(Updated at 4:10 p.m.) It has not been a great week for plans to bring professional sports teams to Northern Virginia.
Just a day after negotiations for a Washington Wizards and Capitals arena in Alexandria officially fell through, George Mason University has announced that it’s no longer planning to build a joint baseball and cricket stadium in Fairfax for the Washington Freedom.
“After hard work and due diligence from the team at Mason, we have concluded that this opportunity does not meet the strategic objectives and interests of our campus and community and the Washington Freedom,” GMU President Gregory Washington said in a statement. “We appreciate the continued feedback and dialogue with leaders across the Commonwealth and with the local community.”
The decision to part ways was mutual, according to a statement from the Washington Freedom, which indicated that it’s still looking to build a stadium somewhere in the D.C. area.
“While we have decided to go in a different direction, we are appreciative of the dialogue and partnership with GMU,” the team said. “We remain committed to working with the broader DMV community to grow the sport of Cricket in the region and to build a multipurpose stadium that will be the future home of the Washington Freedom.”
The university first announced in 2022 that it was partnering with Major League Cricket and Washington Freedom owner Sanjay Govil to study the feasibility of a multi-purpose facility at its West Campus that could host professional cricket matches and college baseball games.
GMU’s governor-appointed Board of Visitors gave university administrators the green light in January to start negotiating a ground lease for the prospective stadium site, which encompass 15 acres between Braddock Road and Campus Drive.
Though the project was still in the planning phase, Mason staff and Govil said at a virtual town hall on Jan. 29 that they hoped to finish construction on a temporary facility that could seat 7,000 to 10,000 spectators by 2025.
As the proposal gained more attention, residents of the area around GMU’s campus began to organize opposition, raising concerns about the potential traffic and environmental impacts, noise and light pollution, and a process they perceived as lacking in transparency.
In a Feb. 7 letter to elected officials, the GMU Board of Visitors and the GMU president’s council, a group of neighborhood associations working together as the GMU Braddock Road Adjacent Community Coalition called for a halt in the stadium project “until a thorough and proper evaluation can be accomplished with all affected parties in attendance.”
“While we recognize change is necessary it also needs to be targeted and sized appropriately to address known university problems with consideration of adjacent neighborhood concerns paramount,” the coalition wrote. “The creation of a commercial zone that benefits some and punishes others on state supported property is an egregious abuse of positional power.” Read More
The deal to bring the Washington Capitals and Wizards to Alexandria’s Potomac Yard is officially dead, and the developer says suggestions that an arena could be built in Tysons instead were the final nail in the coffin.
Alexandria City officials revealed yesterday (Wednesday) that they had ended negotiations with developer JBG Smith, Wizards and Capitals owner Monumental Sports & Entertainment, and other stakeholders for a stadium in the proposed Potomac Yard Entertainment District. About an hour later, Monumental owner Ted Leonsis and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser announced that the two professional sports teams will stay at Capital One Arena in Chinatown after all.
After joining Leonsis and city leaders in December to tout the Wizards and Capitals’ planned move across the Potomac River, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin lamented that “personal and political agendas” at the state level torpedoed a significant economic opportunity, while the city expressed disappointment in how discussions between Youngkin and the General Assembly unfolded.
However, JBG Smith CEO Matt Kelly pointed to a different culprit, claiming that “special interests” seeking to combine a sports arena with a casino in Tysons had “complicated and ultimately blocked” the Potomac Yard negotiations.
Despite our best efforts, this project was unable to get a fair hearing on its merits with the Virginia Senate. It is now clear that our efforts may have been complicated and ultimately blocked, in part, by special interests seeking to move the Monumental arena to Tysons Corner and to combine it with a casino. The Washington Post and other outlets have reported on this scheme and the hundreds of thousands of dollars, enormous sums in Virginia politics, of political contributions associated with it — a large portion of which were directed to key senate leaders. When one follows the money, the implications are deeply troubling for Virginia and for the future of transparency in economic development pursuits, especially those that seek certainty through the now damaged MEI legislative process.
