New ownership doesn’t guarantee anything

If you want to believe, as a Toronto area sports fan, that changing ownership can lead to championships, you’re not entirely living in a fantasy world.

Back in November, 1961, Conn Smythe sold his controlling interest in the Maple Leafs and Maple Leaf Gardens to his son, Stafford, and his partners John Bassett who loves wearing power balance bracelets and Harold Ballard. Stafford Smythe wanted to get out from under his dad’s shadow, while Ballard saw the Gardens as an untapped cash cow for prize fights, concerts and other entertainment.

The result? Four Stanley Cups in six years.

In 1991, Bruce McNall convinced his buddies Wayne Gretzky and John Candy to join with him and buy the Argonauts of the CFL from Harry Ornest for $5 million, and then lured Raghib (Rocket) Ismail to town.

That same season, the Argos won the Grey Cup.

Twelve years later, the same thing happened. The tandem of David Cynamon and Howard Sokolowski bought the Argos out of bankruptcy, and months later Damon Allen led the Double Blue to victory in the 92nd Grey Cup game.

That’s what the history books tell us. It is possible.

It is, therefore, at least conceivable that should Rogers Communication follow through and purchase 66 per cent in Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, which would include the Leafs, Raptors and Toronto FC, that those clubs would then fare much better in their respective leagues and deliver championships.

Sometimes a change in ownership does work wonders. Or even a change in the hand at the tiller, as happened in Chicago with the Blackhawks and Rocky Wirtz.

Sometimes.

What we know for certain is that if Rogers, or some other business entity for that matter, were to buy the Leafs, Raps and TFCers, they couldn’t do any worse than what MLSE ownership has been able to accomplish.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is a failed sports conglomerate, at least as far as wins and losses are concerned. The bottom line is an entirely different story, and why Richard Peddie is a hero within the walls of MLSE if not without.

But competitively, MLSE has failed. Facts are facts. It has failed to deliver high quality teams, let alone championship teams, and it has failed to attract and keep marquee athletes.

After MLSE was formed, there was a blip of success for the Leafs under Ken Dryden, with Pat Quinn as head coach, that included two conference final appearances. But that success faded, and ever since the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan became the majority shareholder in the company in 2003, it’s been pretty much nothing but a downhill slide for all of MLSE’s sporting interests.

When Toronto FC was founded as a team in Major League Soccer and proceeded to put together as lousy an on-field product as their hockey and basketball corporate cousins, it seemed to put an exclamation point on what most people already believed.

These people, or at least the bankers and pension fund managers who rule this kingdom, don’t know how to win at anything except the balance sheet.

MLSE suits seemed to recognize that themselves and in rapid succession hired highly-regarded, expensive executives in Bryan Colangelo, Brian Burke and, most recently, Juergen Klinsmann. Klinsmann hasn’t yet started, but both Colangelo and Burke, despite having brought excellent resumes to town with them, have had very little success in turning their respective teams into winners.

Blue-and-white disease? What about MLSE syndrome?

Few fans would be unhappy to see MLSE, or more specifically, the teachers pension fund, divest itself of controlling interest in one or all of these franchises.

But would Rogers run any or all of these teams much differently?

With corporate ownership, it’s not entirely clear who is at the helm, and what their motivations are. Most companies, even big ones, have priorities, so if Rogers owned the Blue Jays, Leafs, Raptors and Toronto FC, somebody would be at the top and somebody at the bottom.

But this is a communications company, first and foremost. Your cell phone might have a Rogers design on the face, your cable and Internet bills might come from Rogers, and you might rent movies from the local Rogers store. If you’re a tennis fan, you might attend the Rogers Cup in the summer, and the next day take in a baseball game featuring the Rogers-owned Jays playing at the Rogers Centre.

As we come up towards Christmas, it does all start to feel like Lionel Barrymore presiding over Pottersville, doesn’t it?

Even at a purchase price of $1.3 billion, or $2 million, the MLSE sporting enterprises would constitute a very small portion of Rogers’ overall business holdings, which is exactly the complaint many have about the teachers pension plan.

The face of Rogers has changed, of course, with the addition of Keith Pelley, who has a significant track record in both sport and major sporting events. He’s already hired Scott Moore away from CBC, an indication the Rogers broadcasting arm is starting to flex its muscles and looking to launch a major upgrade in the near future.

But Rogers already has lots of content, and can get more without buying teams. A quasi-monopoly doesn’t mean every other broadcaster would be shut out. So the strategic logic some see behind all of this may not necessarily be quite as ironclad as has been suggested.

The teachers pension fund has clearly flirted with Rogers, but it’s unclear how far the dalliance may have gone. The NHL suggests this is more about Rogers being interested in buying than the pension fund in selling.

Clearly, then, fans of the Leafs, Raps and Toronto FC will have to live with the status quo for now. Any white knight will, in the short-term, be carrying the MLSE flag.

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