The Washington Nationals have been for sale by the Lerner family since Opening Day in 2022, but the process has been rather dormant. The recent news of the settlement on part of the MASN television rights fees for the team with the Baltimore Orioles could mean the sale process starts up again, but there has only been one reported bidder at the moment: Capitals and Wizards owner Ted Leonsis.
Kevin Sheehan wonders if it would be a good thing if Leonsis assumes control of the third of the four major men's professional sports teams in Washington D.C.? "My preference would be somebody new," Sheehan said.
"I mean, I know it's not gonna be a Dan Snyder existence with Ted owning the Nationals," he added, but on Leonsis buy the Nats he said, "I kind of would lean towards no, but I don't know that I have the reasons why owning three or more teams in the same market would be a bad thing. I don't know if that's true or not."
Sheehan's producer Denton Day also was leaning no, but then said he wouldn't mind if Leonsis got the Nats but lost the Wiz if that meant the new owner would spend more on keeping homegrown players that GM Mike Rizzo has done so well at finding and developing after watching Juan Soto, Trea Turner, and Bryce Harper all leave (or be dealt in lieu of signing them to long-term deals).
"Ted loves paying guys that are homegrown," Day said. "Maybe to a fault, he loves paying guys that are homegrown... maybe he would be a better baseball owner than he would a hockey owner or basketball owner."
The fear with Leonsis owning three teams in the same market would be that the owner is tied to the same marketplace and same area and would he have to rob Peter to pay Paul with his D.C. teams.
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