A wake was held downtown last week for the fight against publicly subsidized sports stadiums. The ceremony was disguised as the unveiling of the Washington Kastles, a professional team tennis franchise.

Mayor Adrian M. Fenty announced that the Kastles will play at a tennis center built on the old D.C. Convention Center grounds, which are owned by the District. The city will also be kicking in $200,000 to “defray the cost of preparing the site” for a $1.1 million stadium.

The team’s inaugural season begins in July.

The spelling of the new squad’s name is funny and has no obvious connection to the host city. But that same odd spelling can be found on Kastle Keys, the state-of-the-art electronic keys used to open doors in modern office buildings. That’s the main product of Kastle Systems, an international security firm. That company was purchased last year by Mark Ein, who also happens to own D.C.’s new tennis team.

The logo for Ein’s sports franchise incorporates the logo of Ein’s security company.

The chances that the new team will succeed here are hardly slam-dunk. All you need to know about the market penetration of this gimmicky version of the court sport is that World Team Tennis, the confederation that sanctions the Kastles, has been around since the early 1970s and yet still has a franchise in...Schenectady. (D.C. fans have been told that Serena Williams, the only known quantity on the Kastles roster, is “expected” to play in as many as four of the squad’s matches.)... Continued