'Second class treatment'

Caps owner Leonsis upset over attendance, schedule

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The empty seats. The "second-class" treatment from his partner. Overtime penalties. Another $20 million in losses with no profit in sight.

Washington Capitals owner Ted Leonsis, the epitome of the nice-guy, fan-friendly owner, wasn't feeling so nice or friendly after another National Hockey League playoff collapse by his team.

The disappointment was still in Leonsis' voice Monday, one day after his stinging words outside the Capitals locker room following a 2-1 triple-overtime, playoff-ending loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning in front of an MCI Center crowd that had plenty of elbow room.

"The market has spoken," Leonsis said. "The truth of the matter was that we worked very, very hard to expand our fan base, and it was apparent we didn't capture the imagination of a broader base of fan. We played to less than a capacity crowd."

"The fans who came and the fans we have are world class. We just don't have enough of them."

Leonsis has been one of the most proactive sports owners in the country, marketing his team with the same savvy that put AOL on top of the Internet world. He answers fans' e-mails, shakes their hands on the concourses and takes their suggestions seriously. He signed the biggest blue-chip player available -- Jaromir Jagr -- to win games and fill seats.

But the Capitals failed to sell out all three home games of their first-round series against the Lightning. Playing during Passover and Easter didn't help, but Leonsis agreed that wasn't the real problem.

Despite all of the owner's work, the Capitals still do not have broad support in the nation's capital. There seem to be -- as it has seemed for many years -- about 15,000 really good fans, with no one else interested at all.

It has forced Leonsis to come to a conclusion not often seen in pro sports: In the Capitals' case, stars players and winning teams don't pack in the fans.

"I don't think you'll see us being active in the free agent market this summer," Leonsis said. "Our payroll is high enough. We're certainly not to going to increase our payroll, because there doesn't seem to be a correlation between wins and losses and attendance."

The Capitals lost another $20 million this season largely because they don't get the usual perks from their arena. Abe Pollin remains the majority owner of both the MCI Center and the Washington Wizards, with Leonsis having the first chance to buy both when Pollin decides to sell. It's unlikely Leonsis and his partners will see a profit before then.

But at least the Capitals, according to their lease, are supposed to have flexibility in scheduling playoff dates. That didn't happen this year because Pollin's group scheduled a Michael Jordan-sponsored high-school star game for last Thursday, forcing the older Capitals to play on back-to-back nights against the younger Lightning.

Leonsis said Sunday that he "will never, ever let our team in the postseason play second-class citizen again" and that the "party is over with my just turning the other cheek."

His words were more conciliatory Monday, but the point was the same.

"There was no flexibility," Leonsis said. "We do not want to play back-to-back games in the playoffs again, and I'm sure we can work it out."

Pollin had no comment, according to his spokesman.

Leonsis and his players also criticized the officiating during Sunday's post-mortem. The Capitals lost two games on overtime power plays, including the NHL's first 5-on-3 playoff goal in 70 years and a too-many-men call during a third overtime. They also claim the referee ignored the rule book when goaltender Olaf Kolzig was called for a four-minute high sticking penalty in Game 5.

"We got hosed in overtime of Game 3," Kolzig said. "The series is over now, I may as well complain about it."

With the points made, Leonsis said Monday he would not pursue the matter with the league office.

"Tampa won fair and square, and it's all in the past," he said.

Leonsis gave his vote of confidence to both general manager George McPhee and rookie coach Bruce Cassidy. He said he'll convene his front office people in Florida soon to "swim in the ocean a little bit and talk about what we have to do to improve."

Because of the belt-tightening, the Capitals will have to make do with less next season. Ken Klee, Michael Nylander and Sergei Berezin all might depart via free agency.

The players that remain will have to deal with the latest chapter of Capitals futility: They've now blown a two-game series lead four times since 1992.

"Things just happen. I don't know why. They just happen," Kolzig said. "Why haven't the Red Sox won in so many years? And so on and so on. For some reason every series there seems to be something we can't control that happens, and it seems to turn the series around for the opposition."

 

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