MedStar Health and Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE) announced an expanded, innovative and fully-integrated medical partnership that will make MedStar the naming rights partner for the 2018 Stanley Cup Champion Washington Capitals, Capital City Go-Go, Washington Mystics, Washington Wizards, and Washington Wizards District Gaming (DG) training facilities. Specifically, the Capitals training facility will immediately become MedStar Capitals Iceplex. The new practice facility, opening this fall at the St. Elizabeths campus in southeast Washington, D.C., for the Wizards, Mystics and Go-Go, will be named MedStar Wizards Performance Center. The Wizards District Gaming training facility immediately becomes the MedStar Wizards District Gaming Studio.

Additionally, MedStar continues to serve as the Official Medical Provider of the Washington Capitals, Washington Wizards, Washington Mystics, Capital City Go-Go, Washington Valor, Baltimore Brigade, and Wizards DG. MedStar also continues as the official training camp and practice jersey patch partner of the Capitals and Wizards.

As part of this expanded agreement, MedStar and MSE will create a groundbreaking new medical partnership model, which establishes a Medical Council that assesses best practices and applies new, cutting-edge medical training techniques to each team. An Organizational Medical Director will oversee the team medicine operation to ensure maximum performance efficiency. MedStar and MSE will also join forces on six health-related public awareness campaigns, designed to impact the health and wellness of the community.

“MedStar Health is a trailblazer in health care in the Washington and Baltimore communities,” said Ted Leonsis, CEO and Majority Owner of Monumental Sports & Entertainment. “We are thrilled to enter into this innovative partnership with them that will bring MedStar’s unparalleled excellence in health care to every single team in the Monumental Sports family. We hope that this expanded partnership will help reimagine the way teams in professional sports approach delivering the very best medical care.”

“We are also very proud to have MedStar join us in bringing their powerful brand to southeast Washington,” Leonsis added. “We are focused on making the MedStar Wizards Performance Center a vibrant part of the community in Anacostia, and we are thrilled to have MedStar partner with us in this effort.”

“The evolution and expansion of this exciting agreement, the breadth and scope of which is truly unique in health care and professional sports, reflects the strengths and expertise of our respective organizations, people and services,” said Kenneth A. Samet, FACHE, President and CEO, MedStar Health. “We welcome the significant opportunities this collaboration with Monumental Sports & Entertainment will bring to our organizations, the teams and sports we support, and most importantly, our patients and communities.”

In addition to the Capitals and Wizards performance facility naming rights, MSE’s NBA2K esports team, Wizards District Gaming, will now train in the MedStar Wizards District Gaming Studio, a new, top-of-the-line esports training facility adjacent to Capital One Arena. Esports are one of the fastest-growing sectors in sports and entertainment with a huge-and young-global audience. MedStar and MSE are expanding their partnership into esports just as its audience is growing at an exponential rate.

By Harrison Brown