Breaking: Rogers Aquires Bell Stake In MLSE

[Scase]

lol they literally shut down a fully healthy Kyle Lowry during the Tampa year, he played 41 mins and dropped 37 and 11 in his last game. You don't think that's intentionally trying to lose?

What part of

Tampa I am still not fully convinced about, but I can definitely see the argument, so I'll happily not die on that hill.

and

As I said with Tampa, I can see the argument both ways, not anything worth arguing.

Did you not get?

Or perhaps what you were trying to say, wasn't as clear as you thought it was. Which I'm fine with, no harm done.

I don't know why I keep engaging but here we go. Nowhere in my post did I say that Masai entered any single season from the outset intentionally trying to lose. Here is my post:



Masai decided to lose during Tampa. Masai decided to lose last season. Maybe you should take your own advice and say you misread my post and move on.

I don't get it

I'm saying I can see the argument from both sides, I'm not particularly married to either so it's not really anything worth arguing since I don't feel strongly one way or another. If you wanna think it was an intentional tank job, that's cool. If you don't, that is also cool by me.

[Raps in 4]

Masai may have sucked at his job since 2022, but I'd still pick him 10 times out of 10 to run this team over the NBA equivalent of Mark Shapiro.

Masai is elite and scouting and player development, and he has a championship to his name.

Shapiro is among the worst executives in baseball at scouting and player development, and has zero titles despite being in the business for 24 years, in a sport where any team can fall ass backwards into a title if they just get into the playoffs enough times.

The fact that Ed favours (and continues to employ) the latter is all I need to know about his ability (or desire) to hire competent people.

This answers how Shatkins is on trial in this thread - not Masai. Where is your 2019 Edward. No f-en anywhere is the answer.

The assumption is that Ed will fire/not extend Masai once he takes over (because he's already tried it once before, and did the same with Beeston and AA on the Jays).

If a new owner wanted to start fresh, I wouldn't oppose that, especially considering the dire state of the team.

The problem is that the new owner coming in has a history of making bad decisions, and the other team he has full control over is in even more dire shape than this one (and he's in ride or die mode with that FO). This is not the man who should be hiring Masai's replacement.

I also find it funny that some here were fine with giving Shapiro 8 years to try and build a winner after the ALCS teams were dismantled, but giving Masai more than 4 years after 2020 is too much. I don't like how Masai has handled the last few years either, but the hypocrisy from some is glaring.

[ill-Will03]

Fantastic news for the Raptors who have been in a mediocre cycle for almost a half decade now.

Ed has put a ton of money into the Blue Jays in recent years which helped them make the playoffs in 3 of the last 5 years (and would have been 5 out of 5 with a better manager/FO).

There’s also no way he will continue paying Masai Ujiri that much to make mistake after mistake in basketball operations given their history. We may finally get some real much needed change in the front office again.

Quite possibly the worst take I’ve seen on here all time… congrats that truly deserves an award

Another Masai Ujiri apologist clinging to the past after five years of complete failure and directionless leadership, I see. He's got a lot of them still, but at least we know that he won't have one in ownership shortly.

Honestly I was talking more about your Ed Rogers love rather than the Masai stuff. But you should compare their tenure with their respective teams.

[SaveTheHens]

Tampa I am still not fully convinced about, but I can definitely see the argument, so I'll happily not die on that hill. Last year absolutely was not with the intent to lose, and neither was any other post chip season. We can agree it ended up that way, but the argument was that Masai was intentionally trying to lose those seasons, which I think is just so far removed from reality that I couldn't just ignore it.

Masai for better, or worse, never intentionally tries to lose. I think no matter pro, anti, or anywhere in between-Masai a person is, we can all agree the intent behind any and all decisions he makes, is to win above all else.

Like I said, he doesn't enter a season to lose.

But saying that he wasn't trying to lose in Tampa or last season is equally as detached from reality.

As I said with Tampa, I can see the argument both ways, not anything worth arguing. But last year? Nah he did not try to lose anything, Jak and Scottie went down with season ending injuries, RJ had a death in the family and took time off. No one was shut down, we weren't playing 3rd stringers intentionally. We were 22-38 when those injuries occurred, if that was him trying to win up until that point, then wow, that's a pretty massive failure.

That was major injuries to a team with zero depth, that was not a choice, that was thrust upon him, let's not try to re-write history that is barely 6 months old.

