Comcast sells NBC Sports Washington to Ted Leonsis: Now re-branded as Monumental Sports Network

[FAH1223]

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[long suffrin' boulez fan]

Man. Nightmare scenario is that he acquires the Nats, the only well run franchise in town.

He and Lerner seem tight. I believe Mark Lerner is a minority partner in Monumental.

Egads. A town with only Terd and Snyder as franchise owners. Time to start rooting for Pittsburgh teams

[keynote]

For a guy who often talks like a small market owner, he's taking full advantage of owning multiple teams in the third-largest combined metropolitan statistical area in the country.

[badinage]

He’s done fine by the Caps. His approach of building patiently through the draft and retaining homegrown talent works in hockey. Hockey isn’t about having one gargassive star. Neither is baseball. Which is why the Nats will eventually win the Soto trade — remember the Mariners after A-Rod left town? They didn’t collapse; they won 116 games.

Still, this takeover of sports media is a bad, bad thing. As bad as his promulgation and normalizing of betting. What next? E-hooker sites that you can access from the club level?

And … he has yet to do anything of real meaning with all his money. You can’t take it with you. Also, it’s dickish in the extreme (and this is putting it nicely) to live as he does when so many are in such straits.

[gambitx777]

He’s done fine by the Caps. His approach of building patiently through the draft and retaining homegrown talent works in hockey. Hockey isn’t about having one gargassive star. Neither is baseball. Which is why the Nats will eventually win the Soto trade — remember the Mariners after A-Rod left town? They didn’t collapse; they won 116 games.

Still, this takeover of sports media is a bad, bad thing. As bad as his promulgation and normalizing of betting. What next? E-hooker sites that you can access from the club level?

And … he has yet to do anything of real meaning with all his money. You can’t take it with you. Also, it’s dickish in the extreme (and this is putting it nicely) to live as he does when so many are in such straits.

I have a feeling if Snyder is eventually forced to sell Ted will be first in line.

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[Halcyon]

I want the Nats off of MASN, it's a joke I have to get MLB.tv + VPN to be able to stream games in the local market. If he can get them off of there, I'm ok with it.

[closg00]

I am definitely against big monopolies, will Comcast be to Ted what Fox is to Trump?

[Wizardspride]

Man. Nightmare scenario is that he acquires the Nats, the only well run franchise in town.

He and Lerner seem tight. I believe Mark Lerner is a minority partner in Monumental.

Egads. A town with only Terd and Snyder as franchise owners. Time to start rooting for Pittsburgh teams

Not a nightmare scenario at all imo.

Local ownership which I prefer.

Just be prepared to open up the wallet when needed...and keep Mike Rizzo running things.

[gambitx777]

Yeah like I don't see why people hate Ted. He's a decent owner he's not a bad guy. He's just mid. He's won championships with two teams the wizards are a bit of a lost shop but two of three ain't bad. If he bought the nats they could do worse of he bought the commander's they have worse he he buys DC united that wouldn't be bad what ever the xfo team is **** fine. Do we still have a world team tennis team? What about curling ? Magic the gathering? Nascar ? Let's get Ted! But it all!

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[keynote]

I don't expect or require Murrow-level journalism from a regional sports affiliate. They're a business partner with the local teams and with the leagues.

The Knicks get plenty of local critical coverage, despite not airing hard-hitting analyses on MSG. If folks are dissatisfied with a perceived lack of critical coverage on Ted, blame WaPo, or The Athletic, or semi-pro outfits like Bullets Forever, not NBC Sports Washington.

Meanwhile, Ted's control of the vertical -- the team(s)/product, the venue(s), the steaming platform, and the cable network -- should position him to have more than enough resources to build a championship-level organization. This won't solve his chronic performance management issues, but it should alleviate any resource constraints.

[payitforward]

He’s done fine by the Caps. His approach of building patiently through the draft and retaining homegrown talent works in hockey. Hockey isn’t about having one gargassive star. Neither is baseball. Which is why the Nats will eventually win the Soto trade — remember the Mariners after A-Rod left town? They didn’t collapse; they won 116 games.

Still, this takeover of sports media is a bad, bad thing. As bad as his promulgation and normalizing of betting. What next? E-hooker sites that you can access from the club level?

And … he has yet to do anything of real meaning with all his money. You can’t take it with you. Also, it’s dickish in the extreme (and this is putting it nicely) to live as he does when so many are in such straits.

It gets harder & harder to like this man.

[daSwami]

Billionaires gonna Billionaire. DC is full of horrible rich people. It's a low bar. Ted will always be more likeable than Daniel Snider based on stadium urinal cake-quality alone.

[Kanyewest]

NBC Sports Washington was already a homer network so I'm not that concerned.

[AFM]

Was this on his cringey bucket list he had on his website?

[Rafael122]

Man y'all treat Ted as if he's Snyder. I think the only fault he has is blind loyalty and his ability to not want to tank but other than that, I'd prefer his style of ownership over Snyder.

[gambitx777]

Man y'all treat Ted as if he's Snyder. I think the only fault he has is blind loyalty and his ability to not want to tank but other than that, I'd prefer his style of ownership over Snyder.

Yeah Ted seems like a genuinely decent person.i think people get too cought up on his mid-ness. But him as a person could be so much worse


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[doclinkin]

Right in general on Ted. He's not a putrescent scab of a human being like Snyder. He wants to be a good guy. And to be seen as the goodest of good guys around. The only thing is that his biggest problem is that he likes the sound of his own voice, making it harder to hear outside critique, and this magnifies his voice so he can hear himself louder. And if fans have criticism, well he doesn't have to heed it. But yeah if he bought the WFT I'd bet he would find a way to move them to the district, knowing that would earn him immunity from all criticism in these parts.

As far as Wizards fans are concerned, I think he likes this team the most out of all of his properties, and so he is more likely to be hands on and to meddle in personnel decisions. What surely drove down interest in the job from Tim Connelly and Masai Ujiri. Maybe a baseball team would distract him.

[Rafael122]

Right in general on Ted. He's not a putrescent scab of a human being like Snyder. He wants to be a good guy. And to be seen as the goodest of good guys around. The only thing is that his biggest problem is that he likes the sound of his own voice, making it harder to hear outside critique, and this magnifies his voice so he can hear himself louder. And if fans have criticism, well he doesn't have to heed it. But yeah if he bought the WFT I'd bet he would find a way to move them to the district, knowing that would earn him immunity from all criticism in these parts.

As far as Wizards fans are concerned, I think he likes this team the most out of all of his properties, and so he is more likely to be hands on and to meddle in personnel decisions. What surely drove down interest in the job from Tim Connelly and Masai Ujiri. Maybe a baseball team would distract him.

I disagree on your second take, he loves the Caps. That's his first love, there always seems to be a sense of urgency with them when it comes to either coaching or personnel changes. I've said if he treated the Wizards half as good as he treats the Caps we might be onto something. Or maybe there's a sense of urgency with the Caps b/c he makes $ with the Wizards no matter what (TV revenue, luxury tax payout, etc).

[miller31time]

NBC Sports Washington was already a homer network so I'm not that concerned.

My thoughts exactly. What are they going to do now? Clone Jason Smith?

[DCZards]

The hate for Leonsis on this thread has typically been over the top…and I can somewhat understand given his handling of the Zards and the mediocre results.

But Ted seems like a decent guy and sports team owner who genuinely cares about this region. He built the Zards practice facility and the Mystics homecourt in the ‘hood in SE. He gets high marks from me for that move.