DC United News and Media Blitz, Ted Leonsis Eyes the Club, and More: Wednesday Freedom Kicks
There are weeks (most of them, in fact) when there’s a dearth of DC United news to be had. It’s the middle of the week, literally hump day, why would there be? Well, people, let me tell you, the soccer gods really changed their ways in the last 24 hours. Here we go.
Firing DC United Sporting Director Puts All The Focus On Ownership– Forbes
Ally Mackay has been fired. It was heavily discussed in the comments yesterday, but just to cover it.
DC United ownership making changes team in hopes of reaching winning season– FOX 5 (Video)
Kaplan and Levien found it in their best interests to get in front of a local news camera and take questions. Personally, I genuinely didn’t know what Kaplan looked like. It’s worth watching, but is not nearly as thorough an interview as:
That’s right, Kaplan and Levien also sat down with our very own Donald for an impressively managed interview, and it’s vital reading, even if the subjects clearly tried to present things in a favorable light for themselves. Hats off to Donald.
Wizards, Capitals owner Leonsis wants to buy Nationals, D.C. United– Washington Times
The Forbes article above mentions this, but Ted Leonsis has quotes about wanting to buy both DC United and the Nationals. I haven’t talked to my Wizards, Nationals, and United loving father yet about it, but I bet he’d have thoughts.
Remarkably, didn’t find any significant Spirit news today, but man, DC is hopping with it. There’s no official reporting to link to, but all signs indicate that the owners have offered the job to Erkut Sorgut, former agent to Mesut Ozil and a cadre of others. Goff has tweeted that the offer came despite Sorgut having zero experience working for a club. Bogert said he’d work remotely at first. More to come on this.
Loudoun United signs defender Boluwatife Akinyode– Loudoun Times
Our first sorta normie type story of the day. Hope the new defender does well.
‘Field of Dreams’—USMNT’s Timothy Weah Reacts to First Goal for New Club Against Real Madrid-Sports Illustrated
Weah, who was somewhat anonymous in a recently USMNT friendly against South Korea, was not yesterday against Real Madrid. He finished off a strong counter attack to earn Marseilles the lead against the Spanish giant. However, despite going down to ten men, Real Madrid clawed their way to a victory with one definite penalty and a second that really should have been overturned by VAR. Still, Weah will surely never forget his moment.
Nine Months Until the World Cup. What Were the USMNT’s September Lessons?– FOX Sports
Poch and his process get examined as the clock ticks precipitously. Eep!
USMNT midweek viewing guide: The CHAAAMPIONS– Stars and Stripes FC
It’s worth noting the offerings today and tomorrow in the Champions League, but if you’re all about the USMNT pool, here are the matches to track.
Savannah DeMelo thanks staff as Racing-Reign rescheduled– ESPN
Savannah DeMelo able to speak is good news at this point, and is receiving treatment. No diagnosis has been announced yet for the incident, though DeMelo has revealed health issues in the recent past. Hope she’s able to make the field again safely soon.
FIFA to pay clubs who release players for ’26 WC qualifiers– ESPN
And we all know how much FIFA hates paying up.
Lionel Messi has goal and assist for Inter Miami in 3-1 MLS win over Seattle Sounders– AP
It appears Miami has defeated the the team that recently toppled them in The Leagues Cup Final. Seattle of course paid Miami back by, I’m sorry, come again? That’s the end of the story? Wow. It’s almost like a team can be professional and sane when the chips are down. Much to reflect on.
PSG vs Lens – Luis Enrique says it all: half-time in the stands, injuries and adaptation– MSN
Finally, a curious story of how one elite coach is trying out a viewing strategy- First half viewing from an eagle eyed perspective in the stands, the second half on the touchline. It’s certainly unusual, but has a certain logic to it- get a better sense of the tactical elements at play before the team requires substitutes typically. Will be interesting to see if this continues, and maybe even spreads.
That’s all I’ve got! One up me in the comments, and have a great sporting day!
