If the top boss at Monumental Sports had his way, we would be seeing a lot more sports coverage on our local television stations.
Ted Leonsis, the owner of the Washington Mystics along with the Washington Wizards and Washington Capitals, wrote in a tweet that he feels local television stations, such as those in the DMV should give more emphasis to sports coverage.
From a WNBA fan’s perspective, the follow up question would be what is Leonsis doing to ensure every Mystics game is carried?
Currently, Monumental Sports Network streams Mystics games, but one would think the team would have greater reach across the Washington, D.C. media market (#6 in the nation, by the way) if they were carried on NBC Sports Washington, or its sister channel WRC-TV.
Perhaps, a Mystics’ television deal similar to that of the Seattle Storm with Joe-TV or the Chicago Sky with WCIU-TV could help a bit…
Zach Leonsis, the Senior Vice President and General Manager of Monumental Sports Network (also Ted’s son) was asked about this in a September interview with the SB Nation site Bullets Forever.
We really need to look at Monumental Sports Network similar to any regional sports network in the marketplace.
When we play our games within Monumental Sports Network, we make it available on a variety of platforms. They’re available almost universally on ten or more platforms at this point, and we make our games available via a three-month free trial. I don’t think that WNBA League Pass offers a free trial at that scale, so for us to offer three months free really makes our games highly accessible through any platform.
By: Akiem Bailum (@AkiemBailum on Twitter, Instagram)