I definitely dont think he started the season trying to tank (maybe being open to seeing how things go and ending up tanking but didnt start with the intention of a pure tank). But he did pivot towards tanking at some point. You can argue at what point he pivoted to tanking, whether March when we were losing so much I thought we'd get fined for intentional tanking, or January when he traded Siakam, some may argue as early as December with the OG trade (though can be argued that was just a general asset management move and we did get contributors back). But by March its undeniable, yes we had injuries but had we tried to win we would've played differently in the 4th, I dont have specific examples rn but at the time it seemed obvious they were committed to development and not caring if games slid.

[ciueli]

I mean Tampa season and last season. He may not have entered intentionally trying to lose, but definitely ended that way.

Tampa I am still not fully convinced about, but I can definitely see the argument, so I'll happily not die on that hill. Last year absolutely was not with the intent to lose, and neither was any other post chip season. We can agree it ended up that way, but the argument was that Masai was intentionally trying to lose those seasons, which I think is just so far removed from reality that I couldn't just ignore it.

Masai for better, or worse, never intentionally tries to lose. I think no matter pro, anti, or anywhere in between-Masai a person is, we can all agree the intent behind any and all decisions he makes, is to win above all else.

lol they literally shut down a fully healthy Kyle Lowry during the Tampa year, he played 41 mins and dropped 37 and 11 in his last game. You don't think that's intentionally trying to lose?

Kyle Lowry played 40 minutes and 39 seconds in game 65 of 72 of the 2020-21 season, a meaningless win over the LA Lakers in a season you say we "tanked". The reality is that they didn't really throw in the towel on the season until right at the tail end, when it was clear there was no chance for them to get into the playoffs, and even then they were still playing veterans like Kyle for no reason at all. That is night and day different from the teams that start a season with a roster designed to lose and grab a top 5 pick, as the 76ers did for years, as the OKC Thunder did for years, and as the Spurs did for years.

And this past season even though Masai sold off Pascal (finally) and OG, he made certain to get established players for OG who could win now, and the rumour at the time was he wanted players for Pascal as well, but there was nothing out there so he had to settle for what Indiana was offering.

He was forced to trade both of those players because 1) there was no guarantee either would sign back with the Raptors as both were UFA, 2) he was unwilling to give Pascal or OG the contracts it would take to keep them. He then proceeded to trade a future first round pick in a deal that brought in Kelly Olynyk, a move specifically designed to shore up a small front court rotation in order to, you guessed it, win more games in the 2023-24 season. Masai finally gave up on the season was when Scottie went down with injury (game 60 of an 82 game season), the season was effectively already 3/4rds over at that point. Doesn't sound like a season he intentionally tanked except when it was clearly a lost season due to injuries to two starters.

Facts are facts, Masai never entered a season intentionally trying to lose, and even the seasons he eventually wound up tanking at some point it was always the tail when he really no other choice and would look incompetent if he was trying to win pointless games and worsen the team's draft position.

[ForeverTFC]

Kyle Lowry played 40 minutes and 39 seconds in game 65 of 72 of the 2020-21 season, a meaningless win over the LA Lakers in a season you say we "tanked". The reality is that they didn't really throw in the towel on the season until right at the tail end, when it was clear there was no chance for them to get into the playoffs, and even then they were still playing veterans like Kyle for no reason at all. That is night and day different from the teams that start a season with a roster designed to lose and grab a top 5 pick, as the 76ers did for years, as the OKC Thunder did for years, and as the Spurs did for years.

You realize that rules were put in place for sitting guys out when healthy, right? Lowry only played 46 games that season, the lowest number of games in his career ever as % of total games. From April to the end of the season, Lowry played in 7 of 24 games. Make no mistake, they had already made a mockery of the tanking/rest rules. They just did enough playing Lowry to not throw it in everyone's face.

And this past season even though Masai sold off Pascal (finally) and OG, he made certain to get established players for OG who could win now, and the rumour at the time was he wanted players for Pascal as well, but there was nothing out there so he had to settle for what Indiana was offering.

He was forced to trade both of those players because 1) there was no guarantee either would sign back with the Raptors as both were UFA, 2) he was unwilling to give Pascal or OG the contracts it would take to keep them.

Pascal wanted to come back on a max. He didn't give it to him and took a step back. He got back players with potential for OG. There is a difference between going into the tank and rebuilding, yes. However, rebuilding does not mean win now. Rebuilding means win sooner than a tank. This was partly done because they believe Barnes is a cornerstone and they wanted to match players to his timeline, not grab way out picks. you can disagree with that thought, but you can't position it as "win now" because it objectively is not.

