With a half-billion dollar deal to modernize and expand Capital One Arena in place, the Washington Capitals are now mulling their future at the MedStar Capitals Iceplex in Ballston.
ARLnow has learned that the team recently started talking to Arlington County about potential modernizations and improvements to the 137,000 square foot, county-owned facility. The Iceplex opened in 2006 and serves as the Caps’ official NHL practice facility and headquarters, as well as the home ice for college, high school and beer league hockey teams.
The facility — at the top of the Ballston public parking garage and accessible from elevators at Ballston Quarter mall — is open to the public and also hosts public skates, skating and hockey lessons, birthday parties and camps.
“The Capitals are pleased to call MedStar Capitals Iceplex our official practice facility,” the Capitals’ head of communications, Sergey Kocharov, said in response to an inquiry from ARLnow.
“We are in early discussions with Arlington County to explore ways to keep the facility up to date and modern and to improve the fan, player, employee, and community experience at our practice facility in the future,” he said.
The discussions are “in the early stages” and there is “no timeline as of yet” for any potential decisions or actions, Kocharov said.
Arlington County spokesman Ryan Hudson confirmed that the county is talking with the team about the future of the Iceplex.
“We look forward to continuing discussions,” he said.
When team owner Ted Leonsis announced in December that the Capitals and the NBA’s Washington Wizards would move to a new arena to be constructed in Alexandria, the plans included an adjacent practice facility.
From ARLnow’s reporting at the time:
In today’s announcement, the expansion into Alexandria did not explicitly mention relocating the Capital’s practice facility from Ballston, though it was included in a map of the planned development.
Arlington County says Monumental has indicated it intends to negotiate a renewed lease in Ballston — even with the planned arena in Potomac Yard — as it prefers to separate practice facilities and administrative offices from their arena.
A Monumental spokesperson told ARLnow where the Caps practice is one of many details that still need to be finalized, emphasizing that the Iceplex in Ballston is a state-of-the-art facility. The spokesperson said Monumental might renovate the second-floor office space to serve as the front office and athlete space after the business staff move to Potomac Yard, but it is also exploring building a new practice facility at Potomac Yard.
Since then, of course, the Alexandria arena deal collapsed and the teams agreed to remain at Capital One Arena in D.C. with extensive modernizations and a potential expansion into adjacent Gallery Place for a Wizards practice facility.
“Under the agreement, if feasible, Monumental would aim to build a new practice facility for the Wizards in the Gallery Place office tower — a neighboring retail center that has been half-vacant for months,” the Washington Post reported. “If that doesn’t work out, the company could explore building the practice facility at other D.C. locations, including the RFK Stadium complex.”