Capitals, Wizards Owner Interested in ‘Consolidating' D.C. Teams, Including Nationals
Ted Leonsis hasn’t given up on the idea of buying the Washington Nationals.
The owner of both the Washington Capitals and the Washington Wizards talked about his “… high interest in consolidating sports teams in our region” during an interview with MOCO 360, released on Thursday.
Leonsis, a former executive with AOL among other businesses, has cornered the market on team ownership in the Washington D.C. area. Along with the Capitals and the Wizards, he also owns the G League's Capital City Go-Go and the WNBA's Washington Mystics.
He is also the founder, majority owner, chairman and CEO of Monumental Sports & Entertainment. Through Monumental, he runs the Monumental Sports Network, which he recently purchased from Comcast so he could control the TV rights for his teams.
Part of his desire to own another team in the market, whether it be the Nationals or the MLS’s D.C. United, is for more television programming.
“Owning a baseball team would double the amount of games and be year-round,” he said. “You can see from a business standpoint, that’s important.”
So, there’s clearly a business play for him, should be somehow acquire the Nationals. But, in the same breath, he also said that he didn’t “… want to buy a baseball team so I can get programming for the network.”
He rejects any notion that a team like the Nationals can’t compete with the New York Yankees, reasoning that by leveraging a combination of teams he can help all of them in free agency.
“But why it’s important for the team is, how can you define yourself as a big market team?” he said. “How can you attract free agents? How can you keep really good young players from going somewhere else? Which we have proven we do with my teams. Alex Ovechkin didn’t leave to go to a hockey market. He stayed and made it a hockey market.”
The Nationals had been exploring a sale since 2022. The Lerner family bought it from MLB in 2006 and Mark Lerner now controls the team. In February, Lerner told the Washington Post that the team was no longer for sale.
Where that leaves Leonsis’ interest is anyone’s guess. However, there could be another way for him to get Nationals programming on his network — if the Nets were to get their broadcast rights back.
As part of the deal that allowed the Nationals to move from Montreal, the Baltimore Orioles own the team’s broadcast rights. Winning those rights back could allow Washington to entertain working with Leonsis that way.
