One man is now poised to control every major men’s pro sports team in Toronto.
Edward Rogers will have achieved his long-desired goal of total power over Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (MLSE), if a $4.7-billion deal to snap up Bell Canada’s 37.5 per cent stake is completed, making Rogers Communications the majority owner of the Maple Leafs, Raptors, Toronto FC and Argonauts.
For a decade, MLSE’s board had been split between Rogers, Bell and MLSE chair Larry Tanenbaum’s Kilmer Sports.
Insiders say the often combative ownership structure made it difficult to achieve consensus for major decisions such as whether Toronto should have its own WBNA team, and Edward reportedly butted heads with Tanenbaum over keeping Masai Ujiri as Raptors president in 2021.
But if the deal is approved, Edward, the telecom mogul who started a fight with his own family for control of Rogers, will be able to call the shots for all of the city’s major sports teams — from who gets to run them, to payroll decisions and budget assignments.
“Winning is everything for fans, and that’s why we’re committed to investing to bring more championships to Canada,” Rogers said in a statement. “We’re passionate about sports and we’re passionate about winning.”
Former MLSE CEO Richard Peddie, who helped negotiate the sale of the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan’s stake in the company to Bell and Rogers for $1.32 billion in 2012, said Wednesday’s deal ends what was clearly an uncomfortable relationship for both Bell and Rogers.
“They’ve had this unnatural relationship, as two tough competitors. They had to agree on things, and you don’t always see things the same way. So maybe Edward Rogers says ‘I want to control the whole thing,’ ” said Peddie, who initially had pitched the 2012 sale to each company separately.
As for personnel changes, Peddie suggested that Raptors president Masai Ujiri’s job is likely safe — at least for now.
The deal, which is expected to close in mid-2025, is contingent on approval from the leagues, as well as the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission and the Competition Bureau.
Once completed, it would bring Rogers’ stake in MLSE to 75 per cent. The remaining 25 per cent is still owned by Tanenbaum’s Kilmer Sports and Canadian pension fund OMERS.
Rogers will have “a monopoly on Toronto sports,” said Michael Goldberg, sports financing analyst at DBRS Morningstar.
Rogers already owns the Blue Jays and the Rogers Centre. It also owns Sportsnet, which holds the broadcast rights to Blue Jays games, 50 per cent of Raptors and regional Maple Leafs games as well as national NHL rights through 2025-2026.
Bell initially approached Rogers about the deal, said Rogers CEO Tony Staffieri in a live TV interview on Sportsnet.
Rogers currently shares the broadcast rights to regional games with Bell in that 50-50 split.
“We’ll continue to share those with Bell over the next couple of years,” he said. “And then after that, they have the opportunity to continue to buy those rights at market rates.”
“From a viewer’s perspective, they’ll continue to watch the games the way they do today for a very long time,” said Staffieri.
Bell said it has “secured access to content rights for the Toronto Maple Leafs and Toronto Raptors on TSN for the next 20 years,” adding it will continue to broadcast Argos and TFC games through independent agreements with the respective leagues. It is unclear exactly when the current agreement for regional games expires.
Bell will also remain the official sponsor of the Toronto Raptors.
Most analysts view Bell’s move as a sound financial decision. The company has been exploring different avenues to deal with mounting levels of debt, cutting 4,800 jobs in February, selling nearly half of its radio stations and ending multiple television newscasts.
“BCE will use proceeds from the sale to pay down debt,” said Scotiabank telecommunications analyst Maher Yaghi. “This will likely also eliminate speculation about a possible dividend cut at BCE, which we did not believe was a realistic assumption to begin with.”
Last April, Bell CEO Mirko Bibic told MPs the company was hemorrhaging money: “CTV conventional stations lost more than $180 million last year, and Bell media loses more than $40 million a year in news alone.”
In an internal memo sent to staff, Bibic said the deal will help support its transition to a tech services and digital media company. Bell says its focus is now on fibre and 5G content, as well as cloud and enterprise solutions.
For Rogers, the financial benefits aren’t as clear. The company said the deal will ensure “long-term Canadian ownership and investment of these iconic teams.”
But Jerome Dubreuil, analyst at Desjardins, said that the deal will see Rogers spending more on operations that are considered “non-core.”
“Sports assets are also considered by many to be ‘trophy assets’ (with a negative connotation) that are not always run like more typical businesses,” he said, adding that it’s possible Rogers will also want to purchase the shares owned by Tanenbaum, which could be for sale in two years.
Tanenbaum will continue to own 20 per cent of MLSE through Kilmer Sports. He sold five per cent of the company to Canadian pension fund OMERS in the fall of 2023 for roughly $550 million.
Tanenbaum will also own Toronto’s new WNBA franchise, which will begin play in 2026 along with the just-announced Portland expansion team.
Courtney Glen, spokesperson for Tanenbaum, declined to comment on the deal.
The transaction brings MLSE’s overall valuation to $12.5 billion, setting “a record valuation” for sports transactions, said DBRS Morningstar’s Goldberg.
The Maple Leafs are now the NHL’s most valuable franchise and are worth $2.8 billion (U.S.), according to Forbes. The Raptors are worth $4.1 billion, 10th in the NBA, and TFC is worth $725 million.
Rogers could eventually spin the sports empire off, said Scotiabank’s Yaghi, bringing “every major Toronto sports franchise under one umbrella, which could garner interest from outside investors” in a potential initial public offering.
Yaghi suggested that allowing BCE to keep some broadcasting rights also makes the deal less likely to face opposition from the federal Competition Bureau.
MLSE president and CEO Keith Pelley — once the president of Rogers Media and hired to head MLSE in January — thanked the ownership group for its contributions to the company.
“MLSE has been fortunate to have one of the very best ownership groups in sports and entertainment for many years and it has led to MLSE becoming one of the leading organizations in our industry,” Pelley said. “We remain fully focused on our priorities and further driving a championship mentality across MLSE.”
The news broke just an hour before the start of Leafs training camp Wednesday. At media day, the players said they expected little to change with the new ownership.
“Ownership has been amazing since my time here and given us everything we need, every resource to go out there and compete at the highest level,” former team captain John Tavares said. “At the end of the day, that’s what we’re all here for and what the Toronto Maple Leafs are all about.”
