Leonsis believes league has big future

BALTIMORE — He is adamant there will be a banner hanging from the rafters, he will commission championship rings, the celebration had to include T-shirts and hats and “We Are the Champions” playing in the background.

The Foster Trophy will be displayed prominently inside Capital One Arena. The names of the players who won this title will go down in franchise lore, never mind if most Washington sports fans can’t name them.

The Washington Valor won the 2018 Arena Bowl — after a 2-10 regular season — advancing through a four-team playoff bracket that included all four Arena Football League franchises. Ted Leonsis isn’t apologizing for any of it.

He still believes arena football will become one of the cornerstones of the next era of his sports business holdings. That his properties will be a family-friendly “hothouse” of legal gambling and play-by-play fantasy sports. That data and analytics will be harnessed to provide instant content tailored to individual fans.

To arrive there, Leonsis, 61, is in the midst of a takeover of the Arena Football League, an organization that’s spent nearly a decade on the brink of collapse.

At its height in 2007, the league boasted 19 teams in cities including Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Austin, Texas. Two years later it shriveled. There was no 2009 season. After Leonsis introduced the Valor and the Baltimore Brigade in 2017, he also emerged as the league’s greatest booster. And, seeing he has the money and the vision, the league plays by his rules.

“If we didn’t step in,” he said, “it probably would have died.”

The league adopted his suggestion for a new playoff format: a two-game, homeand-home series with the winner advancing based on aggregate scoring. It installed Randall Boe, Monumental’s general counsel and Leonsis’ colleague dating to their days as AOL executives, as its new commissioner.

Leonsis recruits prospective franchise owners. He hosted Tom Kartsotis, founder of watch company Shinola Detroit, as a personal guest at the Arena Bowl with the hopes of expanding the league to the Motor City.

He’s trying to convince Philadelphia franchise owners to start a second team in Atlantic City; trying to get Dan Gilbert, owner of the NBA’s Cavaliers and AFL’s Gladiators, to play through arena renovations; considering buying another franchise himself to put in Richmond, Virginia.

“When he said, ‘Let’s do two teams,’ we chuckled a little bit,” said Zachary Leonsis, Ted’s son and a senior vice president at Monumental, “then said, ‘Let’s go for it.’”

Even owning a third team wouldn’t be much of a gamble for Leonsis, whose net worth Forbes estimates is around $1.1 billion. But since buying the teams, he’s been the subject of questions varying on the theme, “What is Ted doing?”

He wants an event with constant action and constant scoring. That’s why he’s drawn to hockey and basketball (he also owns the Capitals, Wizards and Mystics) and even esports; players go up and down the court or rink or map mostly without stoppages.

Leonsis calls arena football “the esports of football.” He hopes the tempo, the scoring, the ticket price is more attractive to a younger audience.