Ted Leonsis Plans ‘Credible and Strong’ New Offer for Nationals
On Tuesday, Monumental Sports and Entertainment owner Ted Leonsis told The Sports Junkies on 106.7 FM The Fan in Washington, D.C., that he will make another bid to purchase the Washington Nationals from the Lerner family.
Leonsis—who owns the NHL’s Capitals, NBA’s Wizards and WNBA’s Mystics—was asked to confirm the amount of his initial offer and how much would it take to buy the baseball club this time.
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“I don’t know,” Leonsis said. “The team is not officially for sale. We’re partners with the Lerners, and we have nothing but friendly, almost a ‘huggy, kissy’ kind of relationship. They’re businesspeople, we’re businesspeople. But we will make a credible and strong offer, and we’ll continue speaking.”
The Lerners are also minority investors in Monumental. Mentioning that both groups have other business to tend to, Leonsis said that there’s no rush to make a deal. “They’re not going anywhere, and obviously as we talked last time, I’m not going anywhere, either.”
Leonsis has made it clear that he wants to add a baseball team to the portfolio. During Sportico’s Invest in Sports Conference last October, he said, “I am not shy to say I want to claim to buy a baseball team. I love the sport.”
Although the nearby Baltimore Orioles were also on the market at the time, Leonsis’ focus was much closer to home. “If you are not in Virginia or D.C., I am not interested in your team,” he said.
The Lerner family, led by managing principal owner Mark Lerner, has put the team on the market a few times, most recently in 2022 when it asked Allen & Co. to arrange the marketplace of prospective buyers. However, despite interest from Leonsis and private equity magnate David Rubenstein, the Lerners took the Nationals off the market in late February.
Shortly before Opening Day, MLB approved a sale of the Orioles to a group led by Rubenstein, a Baltimore native, after the death of O’s owner Peter Angelos.
One of the barriers to a Nationals sale is the complicated arrangement that is MASN, or the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network, which is co-owned by both Beltway teams. The Orioles own two-thirds of MASN, and the Nationals own the remaining shares, but the O’s control the payments the Nats receive from the channel. Arbitrators have been able to settle some matters over those payments, but a Leonsis ownership could alleviate all concerns by potentially bringing the Nationals into the RSN he owns and operates for his teams.
To reiterate his words, Leonsis isn’t going anywhere soon. His NBA and NHL teams will remain at Capital One Arena in D.C. proper after a recent push to build an entertainment and sports complex in the suburb of Alexandria, Va.—which would have included a new arena for the Capitals and Wizards. The deal was scrapped by state and local officials despite a handshake agreement with Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin. Leonsis was able to hammer out a deal with D.C. mayor Muriel Bowser’s administration that includes $515 million in public funds over the next three years to renovate Capital One Arena, as well as an increased police presence in the surrounding area during games and events.
The former Montreal Expos moved to D.C. in 2005 and became the Nationals. After two seasons at RFK Stadium, the team moved to their new digs on the Anacostia River, Nationals Park, in 2007. Although they won the 2019 World Series, the Nationals have had more valleys than peaks in nearly 20 years in D.C. The franchise ranks 14th on Sportico’s latest MLB valuations list at $2.2 billion, with a single-percentage-point increase in value but a two-spot drop in rank compared to 2023.
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