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Photo by: DAHLIA KATZ PHOTOGRAPHY
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I f you go back to 1998,
Maple Leaf Gardens bought the Raptors, and what a culture clash.
You had a storied … at that point an 80-year-old franchise, and a really upstart NBA team that had had some success out of the gate but then sputtered. It was just two different worlds.
We had a big challenge of building a strong culture at MLSE. There’s a constellation of factors for the World Cup of Hockey [to be played at Air Canada Centre starting in September]. One is that it’s the Leafs’ 100th anniversary.
Another is that it’s the NHL’s 100th anniversary. We’ve got an opportunity to celebrate how hockey is so central to Canadian values. So we celebrate a big birthday for Canada, a big birthday for the Leafs and a big birthday for the league all in one year.
We’ve already gone ahead and rebranded the Maple Leafs. A lot of people think going to a classic Leafs logo is going backwards.
The current logo the Leafs are wearing was put in the 1970-71 season and we’ve never won anything in it. It’s not lost on us that that needs to change and change quickly.
Especially anchored by the leadership of Mike Babcock, Brendan Shanahan and Lou Lamoriello, I believe we’re on a championship path.
We’ve torn the house down. Part of that is looking like we looked when we were champions. The new logo is really evocative of the lore with those championship teams of the ’40s and ’60s.
If we’re going to start behaving like champions and looking like champions, it’s the right time to do that.
[Stadium naming-rights partner] BMO is terrific for us. We were just coming into the final year of that deal. MLS and MLS in Toronto, it’s still a product that’s growing. It’s been 10 years, we haven’t won a championship yet and haven’t hosted a playoff game yet.
We’ve struggled putting a competitive team on the field at times, but that’s changing. We made the playoffs last year. We’re still growing that product, and to have a tier-one chartered bank sign on for another 10 years.
When BMO field was built, it was underbuilt. While it was a good stadium, it was only a good stadium. A great stadium is going to have things like clubs, premium areas.
We added a whole new tier of suites and added capacity to go up near 30,000 seats. It’s a much, much bigger stadium — the fans loved the capacity and the premium touches.
One of the things we’ve struggled with is the rain. We’ve had the worst luck, so the roof was a real priority for us. It’s amazing how a couple bad experiences like that will lead to you making a big investment like this. The roof’s going to be a great investment.
Every single Leafs game we air in China outdraws our domestic audience despite the fact that the games are starting at 7:30 in the morning. That’s just the opportunity China represents, because of the magnitude of the marketplace.
China is really interested in becoming a sporting nation. They were so excited about the ’08 Olympics and now the ’22 Beijing Games, where hockey hopefully will be prominently featured. So their attention is turning to hockey.
I believe that as Chinese companies try to authenticate themselves in the sports space, they’re going to have to turn to other leagues to do so. NBA, NHL, EPL, there are lots of ways to authenticate themselves in the space. You’re starting to see that.
For us, it’s not about launching a franchise over there or something — that’s completely outside of our purview. What it is about is introducing our opportunity to Chinese companies. Very importantly, to advertise their product and services back to a Chinese domestic marketplace.
On the transition from Tim Leiweke to Michael Friisdahl … Michael [MLSE president and CEO since December] brings a real interesting point of view.
Michael and Tim are different guys with different styles. Quite frankly, wildly different styles. Sometimes you need a different horse for a different course.
With Tim, it was all about growth. A designated player strategy for Major League Soccer, it was about a very expensive renovation to BMO Field. He was a go-fast, grow-big guy and that’s been the hallmark of his career.
Michael is a much more disciplined, much more detail-oriented type of leader, which I think is just what we need right now.
With Tim, we’d bitten off a lot. It was the NBA All-Star Game, it’s the World Cup of Hockey. We’re going to play a Centennial Classic. What we need to do now is to make sure we execute superbly everything Tim had us doing.
With Michael, we’re seeing someone whose focus is much more on execution than it is on new growth initiatives.