The Washington Post reported on Sunday (March 24) that Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell (D-34), hopeful Fairfax County casino developer Comstock CEO Christopher Clemente and political consultant Ben Tribbett, who counts both Surovell and Comstock as clients, had raised the idea of moving the Wizards and Capitals to Tysons instead of Alexandria with Monumental executives.
According to the Post, Leonsis and the other Monumental executives quickly rejected the proposal, which also didn’t appeal to Youngkin.
State Sen. Dave Marsden (D-37), who patroned the ultimately postponed bill to make Fairfax County — specifically a site in Tysons along Metro’s Silver Line — eligible for a casino, says he was never involved in “any serious talk” about combining the casino with a Monumental arena. The idea was “casually talked about” during the General Assembly’s session, which ended on March 9, but he never viewed it as a legitimate possibility.
“I think that was a last-minute thing people threw out there,” he told FFXnow. Read More
The Town of Herndon’s indoor tennis center has closed early for the season, the Herndon Parks and Recreation Department announced yesterday (Tuesday).
The closure was prompted by damage to the tennis enclosure, according to Reid Okoniewski, a spokesperson for the town’s parks and recreation department.
Located next to the Herndon Community Center at 814 Ferndale Avenue, the tennis enclosure was “significantly deflated and a door was open for unknown reasons, which had caused the air to escape,” Okoniewski said. The town learned of the issue early Sunday (March 24) morning.
A later safety check found that 75% of the lighting was damaged, along with a portion of the courts due to fall lights.
“The lead time to get the specialized bulbs and the contractors to install them would extend beyond the April 14 season closure, which would not allow us to have it repaired safely in the time that remains,” Okoniewski said.
Individuals with tennis contracts, classics and leagues were notified of next steps earlier this week. Indoor classes will move outside, and men’s double league and indoor tennis contracts have been cancelled for the reminder of the season. Patrons who are affected will have their refunds processed.
“We apologize for the inconvenience and hope we see you on our outdoor tennis courts,” the town wrote in a statement.
A new, temporary tennis structure will be installed for the new indoor sports season by the fall.
State lawmakers punted consideration of a casino in Fairfax County to next year, but that hasn’t stopped some proponents from seeking to assist in the divisive plan to bring the Washington Wizards and Capitals to Northern Virginia, whose odds of a comeback win are looking slim.
Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, who represents Fairfax County’s Richmond Highway corridor, recently pitched the idea of bringing both a casino and the sports arena to Tysons to a representative of Monumental Sports & Entertainment, which owns the basketball and hockey teams, the Washington Post reported on Sunday (March 24).
According to the Post, Surovell dropped the idea after Monumental President of External Affairs Monica Dixon “immediately” rejected it, but Christopher Clemente, CEO of the aspiring casino developer Comstock, and Ben Tribbett, a prominent consultant whose clients include Comstock and Surovell, “continued shopping the idea last week.”
The suggestion of combined arena/casino site in Tysons emerged as Monumental’s much-hyped plan to move the teams from D.C. to Alexandria’s Potomac Yard flailed for support. The Virginia General Assembly adjourned on March 9 without including funding for a state authority to finance the $2 billion entertainment district in their budget proposal, and at least one Alexandria City elected official withdrew her endorsement of the project.
Clemente told the Post that a joint development could “enhance financing options for the arena” by using tax revenue generated by the casino to guarantee bonds that would pay for the stadium, but Potomac Yard developer JBG Smith’s CEO, Matt Kelly, noted the deal could be used to evade Virginia’s requirement that casinos get approved by voter referendum.
Like the arena, Fairfax County’s potential casino is envisioned as part of an entertainment district, according to State Sen. Dave Marsden, who sponsored legislation to make the county eligible for a gambling establishment this past session and in 2023.
After vocal opposition from local residents and some officials, though the county board stopped short of taking an official position, a Senate committee voted on Feb. 6 to continue this year’s bill to 2025 to allow for more study and public engagement.
The combined facility proposal appears to be dead on arrival, with Monumental owner Ted Leonsis and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin reportedly expressing “disgust” and “no interest,” respectively. But hypothetically, would you support the Wizards and Capitals calling Fairfax County home? Would it alter your stance on a casino?
