Article on Atlanta's search for a new home. Good news - they're not locked into a long-term contract with Gateway. Bad news - they don't think they're ready to move full time into State Farm, home of the Hawks. So there's a chance they move into a place that's between Gateway's 4k seats and State Farm's 14k seats, but nothing's been decided.
The article is from December 2023. A lot has happened since then. It’s all complicated and manipulative weaseling by the slimy owners. I am not 100% sure of everything, but I think in sum, the Mystics arena , which the city of DC owns, got a corporate sponsor, it’s called First Care Arena. They negotiated that the Mystics can move a certain number of games to the NBA arena, Capital One; however, this season they are repairing Capital One so only four games got moved-two to Baltimore and two to Virginia. But next year, more games will be at capital one (20k capacity).
A lot of this came about because the sleezy owner (Ted Leonsis) tried to screw DC and move the Wizards to Virginia, but Virginia didn’t want them. A 90 year Virginia state senator stood up the owner and his shenanigans and blocked the whole deal. It was awesome!!
The Mystics games at GMU this year were awesome. A 10 minute drive to see them compared to a 45 minute metro. I wish they did all 4 there but I guess I can share with MD too.
Two sides to every coin. Those two games were awful for me. A 1 hour drive in lots of traffic. No metro option. Next year it seems likely there will not be any games at GMU or Baltimore. The non-First Care Arena will be at capital one arena.
It's not a state, but it feels like DC is a reason why Baltimore never gets a basketball team. It's apparently a populous enough city for the orioles and Ravens, despite Philly not being too far off (and being the preferred market for Delaware residents)
DC and Baltimore are distinctly different metro areas. DC is vastly bigger and more affluent. It's a top 8 media market and Baltimore is technically a "small market".
DC isn't why Baltimore doesn't have a team, BMore doesn't have a team because it doesn't have a suitable arena or the sort of business infrastructure to support one.
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u/dreamweaver7x 0 13 5 14 10 8 51 2 1 8 9 3d ago
Article on Atlanta's search for a new home. Good news - they're not locked into a long-term contract with Gateway. Bad news - they don't think they're ready to move full time into State Farm, home of the Hawks. So there's a chance they move into a place that's between Gateway's 4k seats and State Farm's 14k seats, but nothing's been decided.
For Washington there's no good news. They're locked in a long-term lease until 2037 and the state isn't interested in letting them leave.