Btw, sorry for the very late posting, was just tough to find the time to get to today
I know that feeling.
In the rescheduled US Open Cup Semifinal match last night Nashville triumphed over Philly 3-1 at Geodis Park in Nashville. The win was powered by a hat trick from Sam Surridge who is on a scoring hot streak.
https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/sam-surridge-sends-nashville-sc-into-us-open-cup-final
Philly deserved to probably get 3 different red cards, and got none. And then they had the audacity to complain that they were being treated unfairly. Glad Nashville got it done.
Philly has obviously been pretty good for a fairly prolonged period of time, but them, along with the NJ team, really take advantage of the league refs seemingly becoming numb to their aggressive play. Neither team would win as many points if they got as many cards as I feel they regularly deserve.
I’ll first admit I don’t follow NBA or NHL very closely. I’ll check standings and whatnot occasionally to see what’s going on, but don’t tend to watch many games of either. That being said, would Leonis buying DCU really be anything other than a lateral move? I know the Caps have done well over the past few years, and are fairly well supported, but how much of that is having a generational talent playing for them? And for the Wizards, haven’t they been bad for, well, ever? Wikipedia says he’s owned the Wizards since 2010, and it seems like in that time they’ve gone from being mediocre/bad to mediocre/bad. I know successes and struggles in other sports doesn’t necessarily translate to soccer (see the Browns and Crew), but from the outside this wouldn’t really fill me with confidence. (He also changed the Wizards color scheme to red, white and blue, so I can only imagine DCU would follow, which, eww)
I think you could argue that DC is a better market for soccer than basketball- It’s not necessarily Leonsis fault that the finances and appeal of moving to or living in DC doesn’t appeal to megastar basketball talent. When Durant was on the market ages ago, seemed like Washington put in a competitive bid, and Durant is a local boy. He had no interest. The Wizards I believe would be a develop and sell club regardless of owner, unless they were truly obscene in over spending.
I also highly doubt he’d fuck with the jersey color scheme. The Wizards needed a rebrand away from The Bullets, and that rebrand has been revamped over time.
Basically, Leonsis would probably be a slight upgrade.
First, DC has always been a huge basketball town, we just haven’t had the teams worthy of that. And you don’t have to be LA to be successful. Leonsis is following the Oklahoma City model (rather than pursuing a bunch of free agents). I think Leonsis (as long as he wasn’t getting the Nationals at the same time) would be much more than a slight upgrade. He wouldn’t meddle like Levien does. I think his actions would be consistent with his words. Real estate guys–I question how committed they are. Having a venue you can put a lot of events in and maybe put condos next to–that’s how a lot of them view team ownership. Leonsis got his start with AOL. He’s truly a sports guy. His first love was basketball (but he couldn’t buy majority ownership of the Wiz so bought the Capitals and then when Abe Pollin died, acquired the Wiz). Now he’s building a sports empire.
I’m not suggesting there isn’t basketball fandom here, just that DC is not a place megastars of that type typically find desirable. Point taken, though.
I understand. And we’ve been so bad in the NBA for so long that the passion from the fan base isn’t there–right now.
DC has arguably the best high school basketball in the country. The Catholic League here is the best men’s high school league in America and a ton of players have gone pro or high D1 on both the men’s and women’s side. Of course, the Wizards can’t just funnel a kid into an academy and call them up to the pros like a soccer team can. They have to rely on drafts and trades because players don’t necessarily want to come here in free agency and they haven’t done well in finding that talent and bringing them to DC.
I agree on the jersey comment. The rebrands for the Caps and Wizards were moves back to more traditional colors for both teams. The Caps colors from their inception until the mid 1990’s were red, white, and blue similar to their pre-Screagle third jersey. The Bullets colors were red, white, and blue prior to the Wizards rebrand. I also don’t remember 100%, but I don’t remember the original Wizards logo being that popular.
It doesn’t seem like Leonosis discounts the importance of tradition. Also, give his ties to DCU and the DMV area he’s got to know that such a move would be an unforced error.
