Just lately, a narrative made me chuckle out loud once I noticed the title. The purpose of the story is that Ted Leonsis, proprietor of the NBA Washington Wizards and NHL Washington Capitals, desires to indicate how a lot he cares in regards to the native communities getting concerned with the groups that he owns. In response to Leonsis, engagement with locals was a “fundamental responsibility” of the groups. Then he pats himself on the again for “emphasizing social responsibility” and claims to have been the “catalytic impact” for metropolis development. However at the moment, and most significantly, Leonsis desires everybody to know that he’s now concentrating on “community engagement” at Capital One Enviornment, their dwelling venue.
Besides, Leonsis does none of these items. He does basically the precise reverse. He does virtually nothing for the followers or native communities. Good God, the place to start? Let’s begin with a quick historical past lesson. In 1994, downtown DC was an empty catastrophe, and the native authorities had virtually no cash. So, Abe Pollin built a $220 million arena with out vital taxpayer assist, exterior of below-market mortgage charges and tax advantages that helped Pollin was his area debt. In 2009, Leonsis took over possession. It wasn’t lengthy earlier than this billionaire started crying about how he had inherited “the worst building deal in professional sports.” This worst deal in sports activities is kind of felony. Town makes Leonsis pay hire yearly. What meanies! A number of years into his possession, Leonsis needed a brand new follow facility for the Wizards. DC not solely constructed him a brand new one however paid for 90% of the prices.
Most likely my favourite second of Leonsis occurred in 2016 when he advised the media that the current failures of the Wizards & Capitals occurred as a result of “he has to actually pay for his arena.” Then, he threatened to maneuver the staff when his lease was over. A author for the USAToday known as Leonsis’s assertion “absolutely preposterous” contemplating Leonsis is the one who “hired bad people who have done a bad job.”
Deadspin did a hilarious job reviewing this assertion by Leonsis:
“Listed here are some issues which can be true. The Wizards and Capitals aren’t strapped small-market groups scrounging for income within the sofa cushions. They play their video games smack dab within the downtown coronary heart of some of the prosperous and fascinating media markets on the planet…they’ve loads of cash. They don’t seem to be handcuffed by something however their organizational ineptitude, which is actual and power…Ted Leonsis want to have extra money is neither a convincing protection of their failures nor a compelling argument for turning their payments over to the town’s taxpayers” – Deadspin, 2016
Round 2022, Leonsis determined he wanted a full renovation of the world at a price of $820 million. Was one thing drastically incorrect with the world? Was the warmth not working? No, the staff needed this renovation “because it could yield more ‘high-value’ seats that were closer to the floor and a range of new luxury and premium suites to maximize ticket revenue.” Nonetheless, one way or the other, Leonsis felt like the town wasn’t making him a “top priority” in comparison with the Commanders. Native leaders “seemed to care more for other teams“…Is that this man a young person or a grown grownup? Nevermind that Leonsis wasn’t the one who constructed the world, wasn’t the one who selected the world’s location and nonetheless won’t pay for something with out taxpayers taking up a big chunk of the venture. If he doesn’t get what he desires, he’ll act like a ranting child who’s upset at not being given all the pieces that he desires. Metropolis officers have been fairly clear that after they have been negotiating with Leonsis, “money was his primary focus.” Is it any marvel that Leonsis continues to impose an almost yearly trend of hiking ticket prices for both the Capitals and Wizards?’
“The Wizards rolled out their season ticket pricing mannequin for subsequent season, which options worth will increase throughout a majority of sections, together with hikes of over 50% because the staff shifts to extra premium seating. One supply advised Bullets Ceaselessly that his firm’s value for 2 season tickets elevated from $14,952 to $23,352 for the 25-26 season. That’s a worth enhance of 56.1%” – BulletsForever.com, 2025
In 2023, Leonsis went across the DC native media claiming that his area wanted $700+ million in taxpayer cash or else he may go away. In the identical yr, the governor of Virginia stupidly tried to coax the Capitals/Wizards to maneuver into his state in trade for at minimum $1.4 billion of taxpayer money. Each the Governor and Leonsis repeated taxpayers wouldn’t be on the hook for this venture, but by no means permitted the general public to see the settlement nor permitted different authorities leaders to see it in time to evaluation it correctly. Let me say that once more…Leonsis did all the pieces he may to push the Virginia deal via the state authorities on the final second and with virtually zero time to evaluation. THIS WAS A BILLION-DOLLAR PROJECT! As Defector wrote in a narrative on this topic, Leonsis and Youngkin have been hoping for a “severely compressed timeline” in order that they may “pressure Virginia lawmakers into shoving along their plan to extract billions of dollars in public financing“. Youngkin dropped a multi-billion greenback venture into the laps of state lawmakers and gave them a “single 60-day legislative session” that ought to have taken years to finish.
As Virginia State Senator Louise Lucas identified, that is insane:
“Lucas mentioned that she was blindsided by information in December that Virginia’s Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin reached a cope with Monumental Sports activities and Leisure proprietor Ted Leonsis to maneuver the Washington Capitals and Wizards from D.C. to a brand new area in Alexandria’s Potomac Yard neighborhood. She mentioned that the deal was offered in such a rush that the legislature didn’t have time to vet the plan, and even totally perceive it.” – ALXNow.com, 2023
Final yr, native taxpayers supplied Leonsis with $515 million of taxpayer money to buy and renovate the world. Washington, DC, an space that was deep into an financial disaster final yr and nonetheless is that this yr, gave a person with a internet price of $4 billion that sum of money? The truth is, why on earth is DC shopping for the world? Oh, that’s proper…”so Leonsis and his partners won’t have to pay taxes on the $515 million the city is giving them.” When somebody introduced up the absurdity of this complete transaction, Leonsis claimed that he “shouldn’t have to defend it” since that is “strategically like the right thing to do“? Nice.
Now the arena is exempt from taxes. Does the general public see a single greenback from the revenues? No. Nevertheless, the staff has tried to elucidate how these area upgrades would proceed to “put the community-first” since locals would obtain “benefit(s)…directly“. What advantages? Effectively, how about the good thing about locals now seeing a “modernized building exterior“. In response to the mayor of DC, the world being handsome will “improve” the “public realm“. How may that not cheer up an individual searching for a job? Or one way or the other who’s struggling to seek out his subsequent meal? At the very least the Wizards have the biggest game day locker room in all the NBA. Thanks taxpayers! It looks like Leonsis all the time brings up how he has put hundreds of millions of his own money into his arena. Besides, nobody has ever proven us proof of this, and sports activities groups maintain their monetary data extremely secret. It’s loopy to me that Leonsis can say this typically but by no means really feel the necessity to present that he’s truly doing it.
