Ted Leonsis still wants to buy MLB, MLS teams for D.C. sports empire

Since NHL acquired Washington Capitals in 1999, Ted Leonsis founded a sports empire at Washington DC

Through the monumental sports and entertainment founded by the former AOL senior manager, this empire is now involving the Capital One Arena and Monumental Sports Network, which broadcasts the Washington Wagies of the NBA and Wnba’s Washington Mystics, as well as all teams in the region. All of the CNBC’s most valuable Sports Empires 2025, MSE, which ranks 19th, worth more than $ 7.84 billion, he said.

However, unlike many other sports holding, Leonsis and Mse Washington focused on DC.

Leonsis, a part of this logic, announced CNBC’s Mike Ozanian at the CNBC Sport and Mountroom’s game plan conference, at the beginning of this week, the leverage and efficiency that comes with a “technology company or a branded platform company” at the beginning of this week, but each team is managed independently, but each team shares resources such as sponsorship, ticket sales and a media.

“Coca-Cola has 100 brands, but a truck that delivers all brands,” he said.

Creating this platform and taking advantage of more teams, Leonsis and MSE were acquired.

“I’m legendary, I want to buy the MLS team. I want to buy the baseball team.” He said. “Not for the ego, [but] For fans, these teams will compete to compete against Yankees and Dodgers, but if we can take these teams on the platform and work as a team, we can work with perfection and manage the entire top line, I think it will make them more competitive and fans are looking for. “

However, so far, efforts to acquire a team in these leagues have not been successful.

Leonsis reportedly had negotiations with David Rubenstein, the founding partner of Caryle Group. Potential common offer to buy Baltimore Orioles According to the Washington Post for several years. However, this agreement did not come together and Rubenstein and an investor group acquired Orioles in 2024 for about $ 1,725 ​​billion.

The Llerner family, the owners of Washington Nationals, announced in 2022 that they aim to explore the sale of the team. According to Washington PostLeonsis offered at least 2 billion dollars to buy the team, but the Llerner family announced in 2024 that he no longer thinks of a sales.

“We’re always talking,” Leonsis said from Lerners. “They take two to Tango and are not ready to sell; they want to wait to see what happened in baseball.”

When DC United from MLS has brought a few minority investors in recent years, up to $ 800 million, there is no indication that the team is for sale. The team was previously purchased in 2005 by an investor group of approximately 26 million dollars.

Regardless of sports, Leonsis accepted the difficulties of acquiring teams in the age of rapidly rising values. He also said that he was looking at other opportunities in sports such as Lakros and women’s hockeys and the ways of working with NWSL in the region, such as Washington spirit.

“I couldn’t afford to buy a team today,” he said. “You are talking about billions of dollars of debt, this debt has been allocated for operations, now allocated for the entry to buy the team.”

A future purchase can be supported by foreign investors. In 2023, Leonsis sold a monumental 5% share for the Qatar investment authority, which was an agreement worth 4 billion dollars to the organization. In addition, he opened a new era for the investment of sovereign reserve funds in US sports, which followed the movements of professional sports leagues to allow private capital firms and funds to buy team shares.

Leonsis said that QIA has previously been treated as an investor, not a partner and that it was a passive investment.

His belief in the platform model built in MSE is only growing while investing in it more, and perhaps operates like a Saas job than foreigners. Leonsis said that the company has generated $ 750 million annually and expects to reach $ 1 billion in the next three years.

“We sell subscriptions, season tickets and suits, we are a growth company, but 70% of this business is contracted in the long term.” He said. “We look like Oracle, Salesforce.”

Can the desire to enlarge this model at the end of the DC Metro Zone mean buying teams?

Leonsis remembered a trip to London in 2019, when magicians played New York Knicks in the city. When he was in London, he met with several investment bankers who led to various football teams, including Chelsea. Shortly after, at the NBA Board of Directors meeting, Leonsis said that only a few of the NBA owners did not bid to Chelsea with some capacity.

“I thought we couldn’t do it when I got home,” he said. “This is very inadequate. I did not play football, I will not live in this neighborhood, I will not be able to add value and our platform cannot help.”

However, this does not mean Leonsis’s movement in Washington, the DC region was well received. MSE, Capitals and their magicians in Virginia, a 2 billion dollar complex planning plan in 2023 after a previously announced plan of placement plan. MSE and Washington City, DC, Later, he made an agreement to renew the existing facility.

He said, “I will only stay in 10 million home areas.”