That being said, I wouldn’t mind a Cat-in-the-Hat style third jersey.
The Wizards have been BAD for what feels forever now and it never seems like Leonsis actually cares to make them better. If I remember correctly, Leonsis has expressed interest in DCU for years, I once read an article where he said he regretted not buying it when it was last put for sale. So the team has been on his radar forever. I don’t think he would make a good owner and I don’t think a single individual should be allowed to own so many teams. But greed has been the game for decades now. I like everyone else am super disappointed in ownership but to tell you the truth, I do fear what we could get with new ownership. As much as I love DCU, I am not sure I could keep supporting it if say Bezos or someone like him wanted to buy it. I couldn’t do it.
I very much share in your fear of what new owners could bring. Sure, it could work out great. It could also end up with the team recolored, rebranded, or relocated. While I would like to think Leonis wouldn’t need to change the team, he changed the Caps to red, white and blue; he changed the Wizards to red, white, and blue; and the nationals are already red, white and blue. That seems like a recipe for changing DCU if he buys it. And even if that’s the only change, you’re kinda losing that “DC” focus that the team has had forever in their branding.
100% agree with you. My fear is some individual or group who doesn’t care about the team or its fans and is on an ego trip or will buy the team.
The unfortunate side effect of rising team values is that the pool of people with the money to buy a team and who haven’t is decreasing in size.
I think Leonsis as an owner would be HUGE. He’s not perfect. But he completely gets that you hire good leadership, give them support (and moolah) and then get out of the way. He is not a micro-manager, not one who meddles.
He’s been very good with the Capitals. His approach was: get a good GM, get a coach that fits your team (sometimes it was a grizzled veteran who could compete, other times a young progressive guy) and then get out of the way–trust them to make good decisions. With the Wiz, he was too tolerant, too trusting of his initial GMs. So he changed. The top two basketball people he’s brought in to the Wiz hail from Oklahoma. They have a clear philosophy and approach that makes tremendous sense for the NBA (but not for MLS). Basketball insiders applaud the approach they’re taking. It involves losing (but not tanking). Signing veterans you can deal at the deadline for draft picks. Taking on cap hits for players that good teams want to dump when they’re competing on a playoff run–but acquiring draft picks in the process. Maximizing as much good young talent as possible, hiring a teacher as a coach, playing the youth as much as possible, and figuring out that about 1 in 3-4 first round picks will turn in to a keeper. And putting yourself in the lottery for 2-3 years to get a foundational player. That works in the NBA.
My concerns about Leonsis would be this: First, if he bought the Nationals at the same time, that is where his attention would go. Initially (in a couple of years) he’d refocus on DCU. But his heart would be with baseball. Second, he identified a model that works for the NHL. It took him time (because he felt you had to compete every game–he hated the idea of deliberately losing) but he eventually found a model that works in the NBA–it’s proven with other franchises. I worry that he’d try to use what worked with the NHL or with the NBA on MLS. I think MLS is a different beast. Making money available, creating a youth development foundation, those are bigger factors then the approach he took with hockey or basketball.
My only thought about Ted potentially purchasing the Nats and DCU would mean that in theory he would own as many as 8 local teams: Caps, Wizards, Mystics, Nats, DCU, DC Power, Loudoun United (small stake), and the MLS Next Pro team should they still establish it in Baltimore.
That’s a lot of teams to have to keep competitive, and that’s not counting the media side of Monumental and owning Cap One, CareFirst Arena and then Nats Park and Audi Field.
I hadn’t even thought about how Loudoun and the Power factored into this. That certainly is a lot of teams to deal with. There was also that report that Levien was starting a professional Volleyball team too. Would imagine that would get lumped into this as well if Loudoun and the Power are
DC just posted that MacNaughton and Peltola will be at the watch party for this weekend’s game. I know MacNaughton is suspended for his red card, did I miss something on Peltola? Is he on Yellow Card Accumulation? Hurt?
He’s out due to yellow card accumulation.
Ah ok, I must have missed that during the last game.