Outgoing Sportsnet president to keep the ball rolling
After eight years, Scott Moore moves on to new ventures
TORONTO — It’s hard not to be distracted when you walk into outgoing Sportsnet president Scott Moore’s corner office.
A variety of sports highlight shows are playing on a dozen different television monitors on the wall and on a single bigscreen TV that hangs near his desk. Sports paraphernalia is spread throughout the spacious quarters.
A line of goalie masks sits near a large meeting desk. Several vintage Olympic torches are nestled in the corner. Glass cases protect a collection of soccer balls, baseballs and tennis balls.
There is still some packing to do before Moore officially leaves the building at Rogers Communications headquarters at month’s end. Whether his absence from the sports media business will be a long one remains up in the air.
“Being a former standup comic, I know you want to get offstage while they’re still laughing,” Moore said.
The recent announcement of Moore’s departure caught many by surprise. The search is underway for his successor with Rogers Media president Rick Brace to handle the role on an interim basis.
“My history is to move on every four or five years. I’ve been here eight,” Moore said this week in a one-hour sit-down interview. “The way I do this job — it’s allconsuming.”
When Moore graduated from Ryerson Polytechnic Institute in 1984, he wanted to be a foreign correspondent or a hockey broadcaster. His focus quickly turned from potential on-air work to production and eventually management.
His timing has often been fortuitous and he admits he’s had plenty of luck along the way.
Before leaving for a European backpack trip after graduation, Moore left four resumes with his father to be sent to The Sports Network. Three of those envelopes were eventually mailed out with the fourth given to a friend of the family who worked for the upstart network’s then-owner.
Moore suspects that resume was the one that made it on the right desk. A phone call was made while Moore was at lunch with a friend the day after he returned from his trip.
“I’d had a couple of sangrias at a Mexican restaurant,” Moore said. “I got back (home) and my answering machine said, ‘Can you come up for an interview now?’ I was half in the bag and I