“The sun will come up tomorrow,” former Washington Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo said after his departure from the team on Sunday. If that quote sounds familiar, those were lyrics popularized in the musical, “Annie.” Yes, that is true, the sun will come out tomorrow. Rizzo will get paid the rest of his contract and can take that sunny 2-week vacation to Italy that he was just talking about on the radio a few weeks ago.
For Rizzo’s former bosses, the summer sweltering heat is getting dialed up on the Lerner ownership group, and that sun, when magnified, gets even hotter. They painted an even larger target on themselves once they fired Rizzo because he is gone as a buffer.
While the Lerners rarely ever speak publicly, they needed to say more than what was in their official statement from the team posted yesterday. What is the long-term direction? That is the unknown. Nobody knows what they are willing to do in the next offseason. If they would just say that they are committed to signing their next big contract, everyone could relax. But they said nothing of real substance about the future beyond the end of this 2025 season.
The venom is all over DC sports radio. Nothing makes better radio than a polarizing disaster. The Nats fired their manager and GM simultaneously — and they pushed the Commanders to the sidelines on radio on Monday. Also consider that the Nats have a contract with 106.7 The Fan radio to broadcast their games — but the radio talking-heads show them no favors or loyalty when it comes to criticising the team ownership. In their second show of the morning, they asked fans to vote for the worst owner in DC sports. Your choices were 1) Josh Harris of the Commanders 2) Ted Leonsis of the Capitals/Wizards 3) Mark Lerner of the Nationals. Who do you think won the poll?
This is a public relations nightmare. How do you expect the average fan to come to a game when the media is basically telling them that they shouldn’t attend? Earlier in the season one radio show host told fans to spend their money on the Capitals because the Nats don’t deserve their money. Who says that?
This team right now needs Nats fans because the revenue situation is very dependent on fan attendance. That was covered in an article earlier in the year after CNBC posted up some dire numbers on the Nationals revenue and debt. By the numbers, the Nationals are the 4th from last in team revenue, and have the 2nd highest debt by a percentage of valuation. That is a deadly combination. This is a small market revenue team playing in a big city until they can figure out a way to greatly increase the revenue.
So the question for the gallery is, should a team spend on payroll and accept losing money? That’s a tricky question because there are two sides to this. If a normal working stiff spends beyond their paycheck, they risk going bankrupt. A sports team like the Nationals have two options when they lose money: 1) Fund the losses from the owner’s pockets -or- 2) Borrow the funds and add it to the debt.
The working stiff without a Home Equity Line of Credit usually maxes out their credit cards before bankruptcy when their liabilities are greater than their assets. That’s a real world situation not a dilemma for the guy who has millions in his stock portfolio.
The Nationals are still valued at $2.05 billion roughly, and the net worth after deducting that long-term debt is $1.496 billion. That would be like what you would walk away with after selling your home and paying off your mortgage.
Yes, the Washington Nationals have plenty of remaining net worth in the business before worrying about financial collapse. The problem is, how long do you want to keep borrowing to fund losses? The debt alone at approximately $550 million would equate to $33 million of annual interest expense imputing a 6% interest rate. Think about the player you could sign for $33 million a year. Right now, that is getting paid to bankers.
Finally the team sold their jersey sleeve patch sponsorship to AARP in a deal completed at the end of June. The team could announce a stadium naming rights deal next. After that, and still up in the air, is what network will be broadcasting Washington Nationals games in 2026? The TV deal with MASN was a raw deal and spent years in litigation. One of the worst TV deals in the Major Leagues, and the Nationals are currently only receiving $58 million. The only way out of this “small revenue” mess is through higher attendance. A better product will help, but also better public relations.
All of that leads some fans to demand the Lerners to sell the team. The issue is for every potential owner who had looked at the books when the team was for sale either lowballed a net/net bid or didn’t even bother making an offer. Maybe it is not a good investment.
Also, good luck forcing a sale. Fans of other struggling teams have tried that with no luck. If you think the Nats have it bad, look at the Colorado Rockies and the Pirates, and maybe even the Orioles.
The Lerners do need to decide to either being fully committed to a real plan to get better — not just side mouth BS talk — or do us all a favor and sell the team to a good owner with a plan to win. The problem with that is you can always do worse than what you have now with the next owner. The grass isn’t necessarily greener on the other side. Let us introduce you to the Angelos family and Dan Snyder.
We are hearing a lot on sports radio that “Sports teams are a public trust” and that highlights the idea that professional sports franchises have a responsibility beyond simply being a business. While most teams are privately owned, they operate within a framework that grants them significant monopolistic ownership in their geography and in turn, they are expected to contribute positively to their communities and uphold ethical standards. This idea is sometimes explicitly stated by some owners for effect while they are gouging you for $500 seats to sit center ice at a hockey game that includes the food buffet. The fans ultimately fund everything even if they are corporate owned seats — you pay for it when you buy their products. Everything is ultimately funded by the end consumer.
“We are totally in on building this back to where we all expect it to be, to where our fans expect it to be.”
— Mark Lerner said in a “Nats Xtra” interview at the end of the 2023 season
“It’s [Rizzo’s] call how he wants to fill the holes in the lineup. He comes to me when he is ready — whether it’s a player or a free agent. Whatever he desires he has the resources, and he has always had the resources since the day we took over the team to build a winner.”
That conversation between the Nats’ Dan Kolko and Lerner gave great hope that the team was going to find their Jayson Werth. That hope turned into Joey Gallo, Nick Senzel, Jesse Winker, and Eddie Rosario. The excuses we all gave ourselves was, “This is still a rebuild. Things will be better in 2025.” Rizzo got more money to spend ($50.2 million) for 2025, and replicated the previous offseason with more of the same, with just more money to spend in free agency and spread it on more players. What looked bright at the start with the trade for Nathaniel Lowe, turned into more of the high risk rebound signings that turn into either deadline trades, in-season DFA’s, or players who end up on the unemployment line after the season ends. It has been a circular motion for the past few years, and we know the ending. Or at least we knew the ending until yesterday when both Rizzo and Dave Martinez were fired.
Now Mike DeBartolo and Miguel Cairo are in. I’m not even sure that I’ve heard either man speak before. This will be a lot of firsts for all of us. Will there be a different message? Will there be more transparency? We still do not even know why top prospect Travis Sykora was pulled from his previous start after one inning?
Also, what about the shuffle to have Jake Irvin pitch on regular rest after he threw 107 pitches in his last start — but MacKenzie Gore is now getting two extra days of rest after throwing just four more pitches than Irvin. These were decisions set in place by the old regime. You know, the people who thought they were smarter than everyone else and “It’s never on coaching.”
For now, it’s all on the ownership.
