Today we launch a new media property called Monumental Report. I am very excited about this new free service, and I think it will serve well the millions and millions of people that come annually and visit the Verizon Center, Patriot Center, Kettler Capitals Iceplex and other related venues in our community. We generate about three million turnstile clicks annually in our three venues that we own or manage, and this is one of the biggest and most interactive audiences in our served market year after year.

Each venue has a local ecosystem around it – small businesses and dining establishments, bars and services that popped up to serve people in these areas. We want to provide more customers to these establishments. We believe we have created a set of hubs and these related spokes need more support from us to thrive and to grow.

Monumental Sports & Entertainment is all about having fun, being entertained, driving people to venues and then enjoying the city and supporting local business. This new media service is designed to offer up a city guide-like service with an emphasis on sports, entertainment, dining, charity and community.

We wanted to create a one stop shop of all things related to what is important to you as a family or a young professional and what to do in the DMV!

We also wanted to find great new interactive ways to support all bloggers and online media partners that create information about our community. We will drive traffic to these folks and their sites and help celebrate all that is good about our community.

In the sports world we will not only celebrate professional sports but also collegiate and high school and local youth-oriented sports. In all categories - men and woman.

In the entertainment categories we will embrace all things that are fun and real time. And new. And all local charities as we support though all of our work at Monumental Sports & Entertainment and my family’s charitable work about 400 local charities each year.

We will use the latest in technology in this new platform, apps like Foursquare, interactive maps with a twist, Twitter real time feeds, Facebook news feeds, video streaming, photo hosting and a comprehensive scheduler that supersets all things going on in our area. We also will build a new interactive map and guide that is fresh and unique and will also tie in to some other new media properties that we plan to launch at Monumental Sports & Entertainment in the near future.

I believe this Monumental Report is unique and one of a kind. It is a fully interactive and comprehensive guide and is a product that as a consumer myself I needed and have wanted for a long, long time.

I also think it foreshadows what a new interactive network would look like one day. I envision a Monumental Sports & Entertainment channel in the cloud with streaming video, games, sports and movies pulled from SnagFilms’s library; a show about local merchants; what to do in our city; highlights on local heroes; and news and information. Our audience is built from our stable of websites, including WashingtonCaps.com, WashingtonWizards.com, WashingtonMystics.com, VerizonCenter.com, PatriotCenter.com, KettlerCapitalsIceplex.com, our radio shows, our cable television shows, our partners such as Georgetown University, George Mason University, Ticketmaster, the 9:30 Club and Merriweather Post Pavilion, our online newsletter and of course promotions within each of the venues themselves where people come and literally spend millions and millions of hours per year.

As I have noted in the past, we really are a media company, an e-commerce company and a local and hyper-local company. We are a bricks and clicks company. We are one of the largest employers in the city, and we are also a thriving and growing concern. It is why we have been honored as DC’s Business of the Year at the Washington Capitals by our Chamber of Commerce.

We have helped neighborhoods regenerate. We entertain literally millions of people. We help thousands of local merchants thrive. We put hundreds of bloggers into business and provide service and support to them. We help generate hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenues. We are central to our community.

Monumental Report is a public service and a guide to embrace all that we love about our community.

I also think it will be good business for us and for our partners. I think consumers will love it. Look for it everyday and watch it as it develops as a media property and how it foreshadows a next generation new media platform.

Check it out. Take it for a test spin in this beta test. Let us know what you think. Thank you.