He then proceeded to trade a future first round pick in a deal that brought in Kelly Olynyk, a move specifically designed to shore up a small front court rotation in order to, you guessed it, win more games in the 2023-24 season.

One, a former lottery pick who a season ago was called untouchable on his rookie contract came back in that deal. Two, Olynyk played 26 mins a game. That's less minutes than the tanking Utah Jazz gave him the year before. And that's despite having no C on the roster once we lost Jakob. That deal had nothing to do with winning more games. If you think it did, you do not understand the NBA.

Masai finally gave up on the season was when Scottie went down with injury (game 60 of an 82 game season), the season was effectively already 3/4rds over at that point. Doesn't sound like a season he intentionally tanked except when it was clearly a lost season due to injuries to two starters.

Masai came into the season with a rookie head coach and had given the blessing for the ball to be taken out of best player's hands. Both Siakam and OG saw their minutes and their usage drop in their last year prior to the trade. He may not have tanked immediately, but he never came into last season to win. Again, this is another objective fact.

Facts are facts, Masai never entered a season intentionally trying to lose, and even the seasons he eventually wound up tanking at some point it was always the tail when he really no other choice and would look incompetent if he was trying to win pointless games and worsen the team's draft position.

Facts are facts. Unfortunately your interpretation of them are often wrong or incomplete. Putting aside that no one said Masai entered a season to lose, the point stands that 1) Masai did not enter last season to win and 2) he has chosen to tank much earlier than you are insinuating.

[Michael Bradley]

Masai managed treadmill teams in both Denver and Toronto for many years before that title. If you're going to praise Shapiro and Atkins for building a treadmill team that lasted a whopping two seasons (and missing the playoffs the one year they actually had a contending roster), sandwiched between five years of awful baseball, I don't see why you don't do the same for Masai.

I get being critical of Masai (he's **** the bed since 2020), but claiming that Shapiro and Atkins somehow did better than him during their tenure in Toronto is comical. Shatkins **** the bed from 2017-2020, then **** the bed in 2021 despite actually building a strong team with a one year window due to Semien's contract situation, then treadmilled for two seasons, and have now gone back to **** the bed. This is the same Mark Shapiro who spent 15 years in the mediocre AL Central, accomplishing nothing with Cleveland (he made the playoffs just three times, once with an inherited team).

Is this post a test on how many imaginary strawman arguments you could fit into a couple paragraphs?

I've wanted both Shapiro and Atkins gone for well over a year now. Every year the Jays delay now in changing their FO and engaging in a rebuild further sets them back and pushes them towards the place that the directionless/rudderless Raptors are now stuck in.

And I've never once said Shapiro/Atkins "did better" than Masai during their tenures. Yes, they built a top 5 team in baseball for 3 years (and no, that isn't "treadmilling", the Raptors/Masai actively trying to finish 8th-9th for 3 years in the East is "treadmilling"), but it goes without saying that Masai's overall tenure was more successful; one of his teams won a championship. But that was over 5 years ago and he's followed that success up with colossal mismanagement in all aspects of the job and no plan whatsoever on how to get the team back to contention. The guy has even admitted the numerous mistakes he's made on multiple occasions now. If he was anybody else, he would have been fired years ago. If he was anybody else, the fans would have been demanding for him to be gone long before now.

The fact that we have an owner who is actually going to be willing to start anew with somebody else who hasn't established themselves to be objectively terrible at this over the last 5 years is incredible for this franchise.

The Jays were not a top-5 team for 3 years.

Their ranking each season according to pyth record:

2021: 5th
2022: 7th
2023: 13th

In 2021 they missed the playoffs. In 2022 and 2023 they got in as the WC and then got swept both years, the definition of a treadmill team.

The Jays are a poster child for how to mismanage a sports franchise for a decade.

There is literally no way to spin Rogers taking over the Raptors as a positive for the team.

From 2020-23, the Jays had the 6th best record in MLB, 2 games behind the Yankees. If you just take 2021-23, then it's 1 game behind the Yankees for 5th best in MLB. You could certainly make an argument that they were a top 5 caliber team in baseball over that stretch. If the Jays didn't have one of the biggest single game collapses in playoff history in 2022, then we might be looking at Shatkins a lot differently. Unlike the NBA, the MLB playoffs involve a lot of randomness. The Jays unfortunately did not have any of that randomness fall in their favor. They were a better team than the Mariners in 2022 and Twins in 2023, and couldn't win a game. The Braves under AA the last 2 years went 2-6 in the playoffs and lost to an inferior Phillies team both times. That's not an indictment on AA. I've said before I think the Jays need a front office shakeup, but to suggest the last 5 or so years has been sign of mismanagement is an exaggeration. This season certainly falls under that category, not the 4 years before that.

