Order your copy today wherever books are sold. Next, marilyn governor larry hogan, Washington Capitals and wizards owner ted leonsis, and kim ford are interviewed about the coronavirus pandemic. The Economic Club of washington hosted this event. David hello. Im david rubenstein, and im the president of the Economic Club of washington. And i want to welcome you to our sixth Virtual Event since the corona crisis has begun. We have been trying to give you information about the local community, as well as things going on around the country, and we hope you enjoy these. Today, we have our membership watching. We also have a number of members of the diplomatic corps who are tuning in as well, and a number of invited guests who are not members of the club are also involved in listening and watching as well. We have three special guests today. The first is ted leonsis, who is the founder, chairman, principal partner, and ceo of monumental sports entertainment. The second is the governor of maryland, honorable lawrence hogan, who is also the chair of the National Governors association. And then we have kim ford, who is the president and ceo of marthas table. And we will do them in the order that i just mentioned. I would just like to let people know that probably next week, maybe on friday, we will have another program. We are working on the details of that now. Secondly, on april 28, a week from next tuesday, have dr. Tony fauci, who is reasonably wellknown these days as the director of the National Institute of allergy and infectious diseases, and we look forward to a good conversation with him. So what i would like to do is remind everybody that, after this interview is completed, it will be about one hour total, we will put this up on our website, www. Economicclub. Org, and you will be able to watch it on video later on if you would like to do so. So, if i could, i would like to start with ted leonsis. Ted, welcome. Thank you for doing this. Ted thank you, david. Youre doing a fantastic service to the Business Community and very innovative and everyone appreciate your work. David thank you very much. Youre are the person who has fought bought many years ago i think it was 1999 you bought the caps, the wizards, the capital one center, and the mystics. You have three sports teams, plus the building. How has your business been affected by the shutdown of essentially society . Ted you can see over my shoulder i have the replica stanley cup and autographed guitar. I want to remind everybody that we are the district of champions , not the district of coronavirus. Now our champions are our First Responders. How it is affected our business, we are simply in a state of ableng and we hope to be to finish in some manner our regularseason and the playoffs. We want to use this time to really show our appreciation to everyone in the community. We are going to put all our employees and people first and our players first. Important,is most even though it is the district of champions, that we are very focused on what is happening to society is way bigger than what is happening to us in the industry of sports. David do you think it is realistic that the regularseason for the basketball and hockey teams you own can be resumed and that there can be playoffs . Or do you think it is more realistic that we will just not see anymore hockey or basketball this year . Pyeongchangioner uci gave us tips on how we should be preparing. In a way where there is no fence. Fans. That makes a lot of sense. Howeed to remind everyone leagues and teams are organized. Ight have to refinish go and attend a board of governors. We are called governors with the nba. The nba is like our federal government, if you will. Take our lead from governors and the federal government and all of the Public Health associations and we listen to them. We cannot play games on our own. We have to play within the league format. The players belong to a union. ,he union deals collectively bargaining agreements with the leagues, and so that is the focus right now, how can we end , we the Washington Capitals and the wizards, ate a whole games so far for the caps and 11 so far for the wizards in total. We have to figure out how we end the season and then go into the playoffs. We will get our direction from also thee, but governors and in d. C. It is our mayor. We will figure out where we can play, how we can play, but we are operating in a suspended mode. All of our focus is on what to do about the remainder of this season. How many total employees is money mental have . Have . Monumental ted we have more than 600 fulltime employees. We play about 100 players through all the teams and we , who iout 1500 parttime felt it was the right thing to do to pay our parttime employees who had signed up to april. R march and them. Not an advance to when we come back, they will sign up, staff the new games, and we will pay them there. I have not had any furloughs or cuts or layoffs for fulltime employees. I think that right now we are waiting to get our cue from the city and from Health Organizations and the legal on how we are going to move forward. I also think that i want to use our time productively with workforce. I challenge and i want everyone notion oftening this lets get back to normal is wrong. Mantra of lets build to better. Lets take this time, self reflect, look internally, and what can we be doing better when we come back . For ourtionally or customers, for our fans. How can we innovate . We are a content company. That is a big part of our revenue stream. Because we have not been able to y, we were the forced First Organization to build simulated games. Our partnership with nbc and comcast is so important to us. We played a regularseason on television, and we were able to bring in our announcers and players to comment and be interviewed. We announced today that Wayne Gretzky has challenged alex yvette can to a game online. We as an organization believe in innovation, and we have been leaders in east sports. I