Pelley new MLSE boss, could be good for teams

[Johnny Bball]

**** it, literally every single thread has to get wrecked with complaining. Smh.

[Johnny Bball]

Leiweke put everything in place for them to be successful. He was the driving force for MLSE which completely changed the direction of all the franchises. To my original point, since 2019 and covid, things have gotten stagnant. The focus across all teams has been lacking. That's not really up for debate, with the Raps and TFC prime examples.

Yea I'm not arguing they've been bad and complacent since 2019, I was speaking to your point that losing Leiweke in 2015 hurt their focus when Masai had the best years of his career from 2015-2019.

Leiweke made the cake, just because he didn't eat it, doesn't mean he wasn't responsible for it. MLSE got stagnant after covid. They had a CFO as their interim president for 3 years. Losing Leiweke impacted them in the long run - the teams were successful after he left because everything was already in place. Now that we look at the Raps, TFC and even the Leafs lack of playoff success, you can understand how a leader like Leiweke not present hurt them - that's my point.

I think someone here is confused. Lieweke was never staying for more than a year. That was his job, to find people to replace him in his job.

[WuTang_OG]

Yea I'm not arguing they've been bad and complacent since 2019, I was speaking to your point that losing Leiweke in 2015 hurt their focus when Masai had the best years of his career from 2015-2019.

Leiweke made the cake, just because he didn't eat it, doesn't mean he wasn't responsible for it. MLSE got stagnant after covid. They had a CFO as their interim president for 3 years. Losing Leiweke impacted them in the long run - the teams were successful after he left because everything was already in place. Now that we look at the Raps, TFC and even the Leafs lack of playoff success, you can understand how a leader like Leiweke not present hurt them - that's my point.

I think someone here is confused. Lieweke was never staying for more than a year. That was his job, to find people to replace him in his job.

Ya you. What does that have to do with my response?

[Scase]

Masai has said in the past, he goes to the board directly for big decisions only, like going into the luxury tax or trading a franchise player. I don't think that's going to change with Pelley. Maybe he goes to Pelley firs now, but I doubt Pelley will involved much in the basketball decision making process.

I would easily classify the decision of blowing the team up or pushing to be a middling play in team to be one of those big decisions.

The financial ramifications from tanking can't be ignored. Is ownership willing to eat **** a couple years and lose some profits for potential higher ones in the future with better teams, or do they want to play it safe and keep cashflow good and consistent.

That's definitely not a call Masai is going to make solo.

Tanking midseason is a lot easier because all the tickets are already sold.

I think most down franchises are doing this now. Try to win out of the gate, show your fans that their worth spending their money on, then pull the plug midseason if things don't work out. Going into the season, maybe only WAS advertised that they were going to be really bad? All the other tankers officially pulled the plug after injuries or closer to the deadline.

I think this will be the plan for the Raps next season. They will see what the Barnes/IQ/Barrett/Dick/Poeltl core can do before they make any big decisions.

Arent the majority of raps tickets season holders anyways?

[Johnny Bball]

Leiweke made the cake, just because he didn't eat it, doesn't mean he wasn't responsible for it. MLSE got stagnant after covid. They had a CFO as their interim president for 3 years. Losing Leiweke impacted them in the long run - the teams were successful after he left because everything was already in place. Now that we look at the Raps, TFC and even the Leafs lack of playoff success, you can understand how a leader like Leiweke not present hurt them - that's my point.

I think someone here is confused. Lieweke was never staying for more than a year. That was his job, to find people to replace him in his job.

Ya you. What does that have to do with my response?

It was more to do with the underlined part of his post that I was being to lazy to go back to, and just underlined

[anotherhomer]

personally, i know MU dropped the ball a bit, but he deserves the chance to turn things around

so i hope Pelley gives him a few seasons to do that

i do wonder if MU would be willing to take a paycut at 3 yr/20M

[PRESTIGE]

Yeah, those girls making 66K min (90K CAD) for 5-6 months are REALLY gonna struggle

90k goes a long way where you live. But Toronto is a completely different beast.

Come on man

90K for 5 months work is great money anywhere. That is $200K a year over 12 months.

The average toronto salary is 57K.

They won’t be taking much of that after taxes and housing costs here

[YogurtProducer]

90k goes a long way where you live. But Toronto is a completely different beast.

Come on man

90K for 5 months work is great money anywhere. That is $200K a year over 12 months.

The average toronto salary is 57K.

They won’t be taking much of that after taxes and housing costs here

No different than any other Toronto resident

[WuTang_OG]

https://torontosun.com/sports/pelley-eager-to-take-toronto-sports-to-the-next-level

The two, Pelley and Leiweke, did have dinner about two weeks ago in London. Pelley wanted to pick Leiweke’s brain. Pelley thanked him for transforming MLSE. Leiweke wished Pelley all the best on the new job.

But before Leiweke was shown the door, he made his mark hiring Brendan Shanahan to run the Maple Leafs, hiring Masai Ujiri to run the Raptors, making a commitment to spend big on Toronto FC — and now so many of the sporting entitles of the giant company are either in doubt or in question.

Pelley isn’t in Hurricane Keith mode just yet, if he will ever be. It may not be his style. In terms of management style, he’d be closer to Paul Beeston than Leiweke or the impersonal king of buzzwords Mark Shapiro.

He already has met with Ujiri and, like most people dealing with Masai for the first time, he came away hugely impressed.

For Pelley to be hired — and for him to accept the offer — he needed Bell, Rogers and Tanenbaum aligned.

