All In On An Arena Football League Team Coming To DC

WaPo - Ted Leonsis is close to expanding his Washington sports empire by adding an Arena Football League team that would play at Verizon Center beginning in the spring of 2017, according to a top official at his ownership group. “We’re in serious negotiations and we’re excited about the opportunity,” said Randall Boe, executive vice president and general counsel for Monumental Sports & Entertainment. Boe said the organization hoped to finalize a deal in time to begin play next season. Boe said Monumental Sports, which owns the Wizards, Capitals and Mystics, would make a good fit for the league, which is looking for experienced sports owners.

“They’re very interested in having dedicated ownership groups like us who know how to manage teams and who know how to manage the business,” Boe said. Arena League commissioner Scott Butera confirmed the league was negotiating with Monumental Sports about a future Washington team, praising both the Leonsis ownership group and the Washington market. A Washington team would be the league’s only current outpost between Philadelphia and Florida. Butera declined to discuss specifics about where or when such a team would begin play, but said a Leonsis-owned franchise in Washington “would be a tremendous asset,” and that the league is “excited about a potential opportunity with that group.”

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I’m all in for an Arena League team. I feel like we sleep on the Arena League, but I could find myself going to an Arena game here and there. Games are fast, the hits are hard, and you’re real close to the action if you aren’t poor. Plus,who wouldn’t love another team for me to get excited about, only to have my heart ultimately broken- what’s there not to love?! There was a time when Arena games were all the rage. Pretty sure they had some ridiculous TV deal and were on national television more than the NHL for years and years. Jay Gruden just winning Arena League championship after championship, kickers booting the ball off the big net, dudes being crunched into the boards and breaking ribs, I’m pretty psyched. Might even try out for the team, be the Wes Welker of the Arena League, minus the shiftiness and athletic ability

And obviously they need to go ahead and call them the Bullets. I get not changing the Wizards back to the Bullets, gun violence and all that jazz, but come on, it’s the Arena Football league. It hardly even counts. It’s a pretty fair compromise, plus they would immediately become the most popular team in town. Merch sales through the roof.