Outgoing Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment President & CEO Richard Peddie said that the search for his replacement "will resume 'immediately,'" following the sale of a majority stake of the company to Rogers Communications and Bell Media, according to David Shoalts of the GLOBE & MAIL. The search, which "will probably be directed" by MLSE Chair Larry Tanenbaum, "was postponed last spring when the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan put its majority share of the company up for sale." MLSE is "working with a search firm but the key decision will be made by Tanenbaum with, no doubt, lots of input from Rogers and BCE." MLSE Exec VP & COO Tom Anselmi is the "only confirmed candidate at present" (GLOBE & MAIL, 12/10). Sources said that MLSE CFO Ian Clarke also "may emerge as a strong internal candidate." Reports have suggested that Blue Jays President Paul Beeston or Rogers BOD member John Tory "might be considered" for the job. Former Canadiens President Pierre Boivin "was approached about his interest in the MLSE position but has declined to pursue the opportunity because of personal reasons." Rogers and Bell are also "said to admire" AEG President & CEO Tim Leiweke. AEG owns the NHL Kings and investment bankers said that the company "has quietly been shopping" the franchise "for at least several months." It is "uncertain whether Leiweke would consider a move to MLSE to be a lateral, and thus undesirable, move" (TORONTO STAR, 12/11). Meanwhile, Rogers CEO Nadir Mohamed said that the Blue Jays "would not be merged into MLSE." In N.Y., Belson & Klein noted Rogers' ownership of the Blue Jays and their ballpark "could cause concern with regulators fearful of the company's control of too many teams and arenas." There remain "regulatory hurdles to clear and league approvals to seek." And after "years of approving many larger mergers, Canadian regulators are more aggressively scrutinizing proposed deals" (N.Y. TIMES, 12/10).
ALL IN THE CONTENT: The NATIONAL POST's Jamie Sturgeon noted Rogers and Bell's purchase of MLSE allows each company to "shower prized live content on their respective sports networks, as well as their own subscribers." The deal "serves as a strong hedge against the exploding costs for acquiring live sports." Instead of "paying a high price to give their networks access to the country's pre-eminent sports programming, Rogers and Bell will own it, and sell it to other distributors." An analyst estimated that each company "will save between" C$80-90M annually in content costs. He also suggested that rates commanded by TSN and Sportsnet "are increasing by double digits annually." The "outstanding issue is how the two entities plan [to] divide the spoils, and how the relationship will unfold over time." The deal "doesn't have much of an impact until 2014, when current TV contracts held by MLSE with broadcasters come up." While several people Friday said that radio rights "have already been divided up between BCE and Rogers, it is uncertain if the television rights -- by far the main prize -- have been split" (NATIONAL POST, 12/10). The CP's Craig Wong noted Rogers and Bell execs are "promising fans of the NHL's Leafs and the other teams owned by MLSE ... will get more than just live coverage." Bell President & CEO George Cope on Friday said, "We believe that increasingly live content is going to be more and more important in the technology world and there is no better live content than the professional sports." Cope and Mohamed indicated that they "will be able to deliver a variety of core programming as well [as] digital extras such as multiple camera angles that can be played on computers, tablets and smartphones" (CP, 12/10). In Toronto, Raju Mudhar wrote, "The general takeaways right now are: 1) nothing is really going to change for two years until the Leafs’ TV rights come up; 2) this is more a business story than a sports one; 3) Tanenbaum is the big winner and continued kingmaker down the road; and 4) it’s much more about cellphone content than it is about the on-ice or on-court product" (TORONTO STAR, 12/11).
IMPACT ON THE ICE: THE HOCKEY NEWS' Ken Campbell wrote the Maple Leafs have long been "scorned for being a bunch of money grubbers who have no interest in spending what it takes to deliver a championship to its long suffering fans," but that is "not true." Tanenbaum and those running the franchise "want nothing more than to win a championship and have been willing to throw unlimited resources at the effort to do so." Their commitment "shouldn’t be questioned; the only problem is that historically they haven’t had a clue how to go about it." Campbell: "Will that change now that the team and its other assets are owned by the companies that operate NHL broadcasters TSN and Sportsnet? Perhaps, but you’d have had a difficult time unraveling that mystery when the new buyers were announced Friday. That’s because this deal is all about content" (THEHOCKEYNEWS.com, 12/9). The GLOBE & MAIL's Eric Duhatschek wrote, "In a salary-capped world, ownership is a neutral factor, unless ownership is unstable and forces its managerial group to operate at a financial disadvantage, by imposing a strict budget on its operations. That was never the case in Toronto under the Teachers’ stewardship and it won’t be the case in Toronto under the new BCE-Rogers umbrella either" (GLOBE & MAIL, 12/10). In Toronto, Steve Simmons wrote for MLSE teams there will be "little changes aside from presentation." Simmons: "That and the natural concern that the pair of communications giants will find new and creative ways to remove dollars from your pockets" (TORONTO SUN, 12/11). ESPN.com's Scott Burnside wrote, "From the outside this all seems like trading one group of faceless suits for another" (ESPN.com, 12/9).
BAD FOR BUSINESS? In Toronto, Ellen Roseman wrote, "The MLSE deal is wrong. Bell and Rogers have too much power. They use it to disable smaller rivals and stifle competition. ... Now they want to join force to monopolize sports broadcasting, using our inflated bills to fuel their buying spree. They should be stopped" (TORONTO STAR, 12/10). In Vancouver, Cam Cole wrote under the header, "Bell-Rogers Deal Good For Business; Viewers, Not So Much." Rogers and Bell now "control the faucet that turns sports content on or off, at their whim, across most of Canada" (VANCOUVER SUN, 12/10). The GLOBE & MAIL's Bruce Dowbiggin writes, "Already, subtle editorial bias can be seen when a network's program leads with a story on one of its properties. Not only do these two companies now control a vast array of media outlets from TV to radio to print, they also employ a number of journalists from other media" (GLOBE & MAIL, 12/12).
