DAVE HOPKINSON starts his new job with Real Madrid as Head of Global Partnerships in a few weeks, and the departing MLSE Chief Commercial Officer called the opportunity with the La Liga club "magical," according to John Kryk of the TORONTO SUN. Hopkinson said, “I’d always been very happy at MLSE. But, really, like anybody, if something magical came along, I’d be willing to listen to something magical. And the Real Madrid opportunity is a magical one.” He said the club is "not a Madrid brand" but a "global brand." He noted MLSE, which operates the Maple Leafs and Raptors, does "have fans around the world, but overwhelmingly it is a Toronto story." Hopkinson: "For Real, this is an opportunity to work on a truly global brand, and with something that has huge audiences everywhere around the world." He said of running the business side of a pro team, “What we need to do is make sure that we’re balancing affordability against our ambition to win. We could always make sports less expensive (for fans), but to do so would compromise our ability to win. And we could always make sports more expensive and drive this thing to even higher revenue heights, but we’d risk alienating our fans." Kryk notes a cynic "might point that Hopkinson has not exactly picked the best time to join Real Madrid -- what with the blockbuster departures in recent weeks" of F Cristiano Ronaldo and manager Zinedine Zidane. Club leadership "called Hopkinson ahead of those announcements to make sure he didn’t have second thoughts." Hopkinson: “Maybe I should be a little more freaked out, but really, I’m not" (TORONTO STAR, 7/19).
