The Amazingly Suck Theodore Leonsis Thread

[payitforward]

Missing point is that they are trying to cut a deal to be on youtube tv -- which costs $60 or 70 a month but might have enough other stuff a person would want to make it a more attractive choice than a Monumental subscription at $20/month.

But the whole thing is gross: Monumental makes a ton of money on the Wizards (on the NBA overall) from every other angle. Charging people to watch their local team's games is simply a gross thing to do.

[DCZards]

Two years ago I could buy a single, sports-oriented cable package that brought me every local team plus a whole bunch more. That's flexibility based on differing consumer tastes.

Unrelated to the entirely new idea of making me pay just to see the local team.

Ted Leonsis is a billionaire who's greedy for more. As I wrote, he's shown himself to be a gross individual.

As a season ticket holder you can’t expect me to have but so much sympathy for folks who don’t want to pay $20 a month to support our guys.

[payitforward]

Now, Zards... not everyone is as wealthy as you! Not to mention as hip!...

[doclinkin]

The dumbest aspect though is that bars are not likely to spend extra for the add-on. Leastways not until the team is winning and gets popular. It’s an extra detail to keep track of, not just a common channel that comes with the usual sports package. So your bartender can’t just click over if it’s not something the manager thought to buy with the cable package.

If your favorite bar is not willing to pay $20 a month to show the local team you need to find a new bar.

Less about willing to pay and more about MSN being removed from the standard package so a couple times in the past couple years staff at 2 different bars looked for it and couldn’t get it. Joe Bar Tender dude is not the guy buying the cable.

But yeah. Mr Season Ticket has a different set of issues than me. Probably needing medication and therapy kind of issues. That’s a whole nother level of diehard madness.

[DCZards]

But yeah. Mr Season Ticket has a different set of issues than me. Probably needing medication and therapy kind of issues. That’s a whole nother level of diehard madness.

[queridiculo]

Watch on YouTube

Would a vpn combined with league pass work?

Yes, but last I checked all of the decent VPNs are somewhere between $10 and $20, so if you're goal is to get LP to watch the Wizards that's obviously not going to be cost efficient.

If you're getting LP and want to watch the Wizards it makes sense to go the VPN route just to keep the money out of the little weasel's pockets.

[doclinkin]

If Baby Zacky were deviously smart they’d have a pay per game streaming fee that looked dumb cheap. Like $2.99 per game. Maybe have occasional free games salted into the schedule as teasers. Even add-ons like extra cost $ to choose different camera angles or a stat feed that gives you the synergy sports calculations that the team has access to. Or live feed of a player who’s willing to be mic’ed up. (With cut outs during coaching / time outs).

What you miss in monthly subscribers you’d make up for in casual viewers. And degenerate gamblers trying to game the system. The price point would be cheap until you realized you’re watching 4-5 games a month plus features so you might as well get a package.

Obviously it works best when the wiz start winning and are fun. But you got to start somewhere. You take a loss early. The 21st century version of AOLs free discs.

[9 and 20]

I remember the Wiz had a handful of games on channel 20 every season. That was cool, especially for kids without cable. Definitely a big part of why I'm a fan of this team today. More than the championship-level basketball we've seen over these last several decades, anyway.

Can't imagine Mr MLK Potomac Yards Leonsis doing that, though.

[payitforward]

Truth is there's enough good stuff on youtube TV that if Monomaniacal Spurts Notwork cuts a deal with them I'm sure I'll get it.

In fact... I probably already have it.

[AFM]

Thanks for the absolute terrible ideas doc. Some mod should delete that post before milellie, I mean, Zack, reads that basura.

[dobrojim]

Watch on YouTube

Would a vpn combined with league pass work?

Yes, but last I checked all of the decent VPNs are somewhere between $10 and $20, so if you're goal is to get LP to watch the Wizards that's obviously not going to be cost efficient.

If you're getting LP and want to watch the Wizards it makes sense to go the VPN route just to keep the money out of the little weasel's pockets.

Buying a VPN is not a monthly bill. One and done.
EXPRESS VPN

[doclinkin]

Thanks for the absolute terrible ideas doc. Some mod should delete that post before milellie, I mean, Zack, reads that basura.

Thenk yew. Devious is in my repertoire. Can’t help it.

My deal is there’s no way at this point Zack/MSN is going to give away the product for free to the local networks and go back to an old school broadcast advertising model. They want to look innovative and fancy and next level. No way they’re going to scrap the monumental app. Sunk cost, they have to make something of it.

So might as well make it something even more innovative, useful, interesting, and impressive.

Frankly they should hire me for my ideas. I got million$ of ‘em.

[AFM]

Yes but $2.99 a game is atrocious. I would pay $6.99/mo to watch the Wizards.

[doclinkin]

True. Lower price point overall would seem the way to go. Hell instead of lowering the yearly cost from 200 to 180 (Woo! Savings!) they should be looking at that monthly cost.

I just doubt they’d go so far as to slash it by 65%.