have been talking a lot about you sports. You sports is having its moment right now. It was built digitally first. They are accustomed to working at home and practicing at home and now we are having our Basketball Team and our whole workforce work like we are and he sports company. We are doing interactive yoga classes on zoom to key players in shape. I think this should be a time of innovation while we pause. What can we do better for us in d. C. . I want us to be additive. I want to leave more than we take. We paid our taxes upfront. Not have any yet seeking unemployment. Active in our philanthropy. Medstar is a partner of ours that needs to be celebrated for the work they have been doing for the First Responders. Employees areur being activated. We understand the power of community. This is just a moment in time. We all need to get out of the woe is me. I view this as a pause in what we have been doing. It should be an opportunity to springboard to a better future. David are the other hockey teams and bass ball teams around the country also having a no furlough policy . I would assume many of them would have furloughed at least the parttime people. David every ted every market, every Ownership Group is in their own unique set of circumstances. We have probably been hurt the most, if you will, because we own many teams and the building. There are many teams that play in a building that is owned by the state. When you interview governor hogan, you should ask him how he is doing right now with orioles. Ark and ravens Stadium University of maryland owns comcast arena on campus. He is the biggest landlord in sport locally. Our mayor and the city owns the nats stadium. We have d. C. United. We have capital one arena privately owned. All in this are together. We have all been hit hard. We have been focused on always being fortified to run a good legal organization. We are fortunate we are not burdened with too much debt. I published a paper a couple is a ago that said here cheat sheet on how to manage through crisis. Im old enough now to have been through a bunch of these. Was the last one, but we have had tremendous economic downturns previously, and you have to stand behind what your principles are and then, in a business sense, i put together is mostf, what important to us, and how would the energy, dollars flow . We chose people as being first and we lived up to that to date. We said our partners were part of that. Our players are our partners. They are in that stack. And then our property. We waterfall down from there. We want to walk the talk, and we do not know so much still. That has been the frustrating thing. Markets do not like unknowns. Employees do not like the unknown. Well, have done is say, we cannot boil the ocean. We need to focus on our little part of the ecosystem, monumental sports, and do the best we can for that part of the community and also to be positive. We want to be additive. I was joking the other day. I missed the ticker when it said the capsule were winning 51 in to third period and we want use sports in as many ways as we to to rally the Community One day again be a convene her. I lived through 9 11. People might forget that Michael Jordan worked with us as a partner. Summer back to play that the very first game for the nba after 9 11 at Madison Square garden. The yankees were in the world series. Billy joel held a big concert in Madison Square garden. Michael jordan played. The wizards played. Before, we closed the new york stock exchange. They opened that weekend. Michael jordan and i and a bunch of other people closed it. Zero. T down to ground it was magnificent to see the First Responders with Michael Jordan. That was a touching moment. Sports and entertainment played a catalytic role in bringing our community back. We will play that again. We make might not be the convener out of the gate, but certainly is a content company, as a providing entertainment at home, that is something we need to do. The leagues are committed to our fans and our community. Do have people coming back into your arena, you envision there will be social distancing or they will have to be Wearing Masks . Ted we are trying to innovate. We have hundreds of people thinking through all of the new ways that we can accomplish our goal. I am hopeful, and i do not give the innovative spirit of our country. I am an investor in some tech based medical and health care companies. It is a great investment of ours. I have seen the best of the brightest now in the health services. I am hoping that it is more cant a vaccine so that we not have to profile. I, in thee thing that principles part, i do not believe in. I really would like to find a it is a communal resource and that we can have everyone participate. Maybe it is through augmented reality, virtual reality, and eventually bringing open the building. Certainly we are going to have new ways to cleanse the building, keep the building clean. I am not buying in in any way that we will not be able to eat in restaurants before a game and come to capital one arena and be able to enjoy these together. I think it is just what timeframe does that happen in . David what about your athletes . You mentioned they are working out. How do you make sure they stay in shape and is it harder for them living by themselves to get the training and coaching they need to stay in shape . I am proud of the players and league and all of our staff. Tool. S a wonderful we also are feeding players. We monitor the players. We use technology to track what they are doing. I saw an interview yesterday. He looks fantastic. Gym in his home. He is able to watch what doing. His weight is way down. Period, is using this or i hope everyone is using this period, to get ready for the come back. To get the key thing into new routines. I think a lot of players around the league will use their time for competitive events. If they can find ways to train, to work on something there was a shortcoming in this notion of being able to master