Where Do the Mystics Fit in a Rapidly Evolving WNBA?

WNBA ownership can be separated into two categories: the old guard and the new.

The Washington Mystics are decidedly in the old-guard category, along with teams like the Chicago Sky and the Connecticut Sun—teams not seen by players and league executives as prioritizing their investment amid the recent women’s sports boom.

Ted Leonsis, who bought the Mystics for $10 million in 2005 and also owns the Wizards and Capitals, is one of the WNBA’s longest-tenured owners. He recently spoke with Front Office Sports about how he views his place in a league undergoing “hyper-growth,” as WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert has said.  

“We have to see what the reality is,” Leonsis told FOS. “Let’s be straightforward, this phenomenon that we’re seeing, it’s around a couple of teams.”

One change that has hit the WNBA nearly overnight is the ability for teams to sell out large NBA-sized arenas, after the arrival of Caitlin Clark supercharged the league last year. The Mystics play in tiny CareFirst Arena with a capacity of under 5,000, and are tied to a lease there through 2037. The team occasionally plays at Capital One Arena, home to the Capitals and Wizards, drawing more than 20,000 fans.

Leonsis said he wants Capital One Arena to be available to the Mystics, but he isn’t ready to fully commit to moving his WNBA team.

“Having sellout crowds, the excitement, the energy, that’s great,” he said. “If you sold 8,000 tickets instead of 5,000, but you’re playing in a 20,000-seat arena, you don’t feel as successful. I don’t know if today we could sell out every game, 20,000 seats.” 

The Mystics did nearly move to Capital One Arena. In 2023, Leonsis struck a deal with Virginia governor Glenn Youngkin to move the Wizards and Capitals to Alexandria; the Mystics would have stayed in D.C. and taken over the larger arena.

That deal fell through, and a new agreement was made between Leonsis and Washington mayor Muriel Bowser to complete a $800 million renovation to Capital One. The D.C. Council voted unanimously to invest $515 million into the three-year reconstruction project. 

Because of the renovations, Capital One is unavailable to the Mystics this summer. Instead, the team will play both of its home games against the Indiana Fever at CFG Bank Arena in Baltimore (capacity of 14,000) on May 28 and Sept. 7. In July, they’re set to play games against the Sky and Las Vegas Aces at EagleBank Arena in Fairfax, Va. (capacity of 10,000)

Early in the 2025 WNBA season, the other 12 teams in the league are all averaging more fans than the Mystics can fit in their home arena.

‘We Were Very Aggressive, Day One’

When Leonsis purchased the Mystics 20 years ago, he considered it a “growth stock” but also says he expected it to “get bigger, faster.”

In his interview with FOS, he noted he was “one of the only owners” at the WNBA draft in April. After the Mystics selected Sonia Citron, Kiki Iriafen, and Georgia Amoore, Leonsis flew them back to D.C. on his private jet for a draft celebration. 

Leonsis is proud of his stewardship of the team. Amid the reporting of this story, he posted a long statement Tuesday, sharing his signed agreement to purchase the Mystics from 20 years ago. “The popularity of women’s sports was in a much different state back in 2005,” he said. “But our ownership group—among the WNBA league’s most tenured—saw the vision. … Fast forward 20 years, and we’ve seen astronomical growth in demand for these exceptional athletes. … As the Mystics hit the court with their first few games of the 2025 season, it’s remarkable to reflect on where we’ve been and how far we’ve come.”

In the WNBA, where the hard salary cap sits at just $1.51 million per team and a floor of $1.26 million, there’s little distinction between teams on their player spending. Teams separate themselves from the pack by spending on training resources, housing (teams are required to house players because of the league’s short season), hotel accommodations on the road, and post-practice and post-game meals. 

“It’s always good to be self-reflective,” Leonsis told FOS. “I don’t want to say we wrote the book on that, but Sheila Johnson is one of our partners [at Monumental Sports & Entertainment] and was the lead with the Mystics. We were very aggressive, day one.” 

