Rogers Communications has acquired BCE’s 37.5% stake in Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment

[RetroWinnipeg]

Questions abound now about TV/radio rights for Leafs and Raptors.

Would Sportsnet assume control of all regional rights? It would seem the Leafs are the main reason TSN remains relevant for about half a year.

 

[Dekes For Days]

Why?

I wouldn't trust Rogers with anything, let alone unimpeded majority power over my team. They are now unchecked and can do whatever they want, and what Rogers usually wants isn't great for consumers. And if I remember correctly from reporting, Bell seemed to be more the adults at the table.

 

[SprDaVE]

Questions abound now about TV/radio rights for Leafs and Raptors.

Would Sportsnet assume control of all regional rights? It would seem the Leafs are the main reason TSN remains relevant for about half a year.

Nothing really official but it sounds like it. The only thing TSN will keep are the TFC and Argos games per the Bell news release.

 

[Niagara Bill]

Let me tell you a secret. Winning = more money. Crazy, I know. It's in their interest to win.

Not at all cost. They have quarterly results to answer for. Winning rakes long term commitment.
In diverse businesses usually the cash cow is over milked until it no longer provides the cash and then is spun off. Nobody in corporate environments has any desire to be the best and largest in any measurement except financial. No corporation would have paid Ohtani that much.

 

[Peasy]

You can call it whatever you want based on what you think they are doing. I'm just saying that they want to win and winning means more money. Achieving the goal of winning is obviously a little more complex and harder to achieve.

Rogers now owning the team won't change the idea that winning = more money and spending money is typically how you achieve that.

Well it sure is encouraging that they got us on the right track

Keep doin what you been doin Rogers! Its clearly been working out great for winning

 

[SprDaVE]

Nobody in corporate environments has any desire to be the best and largest in any measurement except financial. No corporation would have paid Ohtani that much.

Says who?

 

[Nineteen67]

If this means Bell/TSN doesn’t get some of the NHL broadcast rights it would not be good for NHL fans.

 

[RetroWinnipeg]

Bell is out??
Not sure how I feel about this. Initial thought is this isn't good.

BCE was pretty much housepoor. Scrapping weekend local news for much of the country, plus radio sales and shutdowns were signs of trouble.

 

[Niagara Bill]

I wouldn't trust Rogers with anything, let alone unimpeded majority power over my team. They are now unchecked and can do whatever they want, and what Rogers usually wants isn't great for consumers.

True, but Bell in no different, yet others on this board seem to dislike sole owners...hmmm

 

[Dr.Funk]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1836387810485428498

 

[ACC1224]

Really! Tannebaum would be bad? In the end Ballard had same results as Bell.
Smythe won. Steinbrenner won, Man U won. Every NFL team is almost sole owners.
At least owners have no one else to blame and cannot hide.

Cowboys owner is the GM as well, that's not working out to well.

I never said it couldn't work, it can if the owner doesn't intrude.
Ballard, Stavros, Melnyk are perfect examples of intruding owners who prevented winning.
I'm sure there are many more examples.

Pretty sure Man U is corporately owned.

 

[BallardEra]

I work for Bell.

I am sure they will compensate me with some of that money now.

 

[Darcy Tucker]

As someone who pays their Rogers bill, what does this mean for me?

 

[Evilhomer]

If this means Bell/TSN doesn’t get some of the NHL broadcast rights it would not be good for NHL fans.

In my opinion, this is all about broadcast/streaming rights. Like all sports, this will eventually get to a place where the majority of Leafs games are on a streaming service that fans will need to subscribe to for a healthy fee.

 

[Dekes For Days]

True, but Bell in no different, yet others on this board seem to dislike sole owners...hmmm

Rogers is worse than Bell. People dislike individual owners because of meddling. Giving an individual company unimpeded majority power just gets us closer to that.

 

[Squiffy]

Bell is out??
Not sure how I feel about this. Initial thought is this isn't good.

Not loving it as an initial feeling either.

It’s all about risk assessment. Odds are winning are extremely low. Why put in a bunch of risk with such little chance of reward when you can remain status quo and continue to rake in the millions youre already getting.

That’s what Ballard did. These guys spend more money on salary and hockey ops than anyone else in the league by all accounts. They are taking the risk. Only way to increase Leaf revenue is to win. Or pull money out of salary and ops, but that’s not what they’ve done.

 

[SprDaVE]

Well it sure is encouraging that they got us on the right track

Keep doin what you been doin Rogers! Its clearly been working out great for winning

I'm just saying it won't change much of anything just like the 2 headed monster between Bell and Rogers was initially received as a disaster waiting to happen. While the Leafs haven't won a championship either, I think they've at least built a very good team to compete since that. They've let the Leafs head boss make decisions and Shanahan has had full autonomy in building. There wasn't a Melnyk situation.

I just don't understand how now things are gonna implode. It won't change the Leafs being cursed anyway.

 

[Apex Predator]

As someone who pays their Rogers bill, what does this mean for me?

This is the important question I would like to know. It’s already to expensive for me to go watch a leafs game so the can raise those prices but my phone bill better not be going up!

 

[SprDaVE]

BCE was pretty much housepoor. Scrapping weekend local news for much of the country, plus radio sales and shutdowns were signs of trouble.

They've put in a ton of investment to increase Fibre coverage and 5G networks. My entire neighbourhood within a year went from 25% to almost 100% for fibre. I think it's definitely catching up.

 

[Jozay]

Rogers owning more of anything is bad news

 

[Dr.Funk]

As someone who pays their Rogers bill, what does this mean for me?

Means you keep paying your bill.

 

[SprDaVE]

As someone who pays their Rogers bill, what does this mean for me?

You'll get more ads about buying Leafs tickets/merch probably.

 

[Menzinger]

The previous ownership setup seemed potentially primed for eventual dysfunction given how odd it was. But I doubt this will lead to any practical changes for the Leafs

 

[Squiffy]

Bell retains rights for Raps and Leafs for 20 years with deal.

Bell said it has secured content rights to the Maple Leafs and Raptors on TSN for the next 20 years and will continue to broadcast Argos and TFC games.

Rogers buys Bell’s stake in MLSE for $4.7 billion

Rogers now owns 75 per cent of the Maple Leafs and Raptors’ parent company.

www.thestar.com

 

[Menzinger]

Really! Tannebaum would be bad? In the end Ballard had same results as Bell.
Smythe won. Steinbrenner won, Man U won. Every NFL team is almost sole owners.
At least owners have no one else to blame and cannot hide.

Solo owners are also motivated to start cheapening out on team expenses if their other business ventures stop being as profitable