Residents of 2 D.C. neighborhoods are concerned as the Wizards and Capitals consider moving to Virginia

Already struggling to keep his Chinatown bar afloat, Yousef Tellawi felt a sense of impending doom when he learned that the owner of Washington’s Capitals and Wizards wanted to move the teams out of the neighborhood and into northern Virginia.

The departure of the teams from their home at Capital One Arena, he said, “would completely pull the plug on Chinatown,” an area that’s already been hit hard by a post-pandemic decline in the number of downtown office workers and a sharp increase in violent crime in the district.

Across the Anacostia River, another fragile Washington neighborhood is dreading the ripple effects of that stadium deal — which still needs approval by the Virginia General Assembly and the city of Alexandria.

Congress Heights is one of Washington’s poorest neighborhoods and, like Chinatown, also has suffered under the current crime spike. And it, too, has pinned its economic hopes on a sports arena and the crowds it draws to games, concerts and other events.

The 8-year-old Entertainment and Sports Arena is home to the WNBA’s Washington Mystics and the NBA G-league’s Capital City Go-Go and also serves as the Wizards’ practice facility. If the deal goes through, Ted Leonsis, majority owner of all four teams, is proposing that the Mystics move from their current home to the much larger Capital One Arena, once it is vacated by the Capitals and Wizards.

“We’re all pinning our plans on that arena to help feed the east side of the river,” said Ronald Moten, a longtime local activist and community organizer. “This would take away a lot of the credibility we’ve built.”

The fate of these two vulnerable neighborhoods now hangs in the balance during what could be several more months of political wrangling. Leonsis’ announcement of a tentative agreement with Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin has touched off a flurry of public maneuvers, lobbying and negotiation-via-press conference. The deal, according to preliminary numbers, would cost $2 billion, with about $1.5 billion of that coming in the form of bonds that would be repaid by a mix of tax revenue from the stadium and surrounding complex, lease payments and other sources.

Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser’s government, seemingly caught by surprise by the Virginia deal, has responded with a slightly dissonant two-track strategy. She convened a high-level task force to develop plans for a reimagining of the Chinatown district in the absence of the arena. But simultaneously, Bowser and the D.C. Council scrambled to put together a $500 million offer to renovate Capital One and are not-so-quietly hoping the Virginia deal falls apart.

Council President Phil Mendelson recently summed up the mood by saying, “I wish no ill will on anyone. But if the deal falls through in Virginia, we’re ready to pick it up.”

For Tellawi, who manages the Bulldog bar around the corner from Capital One, the potential loss of the venue is an existential threat. His most profitable nights are when the arena hosts a major concert that floods Chinatown with fans. Home hockey games for the Capitals generally produce a moderate bump in business. And for reasons Tellawi struggles to understand, Wizards home games barely make a dent.

Tellawi has to innovate to draw crowds. He hosts stand-up comedy events three nights a week with the first drink free, but notes that most of the female comedians insist on finishing before 10 p.m. due to safety concerns about the neighborhood.

“Right now, we’re still fighting,” he said. “Maybe you could say we’re on life support.”