Really depends on your transportation situation, family situation, housing preferences and a whole ton of other things.
I go in a couple times a week on the metro with one transfer. Have to drive there and park. Takes me about 1:15 door to door from Fairfax City. You may prefer to drive in or take the VRE or MARC. If thatās too long, you may want to live closer, but then the population is denser and housing is smaller and more expensive.
Ted is doing a good job of burning all of the good will he built when he originally took over the Caps.
Bowser and DC government arenāt doing many favors. Chinatown and the Metro - even with the anchor of Capital One Arena - is deteriorating. Wonāt ever be at the level of the past, but definitely a place where most suburban families may be a bit uncomfortable.
I donāt like the teams moving to VA either for a lot of the same reasons that you and others have mentioned. Arena sports should stay in the downtown corridors. Baseball too probably. They arenāt tailgating sports like football where people drive and you need a big parking lot to do all that.
As far as the part I quoted, I wouldnāt say that the arena saved Chinatown. Moreso it gentrified Chinatown and drove out all the Chinese residents, but it did save the general area from blight. I would not call it a Chinatown despite all the businesses using Chinese characters in their names and the pagoda gate thing.
And now if the teams move and leave behind a giant mostly empty arena, hard to say what will happen to that neighborhood. Penn Quarter is generally doing well and thereās a lot of upscale housing development on Mass Ave.
Leonsis still owns the arena and he hates the mortgage on it and he doesnāt own the land it sits on. Doubt he wants to keep the arena burning a hole in his pocket, but donāt know who would want to buy it.
I had the opportunity to chat with Ted a few times on those early years after he bought the Caps and I really thought he was going to be a breathe of fresh air for DC sports. I genuinely liked him in our interactions.
While I still like him as a person, Ted as an owner is awful. Heās somehow driven the Wizards further into the ground that the Polins ever did. The Caps Cup was amazing and even the Mystics championship was fun. But all his teams are plauged with poor leadership coaching and roster management.
Moving the stadium is awful for DC. Chinatown will die and which is a shame given the efforts they made in the early 2k to revitalize that area.
The Zards are gonna die outside the city. DC is a basketball town but many of the loyal fans arent making that trek over via metro and driving it will be virtually impossible. All the Woodbridge and Ffx hockey families will be happy as least.
Put a swim/dive stadium there. Problem solved.
If you build a world class natatorium, DC would have all the facilities needed to host an Olympics. Or maybe thereās already one in College Park. And I want nothing to do with an Olympics in DC, itād be a debacle.
That sounds amazing and awful. The district would meltdown
It barely handled the 08 inauguration
Donāt test me Iāll run for president and shut down all swimming for everyone.
Eh, Iām not that worked up about moving the Wizards and Capitals five miles down the road. The way DC people are acting, youād think that Ted L is moving the teams to western Loudoun.
To be honest, Mayor Bowser and most of the DC city council made this decision by prioritizing trying to get the new Commanders stadium at the old RFK site. Maybe thatāll prove to be a good decision, we shall see. But DC couldnāt realistically put together two stadium proposals at the same time. They chose the NFL.
UVA plays half of itās home basketball games at capital one now? More access to NOVA fans aka the real Virginians.
Iāll pass. I swear once I get north of Fredericksburg on 95, my blood pressure starts going up.
That 5 miles are worlds apart
5 miles is quite the distance if you donāt own a car 
But you could take the Metro.
Oh wait, that actually hurts my argument.
That 5 miles is also why DC has to do everything to get the commanders back in the district
5 miles could be 45 minutes in traffic, which will almost always be the case for a 7 or 8 pm tip.
As others have noted, it makes it so much worse to access via transit. Chinatown/Gallery Place is accessible via three metro lines, and another three go to Metro Center, which is a few minutes walk away. Thatās every major metro line serving the city and suburbs within a short walk of the arena. That is an incredibly ideal transit situation.
Now theyāre going to be near the end of just the yellow and blue line. Many will have to transfer to get out there, which isnāt awful, but itās a big step down. And many more end up driving in an area that already has terrible traffic. Itās a big step down in that respect.
The Metro could seemingly help by running more trains on the blue and yellow lines as games are set to conclude, but will they?
5 miles is massive in DC. Absolutely massive.
Itās a 30 min drive during gametime. Also people in DC/MD hate going to Virginia. Hate it. No one I know is traveling out to Alexandria to catch the Wizards. Aināt happening.
This is also part of a bigger project to label cities a certain way and make a cynical ideological point. Creating a self-fulfilling prophecy with this move. Honestly, itās smart. But also a dog shit move. Smart dog shit.