scramble the 400's season ticket holders for those games into other spots as frequently students are gone on break for a lot of those.

Shaw is certainly accessible for someone named Columbiaheightshoya!

In all seriousness, I don't view Shaw as accessible. The Verizon Center sits on top of the green, yellow, and red lines, and is walking distance from Metro Center, which is a blue and orange stop. In other words, you can get to the Verizon Center on any line.

That said, the orange-line corridor is on the same level as Shaw with regard to metro access, but it does have the added benefit of being potentially closer to campus.

[RockawayHoya]

Nov 11, 2014 13:25:57 GMT -5 SFHoya99 said:

It's unfortunately a little small for us. Don't we have about 10,000 season ticket holders?

Not saying you're wrong (only the AD really knows), but if we have 10K season ticket holders and our average attendance last year was 8,670, then a lot of people are just setting fire to their money.

[FromTheBeginning]

There are plenty of Hoya fans who buy season tickets to support the program knowing full well they will not attend a good number of games.

[SFHoya99]

Nov 11, 2014 15:23:10 GMT -5 RockawayHoya said:

Nov 11, 2014 13:25:57 GMT -5 SFHoya99 said:

It's unfortunately a little small for us. Don't we have about 10,000 season ticket holders?

Not saying you're wrong (only the AD really knows), but if we have 10K season ticket holders and our average attendance last year was 8,670, then a lot of people are just setting fire to their money.

I guess I should when we were better a few years ago, we definitely had about 10k season ticket holders.

But I think a decent number of people don't attend every game.

[SFHoya99]

Nov 11, 2014 15:12:31 GMT -5 aleutianhoya said:

I would think that Georgetown could talk to Leonsis about a mutually agreeable number that makes sense for all concerned. But I do think if the number could go up just a bit, you could be creative in a deal with Verizon and make it work. If you're just talking about the four or so least popular games in a given year, you don't need to reserve 1,500 seats for students and far fewer fans (be they season ticket holders or not) are going to want to come. I'd look at any low-major opponent that isn't local and look to move it. This year, that'd be St. Francis, TAMCC, RMU, and Radford. You tell the season ticket holders that they'll get one or two of the crappy games as part of their package, but no more than that (unless they want more in which case they pay more), and they can prioritize their choices when they order. Quite likely, the season ticket base is happier with that arrangement anyway. And that splits the season ticket base at least in half and maybe by 75%. You lose some revenue, but presumably that's mostly or entirely offset by lower rent payments there. You keep the donation amounts the same, and you don't lose any of your base.

Sure, a 8-12K arena closer to Georgetown is truly ideal, but I think this would be better than the status quo if we could pull it off. I'd be surprised if Monumental weren't talking to us. If they're planning on hosting events there, they must be looking for tenants. And it sounds like Monumental may look to Virginia if Shaw doesn't work. And that would truly be ideal.

I think that could work, but I'm not sure the four games make much of a dent either way. Could be wrong.

[dreamhoya]

Nov 11, 2014 15:21:42 GMT -5 hoyabinx said:

Nov 11, 2014 15:07:14 GMT -5 ColumbiaHeightsHoya said:

Shaw would be very accessible. Green/yellow line with gallery place close enough. Host five to ten of the early games there and it is a win. I still think a curtain in the 400's is the optimal solution for those smaller games while keeping everything at Verizon. They could scramble the 400's season ticket holders for those games into other spots as frequently students are gone on break for a lot of those.

Shaw is certainly accessible for someone named Columbiaheightshoya!

In all seriousness, I don't view Shaw as accessible. The Verizon Center sits on top of the green, yellow, and red lines, and is walking distance from Metro Center, which is a blue and orange stop. In other words, you can get to the Verizon Center on any line.

That said, the orange-line corridor is on the same level as Shaw with regard to metro access, but it does have the added benefit of being potentially closer to campus.

ha-ha! was thinking the same thing; however that shaw/ U Street corridor isn't bad at all. it's more congested near verizon. Hoyas in Arlington? naaaah keep 'em in DC;

[DFW HOYA]

That $40 million practice facility/arena in 2014 is now $65 million, and capacity has been reduced to 4,200, or about what McDonough Gym held back in the good old days.

Quote: "We can’t build a glorified rec center, and that’s what you would get would with that budget."

www.washingtonpost.com/news/digger/wp/2016/07/28/before-construction-can-begin-cost-of-wizards-practice-facility-rises-10-million/