Monthly Archives: May 2010

Mother Nature

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It affects everything and everyone.

Our hearts and prayers go out to our friends in Nashville and at the Predators, whose arena has been impacted by these floods.

We are keeping you all in our thoughts. See these riveting videos. Wow.

Thank You David Stern

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We look forward to a rapid movement now that our deal to acquire the remainder of the Wizards and Verizon Center and the local Ticketmaster franchise is in motion. See this Washington Post blurb.

We are all in this together. I promise to be passionate and focused and hard working on all matters related to the Wizards and related enterprises.As do all of our partners and employees.

Once the deal closes I will publish a Washington Wizards related email address to interact with Washington Wizards fans. I will add Wizards related material to my daily blog, as well.

I intend to meet with season ticket holders, with fans, with sponsors and of course employees. I have a lot to learn. This will be a very busy time for us. Please have patience as we get to meet with people, learn about life in the NBA, and of course listen and interact with our communities of interest.

We are all hopeful for a closing in less than 60 days. This challenge is daunting but will also be a lot of fun.

Thanks for the Ongoing Blizzard of Emails and Pixels

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There continues to be a boat load of analysis about our first round loss to Montreal about what went wrong, what do we need to do on the go forward, and related musings.

I appreciate the passion and I appreciate the interest.

I have literally received now more than 1000 emails since the loss and go check out the volume of comments on my blog as well. I have read every comment and every email. Thank you.

I appreciate the emails and word of encouragement and words of criticism. I have tried to face the music and be stand up and professional. I must admit it is hard. One gets depressed and it is deeply personal. We invest so much time, energy and passion into sports and the Caps. When we lose after a great season it feels like such a letdown. I get it and I feel it too!

I have had an unpleasant exchange with two folks. One a friend and one a season ticket holder just pressed the wrong buttons so close to the loss. When you lose in the first round of the playoffs it honestly feels like death. One goes into mourning. Then there is a grieving period, and then anger and then some level of acceptance, and then you try to get busy to move forward and improve. Some folks showed empathy. Some folks showed anger to me. Some folks criticized. Some folks were honest and forthright. Some folks were supportive and some folks were nasty. You get to see the full spectrum of human emotion. “This is the business that we have chosen”. Thanks for showing me all of your colors.

I think right now I am in the anger stage. I hope to never get to the acceptance stage.

So I need to chill out just a bit. Work on other matters for a few days, and then get back at it for Capitals. I hate losing. It is a bad trait sometimes. I am not accustomed to losing. I expect and demand my enterprises to excel for the benefit of our fans and for the city and for the franchise.

This set of emotions will pass. Today for whatever reason, I am just in the depths of disappointment just like many of our fans. I intend to get back to the Business of Happiness soon, but I am human. I have bad days so excuse me if I lay low and try to gain perspective again.

Thanks again for the support. Thanks again for the high levels of interest.

This is an emotional business. I hate losing. I want us to win for our fans. I apologize for letting you down. This too shall pass and we will get back at it asap. Thanks for letting me vent. Go Caps.

Apple Doesn’t Fall Far From the Tree

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Betaworks.John Borthwick.

John and I go way back. I am proud of John. His new company is creating a next generation media company and a loose affiliate network of likeminded startups. A keretsui of firms were John and his teams add value. See this NY Times piece from yesterday.

John worked at AOL during the good old days when we started up products and services that scaled fast when we created Greenhouse and made investments and spun out companies that went public. John came to us when we bought his startup. He is creative, technical, smart, and has high integrity.

I use Tweetdeck every day by the way.

I am proud of John and his success… kudos. You made us all proud.

Technically True

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We have reached an agreement and signed what is called a purchase agreement with the Pollin family and estate. We are very grateful…See this article within.

We now must get approvals on all matters from the NBA the WNBA and the NHL regarding deal structure and then fund the deal. I believe all will go smoothly now and am hopeful we can get to official and total deal closure by the middle of June or sometime earlier.

Thanks to all that have been working on this set of negotiations and for everyone’s patience.