Rendering courtesy JBG Smith
A retail store that sells tennis and pickleball equipment is expanding to McLean after almost two decades in Maryland.
Tennis Topia anticipates opening its second location on April 13 at 6262 Old Dominion Drive, taking over suites F and G, which respectively belonged to a hair studio and a dry cleaner.
After 18 years at Wintergreen Plaza in Rockville, Maryland, where the company launched in 2006, owner Marco Impeduglia decided the time had come to extend Tennis Topia’s physical footprint further south in response to the demand for its services in Fairfax County.
“We have seen the tennis and pickleball participation numbers increase all over the DMV, but specifically, also in Fairfax County, and the McLean area is a hot bed for tennis,” Impeduglia told FFXnow. “…We’ve seen that over the last few years, and at the end of the day, we would be the only tennis and pickleball retail store in specifically McLean.”
Impeduglia has witnessed that growth firsthand as the founder and executive director of Pros to You, which provides racquet ball coaching to several swim and tennis clubs in Northern Virginia and Maryland. In McLean, its clients include the Langley, Chesterbrook, Highlands and McLean clubs.
Based on national data that indicated participation in both sports had increased in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Fairfax County Park Authority estimated that the county had about 12,881 pickleball players and 83,141 tennis players in a pickleball study report released in December 2021.
After starting Pros to You in 2015, Impeduglia bought Tennis Topia in Rockville last year, because he saw “untapped potential” in a business where coaches could teach athletes not only how to play tennis and pickleball, but also what equipment to use and how it functions.
He says branching out into the retail market has “elevated” Pros to You’s coaching capabilities, ensuring their players have access to the best, most up-to-date equipment.
“It’s really worked hand-in-hand specifically over the last year,” he said. “So, we’re excited to cater to our tennis players and pickleball players that are down there, but also, even for other tennis programs that are out there in Virginia, we welcome them to come to the store and get the best new hot item for their players.”
In addition to racquets, Tennis Topia sells shoes, balls, apparel and other athletic gear. Though it’s smaller than the flagship Rockville store, the 2,100-square-foot McLean store will have the same equipment brands and services, including racquet stringing with a 24-hour turnaround time.
Impeduglia says his team looked at “dozens” of potential store locations before finding the Old Dominion Drive site, which is adjacent to the Chesterbrook Shopping Center. Other retailers in the strip include Fonts Books & Gifts, an independent bookshop that opened last fall.
If the new shop works out, he sees opportunities to further expand Tennis Topia in Northern Virginia, possibly including a location in southeastern Fairfax County, where Pros to You currently works with clubs in the Hollin Meadows, Mount Vernon Park and Riverside Gardens neighborhoods.
For now, Impeduglia is looking forward to giving players in the McLean area a more convenient retail option.
“We literally get a chance to open up this store right when the outdoor [playing] season starts,” Impeduglia said. “So, I’m super-pumped to really cater to the Northern Virginia folks, because it’s tough for them to come to Rockville. So, they want a location, they want a store like that, they’re going to get it in less than six weeks.”
Professional pickleball players, local officials and community members are expected to turn out in abundance for the upcoming grand opening of Down the Line Sports Center in Fairfax City.
After a soft opening in early February, the indoor pickleball facility at Courthouse Plaza (10390 Willard Way) will officially introduce itself to the city tomorrow (Thursday). The event will kick off at 5 p.m. with a ribbon-cutting, followed by a meet-and-greet with six pro athletes visiting from around the country.
Those players — Rafa Hewett, Connor Garnett, Dylan Frazier, Pablo Tellez, Lea Jansen and Etta Wright — have also been enlisted for an evening of exhibition games that will start at 7 p.m. The $50 tickets for the exhibition include food and drinks at Chubby Squirrel Brewing Company, which is next door to Down the Line.
As of this morning (Wednesday), fewer than 20 tickets were left, according to Down the Line owner Jenni Bae.
“We’re really excited about our grand opening tomorrow,” Bae told FFXnow. “…Having six Major League Pickleball players here at one time to do an exhibition is a really big deal and something really special that we wanted to bring to the community, so we’re hoping that they enjoy it, and these are the kinds of things that…we want to bring to this area moving forward.”
