Rogers, the owner of TSN rival Sportsnet, will soon be the de facto owner of the Toronto Argonauts after striking a deal to purchase Bell’s 37.5 percent stake in Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (MLSE) for a reported C$4.7 billion, increasing their ownership stake in the sports conglomerate to 75 percent.
Ron MacLean did a seven-minute sitdown interview with Rogers executive chairman Edward Rogers and president and CEO Tony Staffieri on Wednesday in what appears to be the only media appearance Rogers or Staffieri intend to do.
The three men sat in front of a red screen emblazoned with the words ‘ROGERS X MLSE’ alongside four team logos: the Maple Leafs, Raptors, Toronto FC, and Argonauts. Two outer screens displayed the same logos on rotation.
The Argonauts weren’t mentioned during the interview, though there was little to no conversation about any of the individual teams aside from brief comments made regarding the future of hockey and basketball broadcast rights.
Staffieri indicated that Bell reached out to Rogers about a possible sale, calling the rival company “terrific ownership partners.” The two companies will continue to work together in some capacity as Bell is a sponsor of the Raptors and carries some regional broadcast rights for MLSE’s teams, an arrangement that seems likely to continue long-term.
Rogers has created tremendous synergy with the Blue Jays, a team it owns separately from its growing share of MLSE. Canada’s only MLB team is Rogers-owned, plays in a Rogers-owned stadium, and is exclusively broadcast on a Rogers-owned network.
Perhaps the telecommunications giant will make a play for the CFL’s television rights, which currently belong exclusively to TSN, a property of Bell, through 2026.
Pierre Karl Péladeau, the intrepid owner of the Montreal Alouettes, has certainly made no secret of his desire to broadcast his team’s games on Vidéotron, a telecommunications company he owns through Quebecor Inc., which competes directly with RDS, TSN’s French-language affiliate. For the first time in a long time, it seems reasonable to suspect Bell will face at least some competition for the CFL’s television rights.
It also seems fair to question whether or not Rogers would be interested in acquiring the broadcast rights to a league that directly competes with the Blue Jays on television throughout the summer. The Blue Jays are Sportsnet’s flagship property and the team’s ratings have held steady late into the season despite a losing record.
The CFL and TSN have been exclusive partners since 2006 and work so closely together that the lines between the two entities sometimes feel blurred. When speaking to people at league events, it’s sometimes difficult to tell if they work for the CFL or TSN.
Let’s also make one thing clear: the Argonauts must seem like awfully small potatoes to a company like Rogers. The team’s attendance has improved in recent years but its revenue is paltry compared to a juggernaut like the Blue Jays, Maple Leafs, or Raptors. Toronto FC, despite its recent struggles, at least plays a sport with global appeal. Its branding also dominates BMO Field, the stadium the Argonauts have called home since 2016.
The Argonauts are a mom-and-pop shop in a portfolio that is about to become one of the most impressive in the world of professional sports. In a garage packed with exotic collector cars, the Argonauts are a Honda Civic.
It’s unclear how the team’s upper management will view this sale because the Argonauts don’t have a president. Bill Manning and MLSE parted ways earlier this year, though many have questioned how much time Manning, who also served as the president of Toronto FC, invested into the Argonauts relative to the soccer club.
General manager Mike ‘Pinball’ Clemons currently reports directly to MLSE president and CEO Keith Pelley. We know that Pelley, who served as the president of the Argonauts from 2003 to 2007, is at least somewhat engaged with the team as CFL commissioner Randy Ambrosie indicated he played a role in Chad Kelly ceasing his participation in team activities during his recent suspension, which caused the team a litany of bad press.
The Argonauts are still a competent team on the field but recently lost two key personnel staff in Alex Russell and Vince Magri, who fled for the Ottawa Redblacks and Buffalo Bills, respectively. There are also murmurings about further changes to the team’s ever-shrinking personnel department currently taking place but that’s a story for a different day.
Speculation of Rogers wanting to bring an NFL team to Toronto has already begun, though it’s unclear what the timeline would be for such an ambitious goal. The cost for a new stadium alone would be close to C$3.0 billion and that’s not including the land on which it would sit. The NFL hasn’t expanded since 2002 when the Houston Texans paid an expansion fee of C$950 million. Some outlets have speculated the league could now charge expansion fees as high as C$7 billion.
Is there a need for Argonauts fans to panic? Unlikely, at least in the relatively near future.
It will take time for the deal between Rogers and Bell to be finalized as it requires approval from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, the Competition Bureau, and the respective league of each team. Once it’s approved, it’s hard to imagine Rogers immediately walking away from the Argonauts, though it wouldn’t be a surprise if they were quietly put up for sale.
There was plenty of hand-wringing back when the B.C. Lions needed a new owner and Amar Doman has since breathed new life into an organization that was verging on irrelevancy in Vancouver. The only regret is he wasn’t afforded the opportunity to buy the team sooner.
There was a lot of anxiety about the future of the Montreal Alouettes before Péladeau purchased the team. He’s barely owned the club for 18 months, yet they’ve already won a Grey Cup and their stadium is full.
There was trepidation about the Edmonton Elks being privately owned for the first time in club history. It’s too early to draw any meaningful conclusions but the early signs under Larry Thompson, who purchased the team just last month, seem positive.
It’s also possible that Rogers plans to keep the Argonauts. Maybe there’s a spot in the garage for a Honda Civic after all. If not, a local buyer — one who has given up the dream of owning an NFL team but still wants a stake in professional football — will presumably materialize. That’s what happened in B.C., Montreal, and Edmonton.
“Being involved with these teams is a public trust and we view that as a responsibility that we take very seriously. We want to win as much as any of our fans and we’ll continue to invest,” Rogers told MacLean.
“We will invest to have a payroll for these teams that is as high as generally you’re allowed with caps. We’re going to invest in infrastructure around the teams, we’ll continue to invest in capital to improve stadiums and the fan experience, and all of that is going to continue.”
Here’s hoping that holds true — and not just for the Maple Leafs, Raptors, and Toronto FC.
