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Just curious.... does anyone in the D.C. area care about the Capitals hockey team? Is there a specific area of metro D.C. that seems to be where most hockey fans live? For instance, in Boston, most of the Bruin's fans live in the suburbs north of the city for whatever reason. I've been to D.C. several times recently and I've never seen anyone wearing Capitals shirts/hats or talking about the team at all. It's too bad, because the Caps are an exciting team right now and look like they will be for at least a few seasons.
I was downtown by the Verizon center last night and I would say that there were plenty of folks getting off the metro that cared about the Capitals, judging by all the Capitals jerseys I saw. They didn't neccesarily get off one particular train coming from one part of the area either. So it wasn't just the blue line from VA that had the fans but the blue line from Largo the red line the green line. Capitals fans as far as the eye could see at the Chinatown metro.
The Caps are pretty popular now. The Verizon Center usually sells out these days. Just as a comparison, I was at the Wizards game on the 27th and the Caps game on the 1st. The Wizards game was maybe 2/3 full and the crowd was dead, but the Caps game was sold out and the crowd was rocking. I am starting to see more Caps gear as the year goes on, and people are starting to talk about them more. And I don't know of a certain area where they are particullary popular.
Hockey jerseys don't generally mix with the overall office attire you see in Washington, but if you are anywhere in Chinatown during a game you'll see thousands of them.
As for where folks come from, it seems to be a bit all over. For awhile I thought Maryland had a bit more grass-roots hockey love than say VA, but honestly I couldn't say that is the case now. The Caps train out in Ballston and generally have fans there for practices. There are also several small rinks all over DC so folks seem to come from everywhere.
I was in town Jan 1-today to get my background check started for the DC Fire Dept. Saturday afternoon I decided to catch an early movie that isn't out here in Milwaukee yet.(Gran Torino - awesome movie) I got out of my movie at about 3pm and there were already plenty of people everywhere wearing Caps gear. I went back to my hotel room to check online for tickets. Even on Craigslist, they were extremely expensive. Seemed like they were doing great from what I saw. We only have AHL in Milwaukee, no NHL. So it would have been nice to see.
In DC sports fandom, typically the Redskins come first in terms of fan interest and media coverage, followed by the Redskins, and then finally the Redskins.
The Caps are an excellent team and I love having them here and going to games, but you can't force people to care.
Most Cap fans I think will be found in neighborhoods in which families have been local for generations....Silver Spring, Charles County, Springfield, etc.
The Caps sentiment I think is not as popular as the Skins sentiment I believe, which is interesting because The Caps have been performing great! At the same time, you will see the fans around gametimes and not regular day to day operations around the city---while I do see more day to day Skins fol at any given time.Just IMO
The Caps won't be unseating the Redskins for sports supremacy in this town anytime soon, but the Caps are developing a very loyal fan base. They've already sold out more home games this year than they did all of last year, and I'm seeing a lot more Caps (read: Ovechkin) jerseys around the city. I work directly across the street from the Verizon Center, and I can tell you that on game days the streets around the arena are flooded with Caps fans.
In DC sports fandom, typically the Redskins come first in terms of fan interest and media coverage, followed by the Redskins, and then finally the Redskins.
that's funny.
I grew up near Hockeytown (Detroit) and went to a Caps game when I first moved to DC. It was a hilarious culture shock. The crowd was rather pleasant. The intermission entertainment was a male figure skater. People were actually sitting and watching it. I remember saying, "That man would be covered in octopi if he were in Detroit right now."
DC crowds are typically horribly sedate at concerts as well - at least compared to what I was used to. But, I like that about DC. I lived in Boston for a while and fandome was borderline pathological.
DC people tend to not get that into sports - 'cept the Skins in certain circles. And the bars fill up at 7 in the morning for World Cup.
At most Caps-Wings games that I have been to, Wings fans outnumbered, or had nearly as many fans as the Caps did. This year it will probably be more Caps fans. I'm hoping to be there.
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