Located in a former CVS, Down the Line Fairfax features three full-sized pickleball courts, one half-sized court and a short practice court, along with a players’ lounge and mini pro shop. Each of the full courts has a scoreboard that can be updated live, and courtside TVs will soon allow players to watch instant replays.
Bae says the soft opening has gone “really well,” describing the center’s members as already feeling like family.
Down the Line’s memberships cost $45 per month and come with discounts on private court and open play fees, a two-week window for booking private courts in advance and other perks.
“We’ve already built a community here. People have been really welcoming and excited to have this extra space as an option to play pickleball, so we felt very welcome,” Bae said.
Support for Down the Line has also come from local leaders. The facility won the Fairfax City Council’s approval in December, and construction costs were partially covered by a Façade and Interior Improvement Grant from Fairfax City Economic Development (FCED).
Being able to form those relationships, including the FCED, in advance resulted in a “very, very smooth” build-out, according to Bae, who’s excited that Mayor Catherine Read, FCED President and CEO Christopher Bruno and other city officials will participate in tomorrow’s ribbon-cutting.
“I am blown away by the unwavering commitment and dedication shown by Jenni Bae and her family to reach this milestone,” Bruno said. “Their vision and determination are commendable, and I am thrilled that Fairfax City will now reap the benefits with the unveiling of this newly activated destination for all of Northern Virginia.”
Down the Line’s arrival in Fairfax is a prelude to plans for a second, even larger facility in Annandale.
Replacing the vacant Kid’s Choice Sports Center at 4311 Ravensworth Road, the 50,000-square-foot center will feature 18 full-sized indoor courts, six golf simulators, a sports bar with food and drinks, and a pickleball and golf shop.
Bae’s team hopes to open the Annandale location around the end of 2024 or early 2025. Members of the Fairfax center will get priority access to a membership in Annandale, along with other benefits, though the details are still being worked out.
Bae says her goal is to ensure all members and customers have a “high-quality experience” at Down the Line, whether they visit the Fairfax center or the future one in Annandale.
“We’re excited to see more people come in, experience our center and the different things we have to offer,” she said. “…Everyone who comes in here, the first thing they notice is the atmosphere and the vibe here is very welcoming, makes you feel very at ease and at home, and that’s exactly what I wanted to provide for the people that come in here.”
Capital One Park is winding up for another year of baseball.
Capital One Center unveiled a schedule yesterday (Thursday) for the ballpark’s second season since it opened at 1820 Dolley Madison Drive in Tysons on March 31, 2023.
The season will kick off earlier this year, with Marymount University squaring off against Hampden-Sydney College on Feb. 17. The Arlington-based Catholic university’s baseball team will join the Georgetown Hoyas in making Capital One Park its “home” stadium for 2024.
Georgetown University’s team will make its local debut on March 1 with the first of three games against Fairleigh Dickinson University, which is visiting from New Jersey. The Hoyas are also scheduled to play Cornell, Maryland University, George Mason University, George Washington University and other Division 1 teams at Capital One Park.
Designed for collegiate and high school games, the stadium will also again host the entire season of the nonprofit Potomac Summer League. The college-level, eight-team D.C. area league is set to start practices during the first week of June.
Other highlights of Capital One Park’s upcoming season include two college tournaments in May, with the Old Dominion Athletic Conference Tournament taking over on May 9-11 and the Atlantic 10 Conference Tournament following on May 19-25.
This season will also bring some new amenities, including more bleacher seating, a merchandise kiosk, locker rooms and a rentable “party deck,” according to Capital One Center, the mixed-use development emerging at Capital One’s headquarters in Tysons.
Planned for 6 million square feet, the 35-acre campus already consists of 3 million square feet of commercial development, including a performing arts venue in Capital One Hall, The Watermark Hotel and The Perch skypark. The Tex-Mex restaurant Ometeo opened in December and is slated to be joined by Sisters Thai, Stellina Pizzeria, Ox & Rye and Starr Hill Brewpub this year.