This is somebody’s pet project. They’ll need a back off stance to salvage some kind of win. Papa Ted already took a public and humiliating if not humbling hit with the Virgina fiasco. They’ve been hiking up season ticket prices to pay for the various upgrades. This was probably seen as another cash cow. Zack likely wasn’t really all that motivated to get a deal done with other platforms since the hope was that folks would both blame other greedy companies and sign up for his app.

It’s just not a good read of the market to think anyone was eager to drop an added 20 bucks a month. So what’s the fallback. Apologies to Troy Halliburton he’s not giving it away for free. He’d have to convince the rest of the stakeholders to take a loss while pretending this wasn’t a Monumental foul up.

So what’s the fallback position.

[payitforward]

Let's see how many people go for the Monomaniacal Spurts Notwork $20/mo offer. Not too many I'd wager.

[doclinkin]

Trying to fix the problem via press release.

Tl;dr:
If you get msn by cable you’re okay.
If you have Xfinity you need the Ultimate package.
If you cut cable you need their pricey app. But really it’s a bargain! If you get a yearly sub instead of month to month.

But hey preseason games are free on the app.

Washington, D.C. (October 10, 2025) – Monumental Sports Network (MNMT) announced today that 80 regular season and three preseason Washington Wizards games will air on the award-winning local media platform during the 2025-26 NBA season. The network’s Wizards schedule will include the team’s season opener set for Wednesday, Oct. 22 against the Bucks in Milwaukee, as well as the team’s first regular season game at Capital One Arena on Sunday, Oct. 26 when they take on the Charlotte Hornets. The Oct. 22 season opener will feature a special one-hour pregame show on MNMT.

The first game available on MNMT will be the team’s preseason opener on Sunday, Oct. 12 against the Toronto Raptors. All Wizards preseason games will be free for fans to stream on monumentalplus.com and on the Monumental+ app.

“With an exciting young roster taking the floor this season, we’re continuing our commitment to delivering quality, all-access Wizards coverage to fans across the DMV region,” said Zach Leonsis, President of Media & New Enterprises at Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE). “From every tipoff to the final buzzer—and all the stories in between—our network is dedicated to bringing fans closer to the team they love. Monumental Sports Network is the home for fun Wizards moments all season long.”



The Wizards broadcast booth during the upcoming season will feature play-by-play announcer Chris Miller – entering his 4th season at MNMT – and color analyst Drew Gooden – who is heading into his 7th season. Miller and Gooden will be joined by sideline reporter Meghan McPeak, who enters her 4th season as part of Wizards game broadcasts. The Wizards will make two exclusive national TV appearances this season, appearing on Peacock for the first time with a visit to the Pistons on Nov. 10 and on Amazon Prime when they host the Bucks on Jan. 29.

Wizards games on MNMT will be bookended with live gameday programs Wizards Pregame Live and Wizards Postgame Live. These shoulder programs will broadcast live from MNMT’s state-of-the-art Vanda Pharmaceuticals Studio and will provide the latest Wizards news, analysis, and commentary for a half hour before and one hour after games. Wes Hall returns as the fulltime host of both gameday programs and will be joined by a strong rotation of analysts, including Jason Smith, Christy Winters Scott, Tony Massenburg, Jimmy Patsos, and Greivis Vásquez, as well as appearances from Glenn Consor and Ron Thompson. The network’s Wizards coverage will also include magazine show Beyond the Buzzer and other original programming, including Hometown with Rachel Nichols, highlighting the top on- and off-court stories.

Live Wizards games on MNMT will be available to local fans both on linear tv and via streaming platforms within the network’s coverage area, stretching from Richmond to Delaware. The network is carried by major TV providers including Comcast Xfinity, Verizon FiOS, Charter, Cox, Altice, and others, and is also available to stream via DIRECTV. Local basketball fans can watch the games through their pay TV provider, on monumentalplus.com, or by downloading the state-of-the-art Monumental+ app on iOS, Android, Apple TV, Chromecast, DIRECTV Gemini, Fire TV, Roku, Samsung, X1, and Xfinity Xumo and using an eligible TV Everywhere log-in.

Fans without a TV provider who are interested in watching live Capitals, Wizards, and other local games during the 2025-26 season can purchase an annual or monthly direct-to-consumer subscription at monumentalplus.com or download the Monumental+ app and subscribe through App Stores. MNMT recently lowered the annual price of a direct subscription to Monumental+, making it even more affordable for fans in the DMV region to stream MNMT’s games and original content anywhere, anytime. The new annual rate of $179.99 equates to savings of $59.89 per year compared to twelve months of a monthly subscription.

Fans who watch Wizards games on Xfinity should note that as a result of recent contract negotiations, Xfinity has moved MNMT exclusively to its ‘Ultimate TV’ package. While this change has impacted some customers, many Xfinity subscribers in the D.C. area already have the ‘Ultimate TV’ package and will continue to have uninterrupted access to Monumental Sports Network. However, to ensure all fans continue to have access, MNMT secured a discount for fans who are interested in the ‘Ultimate TV’ package. Through November 14, any fan who subscribes to the “Ultimate TV” package will receive $10 off per month for the first six months of their subscription.

[AFM]

My parents have the monumental channel through their Verizon package. Can I watch Monumental online/with their app with the Verizon login credentials? Other channels (ABC) etc work that way.