Teammates beat the NHL scorer with 895 goals in the second period of the NHL hockey game against New York Islanders at UBS Arena in Queens, New York on April 6, 2025, before breaking the NHL scoring record with 895 goals.
John McDonnell | Washington Post | Getty Images
Since acquiring the NHL’s Washington Capitals in 1999, Ted Leonsis has built a sports empire in Washington, DC
Through monumental sports and entertainment founded by former AOL senior executives, the empire now includes the Capital One Arena and a monumental sports network that airs games for the capital, the NBA’s Washington Wizard, the WNBA’s Washington Mystics, and all teams in the region. According to CNBC’s Most Value Sports Empire 2025, MSE is ranked 19th, which means that MSE is valued at over $7.844 billion.
However, unlike many other sports conglomerates, Leonsis and MSE continue to focus on Washington, DC
Part of that logic, Leonsis, explained to CNBC’s Mike Ozanian at the CNBC Sports and Boardroom Game Plans meeting earlier this week. This is the leverage and efficiency that comes with organizations like “high-tech and brand platform companies.”
“We have 100 brands at Coca-Cola, but we have one truck that offers all the brands,” he said.
Building that platform and making profits as more teams plug into it means Leonsis and MSE will continue to win.
“I’m not embarrassed. I want to buy an MLS team. I want to buy a baseball team,” Leonsis said. “It’s not for the ego, but not for the fans, because these teams struggle to compete with the Yankees and Dodgers, but you can take those teams and connect to the platform, you can operate with excellence as a team, and you can handle all the top line.
However, so far, efforts to acquire teams in these leagues have not been successful.
The Washington Post reportedly Leonsis had been discussing a potential co-bid with David Rubenstein, co-founder of the Khalil Group, for several years, about a potential co-bid to buy the Baltimore Orioles. However, the deal never cooperated, and in 2024, Rubenstein and the investor group acquired the Orioles for around $1.725 billion.
The Lerners, owners of the Washington Nationals, announced they intend to explore the team’s sale in 2022. According to the Washington Post, Leonsis offered at least $2 billion to buy the team, but the Lerner family announced they are no longer considering selling in 2024.
“We talk all the time,” Leonsis said of Renner. “Tango takes two, but they’re not ready to sell. They want to wait to see what happens in baseball.”
MLS’ DC United has gained several minority investors in recent years, valued at over $800 million, but there is no indication that the team is on sale. The team was previously acquired in 2005 by AEG’s investor group for around $26 million.
Leonsis acknowledged the challenge of acquiring teams in an era of surges in valuations, regardless of sport. He also said he’s seen other opportunities within the sport, such as lacrosse and women’s hockey, and how to work with local non-MSE-owned teams, such as the NWSL’s Washington Spirit.
“I don’t think I’ll be able to afford a team today,” he said. “You’re talking about billions of dollars of debt, which was once allocated for operations, but now they’re allocated for entries to buy teams.”
Future acquisitions could be supported by external investors. In 2023, Leonsis sold a 5% stake in the Qatar Investment Bureau monument. It also broke new grounds for sovereign wealth fund investments in US sports. This followed the movement of professional sports leagues, allowing private equity companies and funds to buy the team’s shares.
Leonsis previously stated that QIA is treated as an investor rather than a partner, and is a passive investment.
His belief in the platform model built on MSE is only growing because the company is investing more, and he said it probably works more like a SaaS business than outsiders realize. Leonsis says the company has earned more than $750 million in revenue per year, and is expected to reach $1 billion over the next three years.
“We sell subscriptions, season tickets and suites. We are a growth company, but 70% of that business is contracted over the long term,” he said. “We look like Oracle, Salesforce.”
Does the desire to grow that model mean ultimately buying a team outside the DC Metro area?
Leonsis recalls a trip to London in 2019 when Wizard played the New York Knicks in the city. While in London he met with several investment bankers who took him to see various football teams, including Chelsea. On the NBA Governor’s Committee, which he will meet soon, Leonsis said only a small portion of the NBA owners have bid for Chelsea in any capacity.
“When we got home, we thought we couldn’t do this,” he said. “This is very cheating. I wasn’t playing football. I’m not going to live in this neighborhood. I can’t add value and our platform is useless.”
But that doesn’t mean every move Leonsis has made in Washington. The DC region has been well received. MSE received a lot of criticism in 2023 after a previously announced plan to relocate the capital and Wizard to a $2 billion complex in Virginia. MSE and the city of Washington, DC later signed a contract to renovate the existing facilities.
“I’m just staying in a home area of 10 million people,” he said.
