Diamond Sports Group spent 20 months in bankruptcy. During that time the company, now renamed Main Street Sports Group, shed teams that once relied on the nation’s biggest regional sports networks company for a big part of revenue. The overall decline of traditional RSNs has led teams and leagues (the Vegas Golden Knights and Phoenix Suns are two examples) to take over their local broadcasts via agreements with throwback over-the-air broadcasts and streaming.
But none of that is any concern for Zach Leonsis, who runs the Washington, D.C.–based RSN Monumental Sports Network.
“If you have scale on multiple properties like we do, and we’ve augmented that with additional original programs and lots of additional live games, it gives you the wherewithal and the foundation,” says Leonsis, the president of media and new enterprises at Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE)—the parent company of the Washington Capitals, Wizards, and Mystics.
Monumental Sports Network grew out of MSE’s acquisition of NBC Sports Washington that closed in September 2022. Using some of the funds from a roughly 5% stake in MSE sold to the Qatar Investment Authority in 2023, millions were spent on new Monumental Sports Network studios adjacent to the Capital One Arena. Beyond the studios’ opulence and features, MSE also invested heavily in talent and production staff.
“I think when we first bought our network, I felt like the network was a little bit of a shell organization,” Leonsis says. “It was infomercials during the day leading up to pre/post-game coverage around the live games. When we talk to our fans, our distributors and our advertising partners, I want to make sure they understand that we’re operating a 24/7 sports network.”
The program offering on Monumental Sports Network includes shows from former Washington Post staffers Chris Cillizza and Rachel Nichols, but—like any RSN—live sports remains its biggest viewership driver. Last season, the Capitals edged out ESPN and easily surpassed the viewership on FS1, and TNT in the same time slot. The Wizards weren’t able to eclipse ESPN in comparable time slots last season, but outperformed FS1, ESPN2, and TNT.
The biggest growth, however, was powered by the Mystics, which saw 136% higher viewership in 2024—part of the overall WNBA–Caitlin Clark boost—compared to 2023. Those numbers are evidence Monumental Sports Network in D.C., Maryland, and Virginia has one of the strongest distribution partnerships among all RSNs.
Chasing the Great One
For months, there’s been a focus on how to handle Caps forward Alex Ovechkin’s pursuit of Wayne Gretzky’s 894-goal record. Ovechkin enters Thursday’s game in Seattle with 874 goals—21 shy of eclipsing the Great One.
“There’s been a lot of time spent internally across Capitals marketing, the network, the NHL, and Alex’s representation about all of the ways that we want to cover Alex’s great chase,” Leonsis says. “I think that everyone recognizes that this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. This isn’t even a once-in-a-generation opportunity. This is the only time we’ll see it.”
With 21 goals this season, Ovechkin is on pace to match and surpass Gretzky late in the season. Exactly where fans both locally and nationally will see that feat is unclear. Four of the final six regular-season games are currently slated to be broadcast on either ESPN or TNT, leaving two games on Monumental Sports Network. For now. The NHL has the ability to switch those two games (both against the Hurricanes on April 12 and 13) to a national network since the Capitals are two games shy of the 15-game max for any one team to appear on the NHL’s U.S. TV partners.
A league source tells Front Office Sports that talks with Monumental have been productive on how to handle Ovechkin’s goal chase—and a simulcast situation is possible. The NHL has long allowed RSNs to carry first-round playoff games that are also shown nationally.
“There’s so many different facets of this potential chase and so many variables in terms of timing and how he’ll do it,” Leonsis says. “It makes it a little bit of a challenge to plan for. But yes, there will be a lot of content leading up to it and then afterwards, too, over recognizing the entire experience as a whole.”
Avoiding RSN Pitfalls
Monumental Sports Network didn’t start from scratch. It existed for years before the acquisition of 40 employees who produced in-game and online content for the Wizards, Caps, and Mystics. But after the deal closed, the operation ramped up quickly.
“I knew what we were walking into,” says Leonsis, the son of MSE founder, owner, and managing partner, Ted Leonsis. “When we took over, I think the longest deal that the network had for ad sales was a year long, and its biggest account was about $400,000. Now we’ve got nearly 20 deals that are over $400,000 just for the network, and I think we have over 15 that are three years or longer.”
Meanwhile, the RSN landscape slid into disarray.
Months after MSE acquired NBC Sports Washington from Comcast for an undisclosed sum, Diamond Sports Group declared bankruptcy in March 2023. When it sought bankruptcy protection, DSG had 19 Bally Sports Network RSNs around the country that had deals with 42 teams. When Main Street Sports Group (formerly DSG) exited Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection earlier this month, there were 16 rebranded FanDuel Sports Network RSNs with 30 teams. Warner Bros. Discovery divested its three RSNs in 2023 and Comcast—along with selling NBC Sports Washington to MSE—shuttered its Chicago RSN in September.
“What we really did by acquiring our rights back and NBC Sports Washington was we eliminated the middleman,” Leonsis says. “We worked directly with our distributors as a team-owned operator.” Monumental Sports Network, he notes, has no debt. Fans can “depend on our network to be there, and they can rely on us to produce a high-quality product for their benefit,” he says.
The network’s economics have been boosted by streaming as well. Monumental’s direct-to-consumer streaming service that originally launched in 2023 and rebranded last year as Monumental+ is nearing 100,000 subscribers, according to Leonsis. An annual Monumental+ membership costs $200 for access to all of the streaming offerings or $20 monthly for live games.
“We could have made a lesser investment, but I think that would have ultimately been penny-wise and pound-foolish,” Leonsis says. “Our network is still the No. 1 way that we interact with the majority of our fans. So, if we’re not investing in that product and taking great pride in how it looks, how could we expect our fans to want to tune in?”
