Leiweke hailed as visionary, skilled leader
As policy director at the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, Madeline Janis has been in and out of boardrooms with incoming MLSE president and CEO Tim Leiweke for nearly two decades.
Most recently they were both involved in complex negotiations surrounding Farmers Field, a $1.5-billion football stadium Leiweke’s former employer, AEG, planned to build in downtown Los Angeles. Leiweke spearheaded the deal, but closing it meant satisfying a broad
“Occasionally my enthusiasm gets me into trouble.” TIM LEIWEKE NEW PRESIDENT AND CEO OF MLSE
range of stakeholders: nearby retailers after more business; labour groups like Janis’s seeking quality jobs; AEG hoping to win an NFL team; taxpayers hoping not to get stuck with a bill.
Janis says Leiweke is the same hardnosed negotiator he always was, but that he might have handled a similar situa- tion differently in the 1990s, securing the best deal possible for his employer without worrying about how other parties would fare.
But last year Leiweke worked to craft an agreement, signed in October by L.A. mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, which pleased all parties, from unions to taxpayers to retailers.
Though subsequent changes at AEG have put the Farmers Field project on hold, Janis saw Leiweke’s leadership as evidence of his evolution.
He’s still a tough bargainer but now he’s also a civic-minded dealmaker, a big-picture thinker. . . .
“He grew into a civic leader and became a really deep believer in community partnerships,” Janis says. “He has the ability to see the win-win, and there are very few business leaders, frankly, in this country like him.”
When Leiweke, 47, starts his job with MLSE June 30 he’ll take over an outfit that’s smaller than but similar to the $8-billion corporation he left. Like MLSE, AEG is a multi-property sports empire that generates massive revenue by branching out into entertainment, retail and real estate.
Under Leiweke’s leadership AEG built the Staples Center, the arena that brought the Lakers, Clippers and Kings to the downtown core. He also oversaw the construction and management of LA LIVE, an entertainment complex next to the Staples Center that includes live music venues like the Nokia Theater, a cinema, a Marriott Hotel and a luxury condo complex.
“He’s a dynamic and visionary individual from a business and civic point of view,” says L.A. County supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky.
“He has a vision of what a city should be and how entertainment and sports and culture fit into a city’s economy. L.A.’s loss is Toronto’s gain.”
Two months before his arrival, speculation abounds about exactly what Leiweke’s job in Toronto will entail beyond helping turn perennially struggling clubs like the Leafs, Raptors and TFC into consistent contenders.
He helped direct the construction of AEG’s non-sports assets, but MLSE’s retail and real estate portfolio is already established.
The St. Louis native also quarterbacked AEG’s efforts to bring an NFL team to Los Angeles, but because the league forbids corporate owners it’s not immediately clear how MLSE or majority co-owner Rogers could leverage Leiweke’s clout to realize Rogers’ long-deferred NFL dream.
On a Friday night media conference call Leiweke stressed that strengthening the Raptors was his first priority, but didn’t completely dismiss the idea of helping bring the NFL here.
“The best thing we can do right now is stay focused . . . on the assets we have,” he said. “If down the road there’s something I can do to help on the NFL, I will be prepared to use those relationships because now Toronto is my hometown.” Today, Leiweke has a network of high-powered connections, but his sports management career started out in 1979 with a fairly modest appointment as the assistant general manager of the St. Louis Steamers of the Major Indoor Soccer League. The following season he took over as general manager of the MISL’s Baltimore Blast, becoming at 24 the youngest general manager in North American pro sports. He later became president of the MISL’s Kansas City Comets. Leiweke’s connection to soccer remained strong after moving to AEG, which owns the MLS champion L.A. Galaxy. He played a key role in bringing superstar David Beckham to the U.S. and MLS commissioner Don Garber says no matter how busy Leiweke’s new job keeps him he’ll find time to concentrate on elevating TFC from the MLS cellar. “There’s a real dream team at MLSE as it relates to soccer,” Garber said.“(Manager) Kevin Payne has shown that he knows how to build a club, and now he’s got even more support at the executive level with Tim.” After stints with U.S. Skiing and the Minnesota Timberwolves, Leiweke spent four seasons as president of the Denver Nuggets, helping broker the deal that transformed the Quebec Nordiques into the Colorado Avalanche in 1995. In 1996, Leiweke began his 17year-run at AEG, a tenure that ended with a Stanley Cup title for the Kings and an MLS Cup for the Galaxy, a run of success that earned him the Sports Business Journal’s Executive of the Year Award. Former Toronto Argonauts president Brian Cooper says Leiweke’s teams succeed, in part, because he has a sharp sense of when to get involved in day-to-day operations and when to back off. What’s unknown, Cooper says, is how Leiweke’s style will fit into Rogers’ corporate structure. “He lets management manage, but he’s a strong leader,” says Cooper, who runs the S&E Sponsorship Group. “(But) he had free rein with AEG, and I don’t know if he’s going to have that freedom with the (MLSE) board. “He’s working for a corporate entity with stakeholders that have different agendas. In the past he didn’t spend a lot of time managing up. . . . Now it may be different.”