Washington Capitals players and their wives took to social media to celebrate Father’s Day on Sunday. This year’s holiday comes as all major sports are suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Capitals posted a highlight video featuring Instagram Story videos and photos featuring players playing with their kids.
By Ian Oland 2 weeks ago
Monumental Sports & Entertainment, the company that owns the Washington Capitals, Washington Wizards, and Washington Mystics, is enacting a 20 percent base salary reduction for employees making more than $75,000. The salary reduction will begin on July 12 and last until the end of the year. Employees making less than $75,000 will not be affected.
The move is due to the coronavirus pandemic and uncertainty facing all sports teams.
The news was first reported by The Athletic’s Tarik El-Bashir and confirmed by the Washington Post’s Candace Buckner.
Capital One Arena now has some beautiful and inspiring artwork on its facade.
Four days after Black Lives Matter was painted on 16th Street leading up to the White House, a sports-themed mural was painted a few blocks away on the side of Capital One Arena. The painting on wooden boards features the words Black Lives Matter with Black athletes playing hockey and basketball.
The Capital One Arena Twitter account published four photos with the caption, “We love celebrating beautiful art – inside the building and outside. We stand with you.”
Wolf Blitzer interviewed Monumental Sports and Entertainment owner Ted Leonsis on The Situation Room, Sunday night. Blitzer is a season-ticket holder for the Washington Wizards and called Leonsis “a good friend.” Leonsis is the majority owner of the Capitals, Wizards, and Mystics.
Leonsis answered two questions during the interview before connection issues cut the chat short. The 63-year-old said that he believes both the NHL and NBA will both play regular-season games again at some point during the summer because “we owe the programming to the networks” and “to the fans.”
Leonsis did the interview on video conference and placed a replica Stanley Cup to his right, honoring the Capitals’ Stanley Cup win in 2018.
By Ian Oland 2 months ago
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.”
By Ian Oland 4 months ago
Earlier today, Monumental Sports and Entertainment announced they will hold Capitals and Wizards game as scheduled and available to spectators. That announcement came shortly after the DC public health department recommended that all non-essential mass gatherings be postponed. That announcement also came shortly before DC Mayor Muriel Bowser declared a state of emergency and said she would not take her family to a public sports event.
Also on Wednesday, the esports team the Washington Justice announced they will not hold their planned homestands until May, and the concert venue entity IMP (9:30 Club, The Anthem) announced that public events have been cancelled until April. The NCAA announced that March Madness games will be played to empty arenas, as will some upcoming NHL games in San Jose and Columbus.
The intent of these changes and cancellations is to slow the coronavirus’s transmission in order to avoid a catastrophic failure of the healthcare system, as has been seen this week in Italy. MSE’s decision not to abide by the health department’s recommendation — while seemingly saying otherwise in their press release — is confusing. From that release, with emphasis added:
We have formed a cross-functional Coronavirus task force and are monitoring updates and following guidance from the CDC, WHO and local governmental authorities.
MSE’s decision seems in conflict with public health and with Ted Leonsis’s own oft-repeated philosophy for operating the team as a public trust.
Update: March 12, 5:45 PM: Ted Leonsis has made a statement on his blog:
In the case of the recommendation issued by DC Health (a department under the Mayor’s jurisdiction) to cancel events with 1,000 or more people yesterday morning, we immediately informed the NBA and NHL of that announcement, and we strongly advocated for permission to hold games at our arena without fans. But a recommendation from the city health department was not a mandate or ban and the leagues decided to continue as planned. It wasn’t until later that it became clear that the seasons would be suspended.
By Peter Hassett 4 months ago
Ted Leonsis met with the media ahead of the Capitals’ pregame ceremony celebrating Alex Ovechkin scoring 700 goals on Tuesday.
The affable owner spoke about Ovechkin’s legendary durability. “You know, Russian machine never breaks,” he said. Leonsis also revealed a previously unreported detail about Nicklas Backstrom’s contract negotiations to NBC4 Washington.
Backstrom charted out how Ovi would reach Wayne Gretzky’s goals record of 894.
Washington Capitals majority owner Ted Leonsis will be on the ice as part of a pregame ceremony honoring Alex Ovechkin for scoring 700 goals, Tuesday night.
But before he did that, Leonsis spoke to NBC 4 Washington about what makes Ovechkin so great and why he’s still such a great goalscorer at age 34.
Jakub Vrana has a message for Washington Capitals fans who left Sunday’s game early after the Sharks scored an empty-net goal and jumped up to a 4-2 lead. Of course, as you know, the Capitals scored twice in the last minute to tie and later won the game in overtime, accomplishing a franchise first in the process.
According to Vrana, you’re (well, I hate to break it to you) not a real fan.
By Ian Oland 6 months ago
Washington Capitals majority owner Ted Leonsis might be a bit biased, but it’s hard to argue his pick for the “best sports photo of the decade.”
Thursday, on Twitter, Leonsis nominated an overhead shot of Braden Holtby’s “The Save” as the best sports photo taken in the 2010s.
