T.O. sports power couple hits five years of awkward bliss
Rogers and Bell learn to play nice with teams rolling, cash piling up
It was a puzzling marriage of convenience. Many doubted it would work. Or last.
But next week marks the five-year anniversary of the unusual professional sports union between Rogers and Bell, and rather than wanting to throttle one another, it would appear the fierce telecommunications rivals have found ways to work together and help the local pro sports scene flourish.
It was Dec. 9, 2011 when Rogers (Sportsnet) and Bell (TSN) announced that together they had spent $1.07 billion to jointly purchase 75 per cent controlling interesting in Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment from the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan.
Both primarily desired the content that owning the Maple Leafs, Raptors and Toronto FC would provide. Neither had the appetite to ingest the entire company, and both felt they didn’t want to let the other guy take it all.
So they hopped in bed together, while continuing to compete like crazy in cable, wireless, media, mobile phones and tablets. The assumption for many at the time was that one would ultimately buy out the other. The cultures at the companies were too different, neither had a history of success in pro sports and it just seemed they’d wear on each other.
That seemed even more likely in November, 2013 when Rogers scooped NHL broadcast rights out from under the noses of an unsuspecting Bell, which cried foul.
When the NHL board of governors went to approve the 12-year arrangement a few months later, MLSE abstained from the vote, so bitter were the feelings left over from the NHL deal.
Today, with the help of that NHL contract, Sportsnet has usurped TSN as the sports channel with the largest number of viewers in Canada. But the two companies remained wedded at MLSE with no signs of rupture or discord.
Moreover, the sports franchises they run together appear to be thriving.
Next week — after a spectacular twogame series with the Montreal Impact that concluded on Wednesday at a soldout, wildly enthusiastic BMO Field — TFC goes for it all in the MLS championship game, the first time an MLSE franchise will play for a major title.
The Raptors were in the NBA Eastern Conference final last spring and are every bit as much of a contender this season, while the Leafs are regarded as one of the most exciting, young and promising teams in the NHL.
And it’s all happened while they’ve been co-owned by two companies that like to dislike each other. How odd.
It’s worth remembering what the local state of sporting affairs was when Bell and Rogers first linked arms.
In June 2011, ESPN The Magazine published a survey that ranked Toronto as the worst pro sports city in North America, and the Leafs were listed as the worst franchise. Every single franchise in town was a loser. The Leafs were coming off an 85-point season in which they’d missed playoffs for a sixth straight year. The Raps were a horror show, having won 22 games under Jay Triano. The bedraggled soccer club, in its fifth season, was 16th out of 18 MLS teams.
For Rogers, their ownership of the Blue Jays wasn’t much better. The Jays hadn’t been in the playoffs since 1993, went 81-81 in 2011 and won fewer games the following season.
It was as if the T.O. sports scene had fallen into an enormous black hole. It felt hopeless, and collaboration between Rogers and Bell hardly seemed to represent a magic tonic. So why has it worked? Bringing in Tim Leiweke on April 26, 2013 as MLSE president and CEO, while short-lived, showed that both Rogers and Bell could see eye-to-eye on a major hiring, and Leiweke was able to gain enough political capital that he in turn was able to make a series of key hires that most would say have helped turned the fortunes of MLSE’s franchises around.
In May, 2013, Leiweke hired Masai Ujiri to run the Raptors. Four months later, TFC brought in Tim Bezbatchenko as its new general manager. Then in April 2014, Brendan Shanahan was hired as the new boss of the Leafs.
The Bell/Rogers marriage was a content play from the beginning, and with that as a motivating factor they’ve been able to more effectively make the pursuit of championships, and higher broadcast ratings, the company’s priority. All the teams have developed new practice facilities. The Leafs spent to lure head coach Mike Babcock, the Raps spent to re-sign DeMar DeRozan and TFC has used high-profile internationals such as Michael Bradley, Jozy Altidore and Sebastian Giovinco to become a championship contender.You no longer hear stories of MLSE board members meddling in club operations or setting shortterm agendas, like just trying to make the playoffs to make a few post-season bucks. The impression is of supportive, but not smothering, local owners.
The simple reason may be that their interests are aligned in this joint investment. Given that the Leafs alone were valued at $1.1 billion this week by Forbes magazine, the MLSE purchase appears to be paying off. Moreover, it would be more expensive now for one to buy the other out. So they’re stuck together.
Both are getting the content inventory they want from MLSE products, although Leaf regional numbers could be better. On Wednesday, TSN shattered TFC ratings records by drawing 1.4 million viewers for the second leg of the Montreal series.
The two telecommunication giants may aspire to eat each other’s lunch with their other businesses, but it appears they’ve not only been able to play nice together in the MLSE sandbox, they’ve been able to give Toronto sports fans something to cheer about.
Has this marriage of convenience blossomed into true love? Not a chance.
But as long as everybody’s making money, lots of it, they can co-exist. Damien Cox is the co-host of Prime Time Sports on Sportsnet 590 The FAN. He spent nearly 30 years covering a variety of sports for the Star. Follow him @DamoSpin. His column appears Tuesday and Saturday.