Ted Leonsis Will Make or Break the Arena Football League

The Arena Football League was doing just fine during its 29th season last year. With eight teams playing and a ninth one coming in 2017, the league seemed to be growing. That ninth team is the Washington Valor, a team started by a businessman named Ted Leonsis. The growth of the league was stunted severely when five teams either left the league or became defunct.

The league was close to folding, as they only had four teams. Everyone around the league knew that the Valor would be the team that would save the league, especially since they were the newest team to join the league. Leonsis is the perfect owner to save the AFL.

He  is currently the CEO of Monumental Sports & Entertainment, which owns the NBA’s Washington Wizards, NHL’s Washington Capitals, WNBA’s Washington Mystics, and the Valor. Leonsis is known to have a hands-on approach with all of his teams.

Leonsis continued to show he has the capability of saving the AFL when he created the Baltimore Brigade, a fifth AFL team that will be playing in Baltimore in 2017. By adding a fifth team, the AFL can continue to grow and get back to a number of teams in the double digits. Under Leonsis’ leadership, his teams have had success, especially the Capitals.

He has the ability to get the Valor and the Baltimore team started right, which will lead to future success for the two teams and the league as a whole. Leonsis has already shown he can be a successful businessman, as he’s been instrumental in starting MSE, LIST Magazine, SnagFilms, and AOL.

Pretty much everyone knows Leonsis is the man that will make or break the AFL. He is an innovative thinker that has created two teams that can move the AFL forward.

The future of the league is obviously not all on the shoulders of Leonsis, but he will be a key cog in the leagues growth. Expect Leonsis to be hands-on with his two new teams, and the AFL in general. If there’s anyone who can save the AFL at this point, it’s definitely Ted Leonsis.

Baltimore Added to AFL; Will San Antonio Be Next?

Monumental Sports And Entertainment, the group that owns the Washington Wizards, Capitals, Mystics and Valor, announced it had acquired an Arena Football League expansion franchise in Baltimore, MD this morning.

“We are looking forward to bringing an AFL team to the Baltimore community,” said Monumental Sports & Entertainment founder and majority owner Ted Leonsis. “Baltimore is known for its passionate sports fans, and we look forward to their spirited support of their AFL team. The AFL is a fast, fun experience for families and fans of all ages. We are excited about growing the league and using an array of technologies to bring fans closer to the game and the players. Baltimore is a natural location, and I envision some great rivalries between Washington, Baltimore and Philadelphia.”

Leonsis now owns two of the five franchises in the league and is instantly the most important owner in a league who has four teams owned by an NBA or an NHL franchise: the route the league is looking at for it’s future.

With Baltimore added, the only question to ask is simple and not really a surprise: will San Antonio be the next expansion franchise in this league? It’s basically beating a dead horse at this point, but the San Antonio Spurs have wanted a team since they came up short of saving the San Antonio Talons in 2014.

The team owned a franchise in 1992 called the San Antonio Force. That team played in the old Hemisfair Arena, averaging 12,015 fans per game. They folded after one season because there were no available dates at the Alamodome, but the team was clearly a favorite with the city.

There are many people in San Antonio that would be great to bring the team back to the Alamo City, but the Spurs are the only ones that will work long term. They have a venue with plenty of open dates available in the AT&T Center, they fit the league model perfectly, and they know someone who could be potentially be the head coach: Lee Johnson, the former head coach of the Talons.

Perhaps the two most important games on the Spurs upcoming schedule from a business perspective come within the next two months: Nov. 26 and Dec. 2 against the Wizards, who now own two franchises in the AFL.

With D.C Announced, What’s the Next Step for Arena Football in San Antonio?

Four months after Washington D.C. was granted an expansion team in the Arena Football League, that team finally has an identity. The team owned by the ownership group of the Washington Wizards, Washington Capitals, and Washington Mystics will be known as the Washington Valor.

This was one of three cities reported by ArenaFan’s Adam Markowitz in November to be interested in joining the AFL in 2017. One of those other two? San Antonio, TX.

By now, it really isn’t a secret. The San Antonio Spurs want to get involved with the Arena Football League. They came within renovations to the AT&T Center and Freeman Coliseum from buying the San Antonio Talons in 2014, and have been working with the league ever since to secure a new franchise.

Now that their friends from the Wizards have a team, what’s the next move for Spurs Sports And Entertainment to finally land their own team?

They obviously need to find time in their arena schedule to make it work. In addition to the Spurs, the AT&T Center also houses the WNBA’s San Antonio Stars and the AHL’s Rampage. But it isn’t impossible to fit a fourth team inside, as several possible dates this year for AFL games were not booked on the AT&T Center schedule.

They would also need to have someone who knows the league well to run some part of the team. This is the case for the other teams SS&E runs; for instance, Spurs GM RC Buford is also the GM for the Stars and the Austin Spurs.

Fortunately, they do.

Lee Johnson coached the Talons for all three of their years in San Antonio. He has expressed interest in returning as head coach for a San Antonio, and has confirmed to me that the Spurs personally know him and are aware he is interested.

There is less than a month to ArenaBowl XXIX media day. If any San Antonio team or news is to be discussed, it will happen there.

Washington Valor Becomes Arena Football League’s Ninth Team

The newest Arena Football League team, set to begin play in 2017, officially has a name. They will be known as the Washington Valor. The team colors will be red, white and blue.

The press conference was held at the MedStar Georgetown University Hospital in Washington D.C. on Thursday morning. In attendance to unveil the team name and colors were head coach Dean Cokinos and AFL commissioner Scott Butera.

“There’s been so much energy and excitement and enthusiasm with this team, without having played one game,” Butera said.

Butera and Cokinos, along with several others, pressed a red button to drop a curtain that unveiled the team’s name and logo. After the unveiling, coach Cokinos took the podium.

“Our team motto, our battle cry, is 21 for 60. 21 men fighting for 60 minutes,” Cokinos said about his team.

The Valor will play all of their home games at the Verizon Center, which is also home to the NBA’s Washington Wizards, the WNBA’s Washington Mystics and the NHL’s Washington Captials.