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Ted Leonsis will still pay Capital One Arena workers despite games canceled due to coronavirus

By Ian Oland

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March 13, 2020 3:45 pm

The Athletic’s Tarik El-Bashir and NBC4’s Mark Segraves are reporting that Ted Leonsis will pay Capital One Arena workers despite all games and events due to the coronavirus pandemic. Leonsis made the announcement and informed staff this morning, according to El-Bashir.

El-Bashir termed the workers being taken care of by Leonsis as “Capital One Arena staff”, while Segraves called them “part-time employees for all 16 events canceled.”

While talking to reporters on Friday evening, Leonsis said all employees who were on the schedule will get paid wages as though the event happened. Leonsis also emphasized that even if the event takes place in April or May, the employees will still be paid, as reported by the Washington Post’s Candace Buckner. The MSE leadership group voted unanimously to pay the part-timers.

“Over the years, obviously, [part-time arena workers] have grown to count on those dollars and when we made the announcement to stop NHL games, NBA games, all concerts we had to have great levels of empathy for those people,” Leonsis said as reported by Candace Buckner.

The workers presumed to still be paid include staff like ushers, greeters, and ticket takers. It is unclear whether independent contractors, such as game-day operations, who are paid per game would be included.

“This is an unprecedented time. Developments on the COVID-19 outbreak continue to be fast-moving,” Leonsis wrote in Ted’s Take, his longtime blog. “We now have all seen the reported cases in 43 jurisdictions across the U.S., and various local governments are taking a number of steps in response, including yesterday’s declaration of a State of Emergency in the District of Columbia. In the past two days, the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the National Hockey League (NHL) issued directives that all games are suspended until further notice. The NBA G League also announced today that it will suspend games. We will additionally continue to scenario plan around our upcoming WNBA season and events, with details to be shared later this month.”

He added, “Safeguarding the health and welfare of the community is paramount” and that the pandemic is an “evolving issue” where there’s no clear path forward as of now.

The Capitals majority owner is following in the footsteps of several other NHL owners who went public in the last 24 hours that they would take care of some of their most vulnerable workers. New Jersey Devils’ owners Josh Harris and David Blitzer said, “Employees are family… It’s important to band together and lift each other up during these times.”

Anaheim Ducks owners, Henry and Susan Samueli, will pay full and part-time employees scheduled to work through March 31.

Nashville Predators COO Sean Henry will do the same and said its event staff that’s what makes Bridgestone Arena so special. He remarked they will be the ones hurting the most.

Sergei Bobrovsky has also pledged to donate $100k to Florida Panthers’ part-time staff as well as his teammates.

Since Leonsis’s pledge to pay the staff was made public, the Tampa Bay Lightning, San Jose Sharks, Philadelphia Flyers, and Pittsburgh Penguins have followed suit.

A full list on who is and isn’t can be seen here.

This article has been updated since first being published.

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