D.C. grassroots organizer Ron Moten has launched a campaign urging Monumental Sports and Entertainment owner Ted Leonsis to not move his Wizards and Capitals teams to Alexandria. In a petition shared online Wednesday, Moten said that if Leonsis doesn’t back out of the recently announced deal by Jan. 10, he’ll encourage locals to boycott all Monumental teams and brands.

Starting in mid-January, #DontMuteDC plans to organize around the arena, especially on game days. “There will be no games down here. You will see the go-go float down here, and we will shut it down,” Moten said at a press conference outside Capital One Arena in downtown D.C. Thursday afternoon. “We will make it very inconvenient for games to proceed.” He also said they would launch a marketing campaign to encourage people to still patronize businesses around the arena, and also in Southeast D.C. near the Entertainment and Sports Arena where the Washington Mystics play, in order to keep tax revenues flowing into D.C. programs.

Moten’s threat to boycott shouldn’t be taken lightly — the activist has long rallied public support for local causes, particularly those impacting communities of color. Moten launched the #DontMuteDC movement that successfully fought to keep go-go music playing in Shaw, despite opposition from residents at a nearby luxury apartment building; he’s organized countless local protests and performances; and he secured D.C. grant funding to break ground on a forthcoming museum dedicated to go-go music and culture.

But while Mayor Muriel Bowser, the D.C. Council, and now Moten are all hoping to halt the teams’ move to Virginia, Leonsis has laid out a clear framework for a $2 billion public-private partnership that would involve a new arena in Potomac Yard alongside a concert venue, Wizards practice facility, Monumental Sports Network studio, and new restaurants and retail.

Fans have voiced their frustration. Wizards diehards see the move as the betrayal of the fanbase that’s been loyal, despite having few reasons to continue their support for a losing team. Capitals fans, still riding the high of the 2018 Stanley Cup win, recall the sea of red jerseys that flooded Gallery Place and feel that their pride and commitment is being taken for granted. Some have said the move would be detrimental to an already struggling downtown area, while creating traffic mayhem and rising living costs in Alexandria.

“It just seems like a greedy move at the expense of the D.C. community, betrayal after years of support,” says Chris Koves, a Capitals season ticket holder who lives within walking distance from Capital One Arena and grew up in Northern Virginia. Koves wrote to DCist that the move would be a devastating blow to Chinatown as the city recovers from the pandemic.

“The District has more to lose than Virginia has to gain,” Koves writes over email. “I think about all the beloved bars and restaurants and jobs that will close. I also worry about the District losing city pride and community that brought different parts of the city here to Chinatown cheering on our teams. Chinatown felt like the center of the city on game day.”

Local Wizards fan Peter Knowlton agrees that the location of the arena has made it easier to stomach the team’s losses. He thinks public funds should be spent on revitalizing downtown D.C., not luring Monumental to an entertainment campus in the suburbs.

“Being in D.C. just makes more sense geographically, it’s central for everyone,” says Knowlton, who lives in Silver Spring and rides Metro to attend games. “Nobody wants to travel an hour to watch the 3-37 Wizards,” he adds, exaggerating on the team’s 4-22 record.

But the move wouldn’t just be detrimental to Wizards and Capitals fans, says Anacostia resident and Mystics fan Cameron Sanders. The Monumental deal would move the Mystics, the District’s 2019 WNBA championship-winning team, from the Entertainment and Sports Arena (ESA) in Congress Heights back to Capital One Arena. Monumental “sold a dream for the Congress Heights neighborhood,” Sanders says, noting that the $55 million arena was mostly taxpayer funded.

Sanders had planned to become Mystics season ticket holder — until Virginia officials announced the deal with Monumental. “It finally seemed as though the Mystics were no longer receiving the Wizards’ hand-me-downs,” Sanders says. “Clearly [that’s] not the case.”

Boston transplant Sam Keenan lives in Cleveland Park and says he’s appreciated the Capitals’ youth programs in the city and the visibility the team has had among hockey fans of color. He grew up playing hockey and noticed something different about Capitals games that he didn’t see at other arenas: the crowd wasn’t entirely white.

“I want hockey to be an accessible sport that anyone can play,” Keenan says. “If the Caps move out of the District, we’ll become a hockey desert. I’m concerned that the move will damage the progress we’ve made trying to make it a more inclusive sport.”

But not all locals feel the same sense of dread. Capitals season ticket holder Timothy Danielson says he is ready for a change.

“It is painfully evident the neighborhood is deteriorating and, quite honestly, my wife and I do not feel safe around Chinatown,” says Danielson, who says he lived in D.C. for 10 years but moved to Virginia for fear of rising crime rates. “If this is Leonsis’ way to get the D.C. administration to act, great. If they end up moving, that’s fine as well.”

Monumental has maintained that it is not completely abandoning downtown D.C., Congress Heights, or Capital One Arena. By not competing with NHL, NBA, and WNBA schedules, both Capital One and the ESA would be more available for concerts and other shows, according to an MSE spokesperson. The plan also includes an “update” to Capital One Arena that would reduce its seating capacity to 10,000 to 20,000 people but make it more “flexible,” per Monumental.

“Under this proposed plan, MSE would continue to invest directly — with no public funding — in maintaining Capital One Arena’s standing as one of the busiest arenas in the nation,” MSE said in a statement. The company said it appreciates fans’ passion, but its commitment to D.C. is “unwavering.” The company added that the WNBA is growing and that it envisions the Mystics playing in front of a much larger fanbase than is currently supported at the arena in Ward 8, which will continue to be the team’s practice facility and home of the G-League’s Capital City Go-Go.

Vienna resident Ali Alwazir is among the Wizards and Capitals fans who are excited to make memories in a new arena and see the teams expand beyond the District. He’s been a fan for decades, since he would see them play at the Capital Centre in Landover.

“I, selfishly as a fan, care about my experience,” Alwazir says, “and I would say that my experience in D.C. as of late has been very average.”

The aging arena and concerns about crime have made trips to home games lose their appeal, he says.  The one thing Alwazir says he would miss about games in downtown D.C.: the go-go musicians busking outside the stadium.

“Just hearing that music, whether it was the standard game, whether it was a playoff game, that’s what hypes you up after a win,” Alwazir says over the phone. “So how are they going to reflect that in this new center, this new complex? I don’t know how they’re going to replicate that.”

There’s no way to replicate that, if you ask Moten.

“These teams are more than just sports franchises to us; they show the world our scrappiness, our resilience, our soul, our spirit,” his petition reads. “Mr. Leonsis’ decision isn’t just about relocating sports franchises; it’s about abandoning a community that has supported him throughout his tenure as team owner — an act of betrayal of Monumental proportions.”

This story has been updated with comments from Ron Moten at Thursday’s press conference.