Three’s a crowd in Argos sale as Rogers skips party
• One of the backers of MapleLeafs Sports and Entertainment Ltd. was noticeably missing at Wednesday’s press conference that unveiled the new owners of the Canadian Football League’s Toronto Argonauts, BCE Inc. and MLSE chairman Larry Tanenbaum’s Kilmer Group: Rogers Communications Inc.
Bitter rivals BCE and Rogers put their feud aside when they teamed up in 2011 to buy a majority interest in MLSE. Along with Tanenbaum, the pair own the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Raptors, Toronto FC and the Marlies, among other media assets and real estate. Rogers also owns the Blue Jays and the Rogers Centre.
The duo has been adding to their libraries of coveted sports media rights, content that is best consumed live. Notably, in 2013, BCE bought the exclusive rights to CFL content on a variety of mediums through the 2018 football season.
The telcos sell sports to their cable, Internet and smartphone subscribers — and then they sell the audiences these games amass to deep-pocketed advertisers.
The absence of Rogers from the Argos’ new, long-awaited ownership structure sug- gests that while sports may be the king of live content, not all sports and franchises are equal.
“We already have the most-coveted sports assets and content in Canada,” Andrea Goldstein, spokeswoman at Rogers Media, said Wednesday in an email, adding the company is “glad” the Argos have found a new owner and a new home at BMO Field once their lease at the Rogers Centre expires after the 2017 season.
Not only is Rogers busy juggling the other sports teams it either owns or co-owns, but any investment it would have
We already have the most-coveted sports assets
poured into the Argos would have knowingly fed the content pipes and laced the pockets of its foe Bell.
“For Rogers, a competitor, to buy the team, when broadcast is the main element of the league, just didn’t make sense,” said Bob Stellick of Toronto’s Stellick Marketing Communications. “The challenge is the Argos have lost a lot of money at the gate for a number of years. The synergy component might make some sense: If the Argos get better, TV ratings will improve the value and that’s only going to accrue to TSN.”