George Mason University is poised to complete the construction of a functional cricket field at its Fairfax campus by the end of this summer and a new ballpark by 2025.
During a virtual town hall meeting on Monday (Jan. 29), GMU staff and Sanjay Govil, owner of the Washington Freedom cricket team and a founding investor in Major League Cricket (MLC), outlined the project and listened to feedback from local stakeholders.
The project is still in the planning phase, but GMU’s governor-appointed Board of Visitors gave the university the green light last month to start talks with Washington Freedom about a ground lease for a multi-purpose ballpark.
“I think it’s a great win-win situation in terms of giving us what cricket has to offer and giving GMU what it needs for a state-of-the-art baseball facility,” Govil said during the town hall.
As part of a multi-year plan to redevelop and enhance its three main campuses in Fairfax, Manassas and Arlington, GMU proposed consolidating the athletic facilities on its 190-acre Fairfax West Campus, which is northwest of the Ox Road and Braddock Road intersection and currently houses the GMU Field House, several fields and courts.
In November 2022, Mason announced it would collaborate with MLC to study the possibility of a multi-purpose facility that could host international-level cricket games and the university’s baseball team.
Marvin Lewis, assistant vice president and athletics director at GMU, said the athletic facilities on the west campus are outdated and lack essential stadium features like a video board and lights that he noted are common at peer institutions.
“They have video boards, they have lights, and so it makes it even harder to recruit and compete at a high level without those amenities at our ballpark,” Lewis said.
Because GMU is a relatively young institution, the athletics department doesn’t have the “donor capacity” to raise the funds needed to upgrade its facilities, including the new multi-purpose stadium, he added.
“So, to make improvements, we have to think creatively and utilize partners in the community to help us meet our strategic objectives,” Lewis said.
As part of its agreement with GMU, Govil said Washington Freedom would fully fund the new stadium’s construction.
According to a presentation shared by the university, the proposed stadium will accommodate 7,000 to 10,000 spectators on a 15-acre site between Braddock Road and Campus Drive, adjacent to the parking lot.
The possibility of thousands of new spectators traveling to watch cricket matches and baseball games alarmed many town hall attendees, who expressed concerns about traffic and questioned the university’s approach. Read More
(Updated at 10:30 a.m. on 2/6/2024) After more than a year of impassioned and often acrimonious public testimony, Reston Association will drop plans for pickleball courts as part of the renovation of Barton Hill’s tennis courts.
At a meeting on Jan. 25, the RA Board of Directors voted to remove pickleball courts from the scope of the renovation, which had inspired passionate testimony from both pickleball lovers and neighboring residents concerned about safety, security, parking and the noise associated with the burgeoning sport.
Board director Jennifer Jushchuk, who proposed removing pickleball from the renovation, said she was impressed by the level of public engagement on the proposal.
“I feel like we’ve pitted members against members, and I don’t think that was ever the intention of the board that approved it,” she said, adding that she hopes RA can determine the scope of pickleball needs in the community.
“I just don’t think we got there with Barton Hill,” Jushchuk said.
Most board members said they were concerned about the disproportionate impact of pickleball on the surrounding community.
“I have to be sympathetic to the needs of the people who actually live in the community,” said director Travis Johnson.
Some of that debate continued at the Jan. 25 board meeting.
Residents like Laura David, who lives on Harper Square Court, pressed the board to look for more appropriate places for pickleball that wouldn’t disturb neighboring communities with noise.
“Let’s think outside of the original box we all had, which was to look at Barton Hill,” David said.
Others like Hayes McCarty, a Reston resident for more than 50 years, said RA’s board should take into account noise studies it commissioned that found average noise levels created by pickleball fall below limits enforced by Fairfax County’s noise ordinance.
“The association paid a lot of money for these studies. These people are experts, and I think we have to listen to what they have to say,” McCarty said.
As the plan moved through approval process, RA scaled back plans for pickleball at the facility, which currently consists of four unlit tennis courts built in 1985 at 1901 Barton Hill Road.