Pelley says they are on his behalf, but interestingly enough when he interviewed for the MLSE job, he did separate interviews — one with Bell, one with Rogers, one with Tanenbaum. Not one giant interview together.

“I asked them — what is their definition of success?” I got the same answers from all three — complete alignment on winning, on and off the court or the ice or the pitch. Winning to them was winning championships. And all three were in agreement on (me).”

When I asked about the corporate rumblings that have Tanenbaum selling his stock in MLSE and leaving the company, he called it a hypothetical situation.

[WuTang_OG]

tsn radio

https://www.tsn.ca/radio/toronto-1050/pelley-on-the-intriguing-vision-of-mlse-the-structural-outline-and-the-importance-of-franchise-success-1.2100007

[ruckus]

Interesting that Pelley went through 3 separate interviews. Not sure if this is standard for MLSE but seems odd to me that they couldn't conduct a single interview with representatives from each faction. Makes me think they aren't all on the same page despite winning championships being touted as their ultimate goals because as we see on realGM, we all want 'ships but we all don't agree on the best way to get there.

Edit: I just read the article and I've never actually read anything written by Steve Simmons before. Has he always written like a 5th grader?

[OakleyDokely]

Interesting that Pelley went through 3 separate interviews. Not sure if this is standard for MLSE but seems odd to me that they couldn't conduct a single interview with representatives from each faction. Makes me think they aren't all on the same page despite winning championships being touted as their ultimate goals because as we see on realGM, we all want 'ships but we all don't agree on the best way to get there.

Edit: I just read the article and I've never actually read anything written by Steve Simmons before. Has he always written like a 5th grader?

That basically sums up the Toronto Sun as a whole.

[WuTang_OG]

sportsnet

https://www.sportsnet.ca/590/fan-pregame/new-mlse-ceo-keith-pelley-joins-the-show/

[WuTang_OG]

tsn radio

https://www.tsn.ca/radio/toronto-1050/pelley-on-the-intriguing-vision-of-mlse-the-structural-outline-and-the-importance-of-franchise-success-1.2100007

spoke highly of masai and bobby

[WuTang_OG]

Interesting that Pelley went through 3 separate interviews. Not sure if this is standard for MLSE but seems odd to me that they couldn't conduct a single interview with representatives from each faction. Makes me think they aren't all on the same page despite winning championships being touted as their ultimate goals because as we see on realGM, we all want 'ships but we all don't agree on the best way to get there.

Edit: I just read the article and I've never actually read anything written by Steve Simmons before. Has he always written like a 5th grader?

they all hate eachother lol

[Shaazzam]

Interesting that Pelley went through 3 separate interviews. Not sure if this is standard for MLSE but seems odd to me that they couldn't conduct a single interview with representatives from each faction. Makes me think they aren't all on the same page despite winning championships being touted as their ultimate goals because as we see on realGM, we all want 'ships but we all don't agree on the best way to get there.

Edit: I just read the article and I've never actually read anything written by Steve Simmons before. Has he always written like a 5th grader?

they all hate eachother lol

well if I was Pelley I would want them separate to see if they actually are aligned on the bigger picture... its relatively easier to agree when in the same room, but proper due diligence from his POV would suggest lets talk separate to see if they actually are on the same page

[Badonkadonk]

tsn radio

https://www.tsn.ca/radio/toronto-1050/pelley-on-the-intriguing-vision-of-mlse-the-structural-outline-and-the-importance-of-franchise-success-1.2100007

Thanks for the link. Damn, his voice is pretty different now, sounds much older but I guess it's been at least a decade since I've heard him on radio/tv. He was with Rogers back then.

He let his inner puck-head slip out at the 8-minute mark when he said "on or off the ice" while discussing global branding.

Interesting he mentioned a "town hall" this week with Masai, Bobby, Shanahan, Manning (TFC), Pinball etc. at Real Sports, saying the teams will be more tightly integrated than they have been. No idea what that means in practice, guessing cross-promotion, marketing synergies etc.

He did speak highly of Masai and what he's built, from the OVO to the "We The North" branding to the on-court stuff, for whatever that is worth.

I remain skeptical given his connection to Ed. Thought it was funny he went to see Bad Bunny last night

[Chalky_White]

WNBA players wont be able to afford to live in Toronto, or most cities in Canada now.

But anyhoo I think we may too much attention to these hires that have very little impact you see on the final product.

Lieweke was the most transformational because he was onboarded during a disaster.

How do CFL players afford to live in Toronto? Or MLS players?

[WaltFrazier]

Interesting that Pelley went through 3 separate interviews. Not sure if this is standard for MLSE but seems odd to me that they couldn't conduct a single interview with representatives from each faction. Makes me think they aren't all on the same page despite winning championships being touted as their ultimate goals because as we see on realGM, we all want 'ships but we all don't agree on the best way to get there.

Edit: I just read the article and I've never actually read anything written by Steve Simmons before. Has he always written like a 5th grader?

I don't know but to take a small sample, calling Shapiro an "impersonal king of buzzwords" is a clever turn of phrase. And a satisfying subtle diss.

[WaltFrazier]

WNBA players wont be able to afford to live in Toronto, or most cities in Canada now.

But anyhoo I think we may too much attention to these hires that have very little impact you see on the final product.

Lieweke was the most transformational because he was onboarded during a disaster.

How do CFL players afford to live in Toronto? Or MLS players?

A question that bears investigation.

Not the same but I recall reading over 10 years ago when Alberta was oil-booming, the Edmonton Eskimos new players who made the team at the end of training camp had trouble finding places to live. Or maybe it was Calgary.