Ted Leonsis has constructed a multibillion-dollar sports activities entity over 25 years that features groups, venues and media holdings, however the D.C. sports activities titan has his sights set on including a brand new asset.

“I am not shy to say I want to claim to buy a baseball team,” Leonsis stated at Sportico’s Invest in Sports convention on Wednesday. “I love the sport.”

But this isn’t only a ardour play for Leonsis, who sees an MLB crew as a solution to fill one of many few holes in his sports activities portfolio. “You need year-round programming, so you don’t have churn when you go direct-to-consumer,” Leonsis stated. “We should be able to in a much more efficient way market to subscribers and be able to cross promote.”

Leonsis is one in every of a number of sports activities crew homeowners who has constructed multipronged sports activities companies. But not like Fenway Sports Group and Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, Leonsis is targeted completely on the D.C. market. “If you are not in Virginia or D.C., I am not interested in your team,” Leonsis stated.

Leonsis has constructed a sports activities empire underneath his Monumental Sports & Entertainment umbrella. It consists of the NBA’s Wizards, NHL’s Capitals, WNBA’s Mystics, Capital One Arena and 100% possession of the newly re-branded regional sports activities community Monumental Sports Network.

There are two groups that match Leonsis’ baseball ambitions within the Washington Nationals and Baltimore Orioles. Last 12 months, the Nationals employed Allen & Company to discover a possible sale—Allen managing director Steve Greenberg kicked off the Sportico occasion in a panel with fellow sports activities banker Colin Neville of The Raine Group.

Last 12 months, the Orioles employed Goldman Sachs to quietly assess a doable sale. At spring coaching, Orioles CEO John Angelos stated his household was right here for “the long haul” and wouldn’t promote the crew. John’s father, Peter, purchased the crew in 1993 for $173 million. Sportico values the Orioles at $1.6 billion, and the Nationals at $2.18 billion.

The sale of both franchise is sophisticated by the continued decade-long authorized dispute over TV rights for the O’s and Nats, who each personal a stake in MASN. The Orioles personal the bulk share of the RSN as a part of the settlement with MLB to carry a crew to D.C. for the 2005 season. In April, the courts reiterated that the Nationals are owed a further $99 million to resolve a dispute over telecast rights charges from 2012 to 2016. More current rights charges are nonetheless unsettled.

Last 12 months, MSE purchased the 67% of NBC Sports Washington that it didn’t already personal after which re-branded it underneath the Monumental banner. This week, it launched a direct-to-consumer streaming service that offers in-market followers a brand new solution to watch Capitals, Wizards and Mystics video games. There are month-to-month ($19.99) and annual ($199.99) subscription choices.

Leonsis was one the architects behind the NBA opening its doorways to investments from sovereign wealth final 12 months. In July, MSE introduced that sovereign fund Qatar Investment Authority had purchased a passive minority stake within the firm, marking the primary time a sovereign fund invested in main U.S. crew sports activities. QIA bought about 5% of Monumental in a deal that valued the group at $4.05 billion.

Leonsis has huge ambitions for MSE. “Our goal is to build the world’s most valuable sports and entertainment company,” Leonsis stated. “And to do it in one of the 10 most important extended cities, greater Washington, on the planet.”