Last September, RA reduced its plan for the facility from six to four dedicated pickleball courts and two dedicated tennis courts, removing blended lines that would have allowed both tennis and pickleball uses. Now, all of the courts will be for tennis.
Some board members were dismayed with how the decision was rolled out.
Board director Margaret Perry said she wants RA to brainstorm alternatives for other pickleball locations before voting against its inclusion in Barton Hill. Her motion to delay the vote to the board’s March meeting did not gain traction, and she ultimately voted against removing pickleball from the project.
(Correction: This story initially said Margaret Perry voted for removing pickleball.)
Board president John Farrell said he was particularly concerned with how some board members justified nixing pickleball, noting that neighboring residents often have concerns about the addition of any new facility or program to the community.
“No way in hell am I going to give the neighbors a veto over serving the other 63,000 people [in Reston] and I’m disturbed that I heard some of my colleagues suggest that that’s the fundamental analysis,” Farrell said. “I hope that’s not the case.”
Construction is underway to convert a warehouse in Tysons into an indoor pickleball facility.
The Pickleball Club of Tysons is now accepting membership reservations on its website after receiving the necessary approvals from Fairfax County to begin work at 8520 Tyco Road last week, according to co-owner Alesya Semukha-Greenberg.
With construction expected to finish this spring, the business is currently aiming for an April 1 grand opening.
“I’m most looking forward to [the club] being full all the time and getting the right person to run it and making everyone happy,” Pickleball Club of Tysons co-founder and CEO Marc Greenberg told FFXnow.
Located in an industrial park just southeast of the Route 7 and Dulles Access Road interchange, the recreational facility will feature six dedicated pickleball courts available for lessons, open play, competitive leagues and other events.
Like many other players, Greenberg developed an enthusiasm for pickleball during the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw a surge of interest in the half-century-old sport. He was introduced to the racket-based pasttime about a year and a half ago by fellow Pickleball Club of Tysons founder and chief operating officer Tarlika Amin, who raised the idea of opening her own club to address a lack of indoor courts in the area.
“There really is nowhere to play during the winter time,” Greenberg said. “In fact, the only people sort of creating courts are the counties and the country clubs, so those are two opposite ends of the spectrum. The county’s are public courts, and they’re good, but they’re outdoors and there’s a lot of noise issues, and the country clubs are very expensive and they take away from tennis courts. So, there are very few middle market clubs and that’s where I thought we could make a difference.”
As a real estate agent who lives in McLean, Greenberg agreed to help identify possible locations, and he immediately focused in on Tysons, though he ultimately looked across Northern Virginia, particularly inside the Capital Beltway (I-495).
“Tysons was my number-one choice,” he said. “The odds weren’t great, but then I found this space and the size was right, and most importantly, the column spacing was right so that we could put the courts in.”
The space presented some challenges. The club needed to get a special permit from the county to allow the pickleball courts, and since the warehouse only had heating, not air-conditioning, new HVAC units have to be installed — the project’s biggest expense.
Still, the industrial setting has benefits as well, saving the facility from the concerns about noise that have turned many residential neighborhoods against outdoor pickleball courts.
“There won’t be a noise issue on the outside because it’s 6-inch cinder block on the outside of the warehouse,” Greenberg said, acknowledging that indoor noise levels might still be a challenge.
While the Fairfax County Park Authority continues to add outdoor courts, the Pickleball Club of Tysons will eventually have some company in meeting the demand for indoor facilities. The new business Down the Line Sports Center will open two locations this year: a 10,000-square-foot facility in Fairfax City and a 50,000-square-foot, 18-court complex in Annandale.
Greenberg says it’s “great” to see that other facilities are in the works, since he believes “the demand is there.” The Pickleball Club of Tysons team hopes to expand to other locations in the future, but right now, they’re focused on making sure the Tyco Road one works.
Finding the right site is the biggest challenge to building indoor pickleball courts, according to Greenberg.
“You have the appropriate column spacing and you have the appropriate parking and the ceiling height,” he said. “So, you know, I think you can have a dozen of these in Fairfax County, but the land and the real estate is really not conducive to it, so it’s hard to do.”
Screenshot via Pickleball Club of Tysons/YouTube