Capitol sadness: D.C. no longer ‘District of Champions,’ far from it

Over a span of nearly 17 months, there was arguably no city hotter when it came to professional sports than the District. From June 2018 to October 2019, the Washington Capitals, Mystics and Nationals all won championships. The city became known as the “District of Champions,” a phrase printed on t-shirts and repeated all over town, that served as a genuine source of pride.

Those days are long gone.

This week, the Washington Wizards and the Capitals were officially eliminated from postseason contention — shutting the door on disappointing and underwhelming years for both teams.

But the eliminations were significant in more ways than many realized: With the Wizards and the Capitals sitting out this upcoming postseason the 2022-23 campaign marks the first time that all four major Washington sports teams will have missed the playoffs in the same spring-to-spring cycle.

The failure to advance breaks an 18-year streak the city’s teams had maintained since the return of Major League Baseball to the District in 2005. But the 2022 Nationals were an MLB-worst 55-107. The 8-8-1 Commanders — surprisingly the best of the bunch — fell short of the playoffs. And the Wizards and the Capitals — who began their seasons in October 2022 — are both under .500 with just a few games left.

Together, the four teams have combined for a winning percentage of .393 — the D.C. area’s worst mark in the core-four era and the lowest since 2003, when the Wizards, Capitals and Redskins posted a miserable .322.

That’s not exactly slogan material.

“Nobody wanted this, no one expected this,” Capitals defenseman John Carlson said after a recent loss to the New York Rangers.  “Everything weighs on you a lot more. … When stuff clearly hasn’t gone our way this year, it’s a lot difficult on everybody.”

So the region may not be the “District of Champions” anymore. But it would be a stretch to start branding it the “District of Chumps,” too. The Mystics made the playoffs in 2022. The XFL’s D.C. Defenders are a league-best 6-1 this spring. Both soccer teams in town — D.C. United and the Washington Spirit — are coming off down years, but the Spirit at least isn’t that far removed from winning a championship (2021). 

Even among the core four — the NFL, NBA, NHL and MLB — Washington’s winning percentage was heavily weighed down by the blow-it-up Nationals, who took their rebuild to an extreme in 2022 by trading Juan Soto. 

Instead, the rest of the field has been just so … mediocre. The Commanders were unable to resurrect Carson Wentz’s career — shocker — and their quarterback instability proved to again be a huge obstacle. The Wizards gave Bradley Beal a five-year, $251 million contract, proceeded to get only 50 games out of him this season and seem content trying — and failing — to reach the play-in. Even the Capitals hit a rut with an aging core that led to the team’s first missed postseason since 2013-14. 

Usually, there’s at least one team that sparks excitement and helps distract the city’s sports fans. Longtime local radio host Kevin Sheehan said he thinks 2009 — the final year of Jim Zorn and Gilbert Arenas’ locker-room gun controversy —  was a “rock bottom” sports year for the area. But even that year, the Capitals went 54-15-13 and finished with their first-ever Presidents’ Trophy. (Excruciating playoff exit, aside.)

If there’s an equivalent for the past few months — and apologies to the Defenders, who would count toward 2023 anyway — then it might be the Commanders. Or specifically, a topic related to them.

Sheehan said owner Dan Snyder’s potential sale of the Commanders provides its own parade-worthy celebration for fans. 

“The Snyder news makes this not the bottom right now,” said Sheehan, a radio host at The Team 980. “This will be the most significant result in this market — I should say since the World Series and the Stanley Cup, but I’m not so sure that Snyder selling the team doesn’t rival those two championships in terms of what the reaction will be.” 

Still, has the area’s lack of recent success started to affect interest? It’s hard to say — but not to wonder. Monday’s crowd at Nationals Park was only 10,754, the second-smallest paid attendance in the team’s history. The Commanders, too, have ranked 31st (2021) and 32nd (2022) in the NFL in attendance over the last two years. The Wizards have ranked 24th (2021-22) and 21st (2022-23) in the NBA over that same span. 

And yet, the Nationals (up 38% in 2022), Wizards (11%) and Commanders (10%) all saw gains in attendance compared to the season prior. Average crowd sizes aren’t far off from what those three drew in 2019-20 before the pandemic. The Nationals, Commanders and Wizards have their box-office problems, but the Capitals remain a top draw in the market and have been consistently in the Alex Ovechkin era. 

What’s clear: “District of Champions” no longer applies. 

The Commanders haven’t made the postseason since the 2020 season. The Wizards missed the playoffs for the fourth time in five seasons. Neither the Capitals nor the Nationals have won a playoff series since winning it all. 

“It’s just the nature of sports,” Wizards coach Wes Unseld Jr. said. “Things are very cyclical. … I’m sure there’s a level of frustration across the board. And it’s to be expected.”