What it means to be “aggressive” in the WNBA is changing. 

‘Only 1% of His Company’

The New York Liberty, Las Vegas Aces, Golden State Valkyries, Phoenix Mercury, and Seattle Storm have set themselves apart from the rest of the league with their spending. The Liberty and Aces, who have been the cream of the WNBA in recent years, have even skirted the salary-cap rules and been punished by the league office for it.

All of these franchises, aside from the Storm, have ownership groups that bought into the league in the last six years. Upon their arrival they made waves with their spending, particularly off the court. The Lynx, too, are getting ready to welcome new ownership when the sale to Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore—which includes the NBA’s Timberwolves—is made official.

Expansion fees are soaring past $200 million, 20 times what Leonsis spent to buy his team 20 years ago. The Mystics were once elite, repeatedly making it to the league’s final four in the late 2010s, and they won a title in 2019. But former players say newer ownership groups have passed them by.

Liberty guard Natasha Cloud recalls that Leonsis once told her the Mystics represented a small sliver of his portfolio. 

“I was told that I was only 1% of his company,” Cloud told FOS. “That was after we won a championship [in 2019].”

Cloud was with the Mystics until 2024, when she signed with the Mercury as a free agent. She was traded to the Sun, then traded to the Liberty ahead of the 2025 season. 

Two-time All-Star Ariel Atkins, who was with the Mystics until February of this year, confirmed to FOS that Leonsis said “something along those lines.” 

A spokesperson for Monumental Sports did not deny the players’ recollection, but called the 1% quote “wildly out of context” and “mischaracterized.” The spokesperson also wrote, “While the comment may have been factually true at the time, the intention behind it was not to equate the Mystics value or give the perception of treatment, rather it was to show how much room they had to grow and evolve.” 

When Cloud compares her experience in Phoenix and Brooklyn, her answer to whether the Mystics are keeping up was simple. 

“No, they’re not,” Cloud said. 

Atkins agreed with her former teammate, saying it was difficult to have three basketball teams—the Mystics, Wizards, and NBA G League’s Capital City Go-Go—using the same building at times.

Cloud emphasized a difference between providing resources outright, like the Liberty and Mercury are doing, and having to share them, which was the case in Washington. In the latter scenario, she says the men’s team received priority. 

Atkins added that ownership and the front office were often “focused on the Wizards.”

The Mystics were “right on time” when they opened CareFirst Arena in 2018, Atkins says, but she mentioned the Mercury, Liberty, Storm, and Valkyries specifically when emphasizing where the league standard is today. 

A spokesperson for Leonsis and the Mystics provided a prewritten statement from one of the team’s rookies in support of the franchise, but declined a request to make any current player available for an interview for this story. 

The Mystics aren’t the only franchise playing catchup.

The Sky will open a $38 million practice facility in 2026. The team currently practices out of a public recreation facility in Deerfield. 

The Connecticut Sun—who have hired investment bank Allen & Company to pursue a potential sale—practice at a community center. Former Sun forward Alyssa Thomas was critical of the franchise last year when the team had to split its practice court with a 2-year-old’s birthday party a day before they faced the Fever in the first round. 

The Dallas Wings will open a $54 million practice facility in 2026 in downtown Dallas that will accompany $200 million in renovations to their new arena, the Dallas Memorial Auditorium. The Wings were slated to move into their new arena in time for next season, but delays to the project will keep them at College Park Center—which has a capacity under 7,000—in Arlington until 2027. 

By 2026, the Los Angeles Sparks and Atlanta Dream are set to be the only WNBA teams of the current 13 without an individual practice facility. Both franchises have announced they are scouting locations with no completion date. 

At one point, having a dedicated practice facility was enough of a separator. But as that gap swiftly closes, there’s a new line being drawn between one class of owners and another that is still, as Leonsis says, “waiting to see what the reality is.”