The Washington Capitals’ biggest fan woke up last Saturday at 4:30 a.m., long before the team would play its biggest regular-season game in franchise history. Too long. He blogged and e-mailed and tinkered with his Facebook page and exercised before his wife politely kicked him out of the house. He ran errands. He got a manicure and a pedicure and read for awhile and took a little nap.
And after all that, Ted Leonsis’ day was just getting started.
The Capitals’ owner drove to Verizon Center and mingled with the crowd. Then he sat in the seats with his family, wearing a red Caps jersey and screaming with the rest of the 18,277 in attendance, also wearing red. Together they rocked the place during the 3-1 victory over Florida that clinched the Southeast division and the team’s first playoff berth in five years. A loss in regulation would have abruptly ended the season. When Mr. Leonsis caught himself on the giant video screen cheering after the game, he blew kisses to the crowd.
In a life that has known risk and danger, some failure but more success, this is a good time to be Ted Leonsis.
After finishing last for two straight seasons, the Caps again were in last place on Thanksgiving. Now they are in the postseason getting ready to play Philadelphia at home tonight, led by arguably the best player in the National Hockey League, Alex Ovechkin. Moreover, the documentary film Mr. Leonsis produced, “Nanking,” has generated rave reviews if not huge grosses, and his second documentary, “Kicking It,” is headed for release.
The outspoken, outgoing Mr. Leonsis might be the most visible and accessible owner in sports. A pioneer in new-media technology who earned a fortune through helping propel the growth of America Online, he interacts with fans virtually, mainly through his “Ted’s Take” blog and in chat rooms. But he is, in all respects, a hands-on guy. The human touch is essential. He strolls the concourses of Verizon Center, meeting and greeting like a politician looking for votes.
Mr. Leonsis, 52, is a generous sports mogul, reflecting a world view shaped by surviving a plane crash in 1983. Granted, team owners and other fabulously rich people often share their wealth; Mr. Leonsis goes further. He is involved with consciousness-raising film projects outside the sports and business worlds. He even invented a word, filmanthropy, which he says means bringing attention to social issues through movies.
“I survived my little plane crash and had my life reckoning, and I think it’s important that you leave more than you take,” he said. “Philanthropy and charity work are small ways of trying to balance the ledger.”
“Nanking” is based on the book “The Rape of Nanking” by Iris Chang, which details the killing of more than 200,000 Chinese civilians and other atrocities at the hands of the Japanese in 1937-38. Mr. Leonsis read the book a few years ago while sailing on his yacht. Startled not only by the story but by the fact that few people seem to know about it, he decided to make a movie.
The film combines documentary footage and actors (Woody Harrelson and Mariel Hemingway, among others) playing the parts of those who lent assistance. Since its December premier, “Nanking” has earned less than $200,000 domestically, where Mr. Leonsis said it played in just seven theaters, and more than $2 million overseas, mostly in China. It will be released to a wider audience on HBO and DVD on April 29.
But making money isn’t what the film is about.
“It’s about righting a wrong and dealing with a horrific time in history with dignity and honor,” Mr. Leonsis said. “It wasn’t about creating entertainment, but telling a story as factually as one could and treating a very sensitive subject matter the right way.”
The film was shown at the Sundance Film Festival, where it won an award for best editing. On a movie Web site that gathers reviews and distinguishes the positive from the negative, “Nanking” has a 97 percent approval rating.
“I was very proud to conceive of the idea,” Mr. Leonsis said. “I paid for it all and hired the right people. The beauty of it was that it has a beginning, a middle and an end. It’s a historic entry.”
The film made a lasting impression on its audience, which, after all, was the point.
“It was an incredibly powerful documentary,” Caps General Manager George McPhee said. “It sure brings you down. But it’s a piece of history not enough people are aware of.”
Mr. Leonsis “is one of those guys who seems to have whatever it takes to do real neat things,” Mr. McPhee added. “He has intellect and talent.”
“Kicking It” deals with the issue of homelessness. The film, narrated by actor Colin Farrell, is about seven soccer players who competed in the 2006 Homeless World Cup in South Africa. ESPN owns the worldwide television and digital rights and another company will handle DVD and theater distribution. “It shows how a ball can change your life,” Mr. Leonsis said.
Mr. Leonsis, who failed at trying to get a reality television show produced, learned the film business from the ground up. He asked a lot of questions, did his research and found the right people. Most of all, he listened. “The older I’ve gotten, the better listener I’ve gotten,” he said.
The difference between producing a movie and producing a winning hockey team is that the Caps are “so personal and emotional, because this is the city you live in,” he said. “It becomes part of your identity.”
Mr. Leonsis’ own identity is that of an activist owner, fully and publicly involved, who not only tolerates the limelight but also enjoys it. “He’s a leader, a really gregarious, passionate extrovert,” team President Dick Patrick said. “He’s really accessible and he feeds on it. Some people don’t like to be accessible. I know I don’t.”
“He’s one of the reasons I wanted to be associated with a sports team,” said Nationals owner Mark Lerner, a minority partner with the Caps. “He’s innovative, accessible, committed, involved and most importantly, absolutely always interested.”
Mr. Leonsis’ interest has fostered some bold decisions, some that worked out and others that sounded good at the time. As a minority owner of the Washington Wizards, he persuaded Michael Jordan to buy into the club and run the basketball operations. Interest and attention immediately spiked, but the experience ended badly and left the team in a hole. Hungry for quick success with the Caps, Mr. Leonsis invested in All-Star Jaromir Jagr and other big-name, big-salary players. That didn’t work, either.
Coming to the painful realization that they had an underachieving, money-losing club, Mr. Patrick and Mr. McPhee, with Mr. Leonsis’ full support, launched their massive rebuilding effort during the 2003-04 season. They traded the big names and big salaries and essentially started over, committing to the draft and player development.
It helped that the Caps won the draft lottery and picked Ovechkin, but it would be an arduous process requiring patience, a trait often foreign to similarly high-profile owners. But look: It’s the Caps and Flyers tonight in Game 1.
“Its easy to put together a plan, but it’s an altogether different thing to live through it,” Mr. McPhee said. “Ted stayed with the plan.”
For all of his fan-friendliness, Mr. Leonsis has not always been rewarded in kind. During the rough times, people peppered him with personal, even obscene e-mails, and he was the subject of unflattering signs. Some of the fans who cheered his image Saturday probably used to boo him. After the Caps traded Jagr in 2004, a season-ticket holder accosted Mr. Leonsis, resulting in a physical altercation.
The two parties eventually made up, and Mr. Leonsis said he came to understand that only a few fans were responsible for the abuse. Still, the last-place finishes and this year’s slow start, before Bruce Boudreau replaced Glen Hanlon as head coach in late November and the team took off, were hard to endure.
“We took dramatic risks,” Mr. Leonsis said. “We said, ’We hope you’ll be patient. It’s gonna be hard. No tricks. Nothing up my sleeve.’ And we’ve executed with it. My promise was that we’d wake up one day and we’d be good, and good for a long, long time. This is a step.”
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