Now that Ted Leonsis has control of the Verizon Center, Wizards, Capitals and Mystics, he has the power to pursue more opportunities to expand the profitability of Monumental Sports & Entertainment, which debuted their new logo yesterday.
Being an owner, rather than just a tenant of the Verizon Center gives Leonsis the opportunity to capitalize on his teams that he simply couldn't before. Now, he has power over scheduling events, concessions and everything else at the Verizon Center, and possibly, the airwaves. Though he hasn't said anything official, he left a pretty big hint on his blog that there could be a channel coming at some point in the future.
Monumental is big. Monumental is stable. Monumental is local and serves all of our communities.
Monumental one day could be a great name for a media network, too. We own a lot of programming.
Leonsis certainly wouldn't be the first owner to start his own network to feature his sports teams, and with the Wizards and Capitals under his control, he could dominate local sports programming during the winter months.
Before that happens, he would have to work his way out of contracts with Comcast SportsNet, who currently have broadcast rights for the Capitals until 2015, according to the Washington Business Journal (I had no luck finding details about the Wizards' arrangement with Comcast, but I would assume both have to run similar lengths). So if Ted did want to pursue creating his own network, he would have to wait a few years until he could show live games. But that might work in his favor, allowing him to acquire the rights to broadcast other local sports teams, and allow him to dominate local sports programming as much as he dominates sports ownership.
There are still some obstacles that need to be overcome before this becomes more that just conjecture, but it Ted is interested in creating his own sports network, he certainly has the opportunity. By the sounds of things on his blog, he may already be at work exploring his options.