With the news that the Washington Nationals and the Baltimore Orioles have reached an agreement on one portion of their long-disputed MASN television rights deal, the road to the sale of the Nationals — possibly to Wizards and Capitals owner Transparent Ted Leonsis — has had one significant roadblock removed.
Speculation is that though there is a second five-year span of shared cable money to still be negotiated between the two warring factions.
The breakthrough on a bitter and lengthy battle over the five-year share from 2012 to 2016 may make it easier to reach a deal on the next figure, though I am not sure why anyone would be optimistic about that. The Angelos family has shown they would rather pay lawyers than the Lerners.
Still, the $100 million settlement that presumably will find its way someday soon into the Lerner family pockets should crack some of the ice on the frozen sales talks for the team.
The last time we visited that scenario, the leading contender to buy the team — actually, seemingly the only horse in the race — was a group led by Transparent Ted and his deep-pocketed partner, David Rubenstein.
OK, don’t all stand and cheer at once. Did you read what I wrote? Transparent Ted may be one step closer to being the Washington Nationals owner.
Hey, is this thing on? Hello? Hello? Testing?
Unlike when the day comes when Josh Harris and his group buy the Commanders from Dan Snyder, a sale of the baseball team to Transparent Ted won’t likely set off celebrations in the streets.
While his stock in Cava — the restaurant chain that Transparent Ted backed with his Revolution Growth fund back in 2015 — hit a $4.7 billion valuation in their market debut last week, his stock on the street is at an all-time low.
My podcast partner, Kevin Sheehan, conducted a poll on his radio show on Team 980, posing this question: “Do you want Ted Leonsis to buy the Nationals?” With 1,308 votes, the outcome was 68% voting no.
Ouch.
The continuing state of failure of the Wizards, the latest episode being the bungling of the $251 million Bradley Beal contract extension last year, followed by the Beal trade this week, dinged Transparent Ted’s reputation. The damage will likely only get worse when basketball season opens and the Wizards embark on their several-season journey of losing in an arena that will resemble a mausoleum.
Transparent Ted may be the only man in Washington who doesn’t want Dan Snyder to sell the Commanders.
Transparent Ted, though, needs the baseball team, with his rebranding of NBC Sports Washington into an expanded Monumental Network, he desperately needs those 162 baseball games for programming. The Capitals have a limited audience and nobody is going to be watching the bottom-feeding Wizards.
The Lerners, who because of the MASN dispute had shut down the sale after putting the team on the market in April 2022, will presumably entertain sale talks again once the second part of the MASN negotiations come to a conclusion — whenever that will be.
Then comes the actual sales discussions with the Lerners, which may rival the MASN negotiations. Or, like I’ve said before, have you ever tried to buy a box of paper clips from the family?
Since the team went up for sale, there have been at least two other baseball franchises that had their valuations set. The Texas Rangers, with 10% of their team up for sale, were valued at $3 billion, according to Forbes. And a 16.25%stake in the Philadelphia Phillies was sold recently, putting the valuation of that organization at $2.8 billion.
The Los Angeles Angels were on the market in 2022, but owner Arte Moreno changed his mind and pulled them off. In an interview with Sports Illustrated, Moreno said he received three bids for the team that were more than the $2.4 billion the New York Mets were purchased for in 2019, the last Major League Baseball franchise sold. The Angels were valued at $2.7 billion in the latest Forbes listing.
The Nationals, according to Forbes, are valued at $2 billion. Transparent Ted’s group reportedly offered the Lerners “more than $2 billion” last year, the Washington Post reported.
The Nationals are not in the neighborhood of the Mets, Angels, Rangers or Phillies. But the Lerners may not see it that way, and conceivably could hold onto the team until they get their price.
There won’t be any parade for that outcome, either.
⦁ You can hear Thom Loverro on The Kevin Sheehan Show podcast.
• Thom Loverro can be reached at tloverro@washingtontimes.com.
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