Maple Leafs Block Rogers' Attempt To Air Senators Game

Maple Leafs Blocking Rogers From Airing Flyers-Senators Game

The Maple Leafs “exercised considerable muscle in the territorial rights department and booted aside a Rogers Television request” to air the September 18 Flyers-Senators preseason game in the London, Ontario market, according to the OTTAWA SUN. A request by CJBK-AM to air the game was “also squashed.” Maple Leafs Sports & Entertainment Exec VP & COO Tom Anselmi said, “London is outside of our marketing territory, but it’s within our broadcast territory. The league controls where the games are played and we’re fine with that. But broadcasting the game in our territory was something we weren’t comfortable with.” Rogers Regional Station Manager Mike Patterson said, “We would’ve liked to offer the Flyers-Ottawa game but unfortunately, we were unable to get final approval. We wanted to show the game in the London area and Ottawa regions. With broadcast rights, it’s not our call."  Senators VP/Broadcasting Jim Steel said that the game will be "beamed by Rogers back to [Ottawa]" (OTTAWA SUN, 9/6).