Thanks for the nice words here. Sometimes I talk so much in these press conferences I don’t even remember what I said 
. If I said these things and made these quotes good for me!
At the same time, the media sometimes garbles what I said or perhaps meant. So here is some clarity.
1. The overall deal is valued at $825 million. That is what the Monumental Sports and Entertainment combined entity is valued at all in one. Soon we hope to make the asset worth $1 billion, which would be a major milestone.
2. The Washington Sports and Entertainment assets valued at about $550 million. I am unclear where the AP wire service got a number of $310 million. That number is a bad one. It was never mentioned by me. If you can find me saying that number, please bring it to my attention. Thanks.
3. In regards to a name change of the team, we have a lot of work to do right now on re-crafting the team itself, focusing on the draft, our number 1 pick, free agency, selling season tickets, suites and club seats, new interactive outreach programs, working with customers, prospects and media, crafting a new organizational structure aimed at maximizing our services to customers, working on making the Verizon Center the best it can be for our community, and finding new and improved ways to serving our communities of interest.
The NBA also has a lot of work to do on negotiating a new CBA with the players and working with everyone on a new business model that is fair to all.
With all of that going on understanding that to effectuate a name change could take two to three years. This simply isn’t a priority for us right now. We can’t change the name of the team for next season. It is June and the new season starts in October. There will be no name change. We can’t change the name. It is pretty simple.
We can change the colors more easily than the name. We will look into that as part of an overall brand uplift and updating project. That could happen as soon as the following season, but NOTHING new can happen next season. It is too late in the off season to have any changes at all. I am sorry but schedules and production of materials etc. are set years ahead of time.
As time goes on and we meet our goals, we can look into every issue our fans have about our team, but to focus and discuss an issue that can’t be fixed in the short term is not a good decision by anyone. I am not tone deaf but I am a realist and we must focus on the immediate tasks at hand. I hope this clarifies the issues to you all and helps the anger I see in emails and blog post commentary subside a bit. We will listen. But vision and strategy without execution is hallucination!
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Thanks Ted! I’ve been a Bullets/Wizards fan my whole life and I know we’ll get it together. It may take some time but we have a plan and I know it’ll come together. Yes, a name change would be nice, but a jersey change is much needed. Maybe we can go back to the “stars & bars” bullets style from back in the day. The throwbacks we wore when Jordan was here. The DC flag has 3 stars and red & white bars. Even if we don’t change the name, we can incorporate DC back into the jersey. What do you think?
Go Bullets!!!!!!!!!!
Hey Ted, as a longtime Bullets/Wizards fan, I really like everything you’ve said so far–especially about Gilbert–and have a feeling that you’re going to have tremendous success with the Wizards. Good luck!
I’ve lived in the DC area for almost all my life, 52 years. Grew up in northern Virginia, and lived in DC proper the last 19 years. I remember going to Baltimore Bullet games when they played occasionally at Cole Field House, maybe 6 or 7 games a year, and I remember how happy I was when the Bullets moved here and became the “Capital Bullets” the first year of the Capital Centre. For about 8 years total between 1985 and 2004 I have had season tickets for the Bullets/Wizards
AsHowever, as for the name Bullets, far as I am concerned, that name should have stayed in Baltimore when the team left that city. It is afterall because of Baltimore being a munitions site for World War II that the name Bullets was adopted for the team when Abe Pollin moved them from Chicago. I am one who never cared for the name Washington Bullets. Its Baltimore’s name. I would rather Mr. Pollin took the names of Washington’s first NBA team, coached by Red Auerbach, or the ABA team in 1970, both whom played at the Washington Coliseum, they were the Washington Capitols … but I guess he could do that with the choice of his new hockey team to be named the Captials with an “a”
As a college fan, its pretty common for teams to have an official name and secondary name. I am a Virginia fan and we are the “Cavaliers”. But many fans, especially younger ones, are comfortable with the name “Hoos” or “Wahoos” and its reflected in the media and on team uniforms. There are other examples of teams with two different names as well. Even in Washington baseball history, there was a period when the official name was the “Senators” but many fans and media would call them the “Nats” or “Nationals”. Today, because of copyrighting and not able to get the name Senators from the Texas Rangers, Nationals was officially chosen for the new team.
Whats wrong with keeping Wizards as the official name, in honor of Mr. Pollin’s wishes, and just have Bullets as a secondary name if people are that concerned about it? Much like the Lakers wear their old school White jerseys on Sundays, maybe on a Tuesday or a Thursday, the team can wear throwback uniforms with “Bullets”
How about this idea, “Throwback Tuesday’s or Thursday’s” where not only are the old uniforms with the Bullets worn, but like back in the day, there is only an organist, and not this constant noise of hip-hop or whatever kind of music each and every time the ball is advanced up or down the floor.
If there is one change I want to see, its that. Cut that music over the PA system in half or out all together. We don’t do it in hockey, football, or baseball, or even college basketball for that matter. Yet in the NBA there is this constant din of music that is blaring over the PA system during play. The occasional defense or charge is ok, but for godsake, lets stop the constant MUSIC!
Thank you for the clarification. I hope you get your wish of adding more draft picks!
It is refreshing that you are listening to the fans. While unreasonable to expect an owner to run his team per fan request, it is nice to have an owner that addresses the feedback from the fans and then explains his own position on the issue. Thank you for the great communication on the name issue specifically. I can only speak for myself but I hope that the sentiment does not come across as a request for immediate action. It is sensible that for the next few years the organization needs to focus its finite resources on tasks of more immediate importance to our ultimate goal of winning a championship. I believe that the fans are patiently requesting that years from now if you feel that the organization can afford to devote resources to the name issue that it might then receive some consideration.
Keep up the great work and go Wizards!
Yes, I was confused as Jim was. You saying you won’t change the name in the short-term, or never? I agree a name-change is not nearly as big a deal as, say, our rebuilding strategy, but if it’s what fans want, you need to seriously consider it. You’d be a freakin’ hero around here if you changed the name back to its proper name.
jim – Yes, that’s very clearly what he said. He also asked us to drop the issue for now. Wouldn’t you rather watch the Wizards win than the Bullets lose?
Ted:
You have instantly taken over as the best blogging NBA owner. That title used to belong to Mark Cuban, but he doesn’t blog as much as he used to. He must be busy.
Thanks for the clarifications, Ted. A lot of us have been fans of the franchise for many, many years and look forward to the awful Wizards name being put to rest — hopefully sooner rather than later!
If we are gonna be the Wizards/Mystics i think it is best to try to tie in the nicknames further into DC/American culture. Red White and Blue is a must. I would love to see the new Wizards/Mystics Jerseys look similar to the old Bullets Jersey incorporating the reaching hands logo. Home Whites, Dark Blue roads, Red home/away alternates. Same for Mystics.
I also feel we need to bring back the popular mascot Hoops as well as the miniature Dacshund dog that roamed the court during timeouts. I also feel the purple seats should be replaced by dark blue ones to reflect the teams that play in the building. Maybe even giving Robin Ficker his old seats back haha jk.
Maybe the Wizards can represent the political “Wizardry” of politicians and Mystics can pay homage to the Navy battleship of the same name. This can work.
Sweet! Where do I sign up to become an employee?
Ted: regarding Wizards name change, I read your post to say that their will be no name change for next season, but not that there will be no name change ever. Is that correct? Frankly, I think Wizards is a horrible name and that a name change would be very popular at some point. Preferably Bullets, but almost anything is better than Wizards.