Monumental Sports restructures marketing and communications leadership

Monumental Sports and Entertainment, the company that owns the Wizards, Mystics and Capitals has eliminated multiple high-ranking marketing and communications staff members in recent days. They include Kurt Kehl, the Chief Communications Officer, Joe Dupriest, the Chief Marketing Officer, and Kim Frank, Vice President of Marketing.

According to Dan Steinberg of The Washington Post, Monumental Sports sent a group email to its staff members to explain the changes:

In recent years, Monumental Sports has "expanded our business ventures to include the AFL and the Monumental Sports Network," the group said in an e-mail to staffers. During that process, "we have progressively decentralized our marketing and communications functions," the e-mail went on. "We have determined that we no longer have a need for an organizational-wide position for these functions and we are eliminating the chief positions in both of these departments."

From an organizational standpoint, it is understandable as to why Monumental Sports is decentralizing its marketing.

The company includes four professional sports teams including the Arena Football League team that opens next year plus the aforementioned Monumental Sports Network, which is the digital media brand for the companies.

The marketing campaigns for all of these teams all require different skill sets and some things that work for the Wizards may not work for the Capitals, Mystics, or AFL team, make your pick. That said, Dupriest specifically led the branding efforts behind the Capitals' #RockTheRed and Wizards' #dcRising movements which define the Alex Ovechkin and John Wall eras respectively. They're catchy and fit the essence of what the current Capitals and Wizards are all about.

Will these executive moves affect what goes on with the Wizards, Mystics, or Capitals on the court or the ice? Probably not. But I think we can expect to see the three teams take different directions with their branding and advertising over the next several months as their staffs become more specialized with their respective leagues.