something. We have been encouraging every part of the organization. Do not wallow in and watch television and say, woe is me. Play offense and use this time to do something that matters. Do not let a crisis be this terrible thing. What can we do to innovate, pay ourh to homage to heroes, make sure our players do not get sick . Everyone in our ecosystem is healthy. That is important when we know how and when we are coming back. That has been our first focus, the physical health and then the Mental Health and economic withinof everyone monumental sports and entertainment. David . How are you staying healthy . Are you social distancing . Say we have and i been six weeks. I have taken it very seriously. If you are a leader, you have to be able to walk the talk. I wanted to make sure i do not get sick. I am in the demographic. I am in the 60s, im a little overweight, i have alice i have asthma. I want to lead our organization and be a good example and i have been doing that. Harder,ever worked never had as many meetings and conversations. I do think that our work will change. I have found this to be incredibly productive. There is no longer Staff Meetings or important meetings where these three people cannot be here. They are on the road. Last two days, i had a bunch of are alwaysngs that scheduled quarterly in chicago. It was truly amazing. I can work out in the morning. You do not have to pack. You do not have to go to the and fight through the traffic. Those found reclaiming travel hours to be very, very powerful, and im trying to be very mindful of what i can do with those extra hours. David tell us about what philanthropy monumental is doing in the community in which you operate. Ted we have a Monthly Program where the organization has been very focused on a series of charities. Ou will hear from one later we also have been working with some of our vendors and chefs to feed First Responders. We want to do a lot more with medstar. Medstar, Howard University hospital, the list goes on and on. They are really the organizations that the government needs to focus on for. Ailout their business has essentially been about elective surgery, of which there are none. They will have deep, deep economic issues. They have done is been in service to the unity, and we want to find ways to help them. I think our level of philanthropy monetarily will increase. It has been frustrating that a lot of what we do, going and working in the kitchen or volunteering with young people in schools, you cannot do during a lockdown. We want to help by giving more money, but we also want to help by helping these charities to find different ways to work. Im personally involved in educational charities. , your workare, too with scholarship and the Economic Club. I am concerned. Focused on kids who are seniors in high school and they are not able to finish school and they are going to college. How will that happen . Freshmen or sophomores who have come back now and are not able to finish out their year, being able to study at home, some of them in perhaps environments that are not conducive to being studious. There are going to be ripple effects through our community. We are going to have to step up, all of us, and we have to do it in a time when all of our net worth and financial standing is taking a great hit. I have decided for our organization, we are going to do as much as we can. A real that this is reckoning for our society. It is not the end. I think the more that we give now, the better we will feel about or organizations and ourselves when we go forward. We are going to suffer pains, but shared pain is what the world is built on. Said inn the other day the obituary of one of my uncles he died at 98 years old. Germany during world war ii. 75 Million People died. We all know what happened to the communities, the jewish community. That was the greatest generation, right . The woe is me. I am going stir crazy. We have to redefine what selfsacrifice is. We have to redefine what our values are. I am hoping that sports can end , but in about heroes perspective to what real heroes and heroism is and who are the people in the community that need our help and support . Try to rally our players. In the league is doing so much to rally players and all of the owners to lean more. Forward invest in a lot of these activities. David final question, ted. What main message would you like to get your fans, your mystics come atur wizards fans the main message you would like to give them in 30 seconds or so . Ted we love them very much. And it sounds trite sometimes to say we are in it together, that we will all try to do the right things in the right way, and we will get through it together. If we try not to come back to normal but we built together to we will see this andhockey stick in value feel better about ourselves as a society. Lets play off that im a take advantage of this time together, and make a better world. David thank you, ted. I look forward to coming to one of your games as soon as possible. Ted are you wearing sweatpants . David no. This is my only outfit. I only have suits. Thank you very much. We will be in touch. Ted thank you. David i would like to introduce now, by audio, the governor of the state of maryland. He is the 62nd governor of the state of maryland, elected in 2014 in his first bid for electoral office, reelected overwhelmingly in 2018. I would point out he is the first republican governor the second republican governor to be reelected in the 240 two year history of the state of maryland, my native state. He has been elected by his peers as the head of the National Governors association. Governor hogan, can you hear me . You very much. Nk that is quite an introduction. I appreciate that. Melso appreciate ted calling the biggest landlord and sports in the region. That was a nice intro. Thank you for having me. David thank you for coming. You have been at the forefront of this. Think the you, do you we have seen in new york, the enormous amounts of people