Lincoln Holdings Update

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From time to time the media reports on Lincoln Holdings, our sports partnership, and for multiple reasons facts get garbled and misunderstood. So here is a quick update and primer on Lincoln Holdings. I am hopeful that the media will internalize this information and report accurately on our ownership structure and asset base in the future.

Lincoln Holdings is a sports partnership made up of many of the area’s leading business people. We are a diverse and close-knit group of friends that love the community and love the competition of sports.

Lincoln Holdings owns 100% of the Washington Capitals and the Washington Mystics. We acquired these assets from Washington Sports and Entertainment. We own and operate these two teams and we are tenants in the Verizon Center. We also operate the Kettler Capitals Iceplex in Ballston, VA, where the Capitals are housed. The Mystics are headquartered in the Verizon Center itself.

Lincoln Holdings partnership includes the following partners alongside of me as I am the Majority Owner of Lincoln Holdings: Raul Fernandez, Dr. Jeong Kim, Jack Davies, Mark Lerner, Dick Patrick, George Stamas, Rick Kay, Richard Fairbank, Sheila Johnson and Michelle Freeman. I believe we have the most diverse ownership group in sports.

Lincoln Holdings also owns about 44% of Washington Sports and Entertainment LP. WSELP – as it is known - is Mr. Pollin’s sports partnership that owns and operates the Washington Wizards, the Verizon Center and the local Ticketmaster franchise. We are silent and minority partners in WSELP and we also own future ownership rights to the majority ownership position of WSELP.

Dick Patrick is President of the Washington Capitals and our Governor at the NHL level. Sheila Johnson is President and our managing partner of the Washington Mystics. She also represents us at the WNBA level.

I hope this sets the record straight.

4 thoughts on “Lincoln Holdings Update”

  1. Ted, the debate by the unwashed always seems to revolve around whether LH gets any concessions and parking revenues for the Caps and Mystics games – the 44% ownership in WSELP is misunderstood on that basis typically. Do you get concessions and parking revenues or does that have to wait until you own the whole shooting match? It’s where I’ve seen the most contention by the fans and people who care to debate this topic.

    The fan base is more clear about the structuring than the media obviously. Your general breakdown was old hat for us but for the point I note above.

    Thanks.

  2. One question: is “silent” by choice or by contract? Rephrased: when something WSELP does has a negative impact on the Caps (like the ice conditions), do you have any recourse? Thanks! -JW

  3. A journalist’s first stop for info is Google. One can find some info on LH LLC in the first few search results, but not as complete as yours. Too bad lincolnholdings.com is taken, but a site for LH LLC with your outline above should make things factual and clear to most journos. Contact data for journo follow up would ensure *near* accurate reporting :-) .