I really don't see how this is a negative for the Raptors, at least until we know who Ed is replacing Masai with (assuming that happens).

[PushDaRock]

Tampa I am still not fully convinced about, but I can definitely see the argument, so I'll happily not die on that hill. Last year absolutely was not with the intent to lose, and neither was any other post chip season. We can agree it ended up that way, but the argument was that Masai was intentionally trying to lose those seasons, which I think is just so far removed from reality that I couldn't just ignore it.

Masai for better, or worse, never intentionally tries to lose. I think no matter pro, anti, or anywhere in between-Masai a person is, we can all agree the intent behind any and all decisions he makes, is to win above all else.

lol they literally shut down a fully healthy Kyle Lowry during the Tampa year, he played 41 mins and dropped 37 and 11 in his last game. You don't think that's intentionally trying to lose?

Kyle Lowry played 40 minutes and 39 seconds in game 65 of 72 of the 2020-21 season, a meaningless win over the LA Lakers in a season you say we "tanked". The reality is that they didn't really throw in the towel on the season until right at the tail end, when it was clear there was no chance for them to get into the playoffs, and even then they were still playing veterans like Kyle for no reason at all. That is night and day different from the teams that start a season with a roster designed to lose and grab a top 5 pick, as the 76ers did for years, as the OKC Thunder did for years, and as the Spurs did for years.

And this past season even though Masai sold off Pascal (finally) and OG, he made certain to get established players for OG who could win now, and the rumour at the time was he wanted players for Pascal as well, but there was nothing out there so he had to settle for what Indiana was offering.

He was forced to trade both of those players because 1) there was no guarantee either would sign back with the Raptors as both were UFA, 2) he was unwilling to give Pascal or OG the contracts it would take to keep them. He then proceeded to trade a future first round pick in a deal that brought in Kelly Olynyk, a move specifically designed to shore up a small front court rotation in order to, you guessed it, win more games in the 2023-24 season. Masai finally gave up on the season was when Scottie went down with injury (game 60 of an 82 game season), the season was effectively already 3/4rds over at that point. Doesn't sound like a season he intentionally tanked except when it was clearly a lost season due to injuries to two starters.

Facts are facts, Masai never entered a season intentionally trying to lose, and even the seasons he eventually wound up tanking at some point it was always the tail when he really no other choice and would look incompetent if he was trying to win pointless games and worsen the team's draft position.

Thanks for confirming that Masai did in fact try to intentionally lose games.

I never once said we tanked the ENTIRE year, nobody has in fact. Only that we did in fact tank.

[ciueli]

Kyle Lowry played 40 minutes and 39 seconds in game 65 of 72 of the 2020-21 season, a meaningless win over the LA Lakers in a season you say we "tanked". The reality is that they didn't really throw in the towel on the season until right at the tail end, when it was clear there was no chance for them to get into the playoffs, and even then they were still playing veterans like Kyle for no reason at all. That is night and day different from the teams that start a season with a roster designed to lose and grab a top 5 pick, as the 76ers did for years, as the OKC Thunder did for years, and as the Spurs did for years.

You realize that rules were put in place for sitting guys out when healthy, right? Lowry only played 46 games that season, the lowest number of games in his career ever as % of total games. From April to the end of the season, Lowry played in 7 of 24 games. Make no mistake, they had already made a mockery of the tanking/rest rules. They just did enough playing Lowry to not throw it in everyone's face.

This link discusses the foot infection that Kyle was struggling with through the 2020-21 season. So no, it wasn't some hidden conspiracy by the front office to tank as you are suggesting, Kyle was in and out of the lineup until the very end of the season because he was injured. As for those rules about sitting players you are talking about, they didn't didn't exist in their current form in 2021, this link even explains how the rest rules at the time were watered down due to COVID. Realistically, the Raptors could have sat Kyle at any time they wanted due to his foot infection issue, but strangely decided to keep playing him almost until the end of the season instead.

And this past season even though Masai sold off Pascal (finally) and OG, he made certain to get established players for OG who could win now, and the rumour at the time was he wanted players for Pascal as well, but there was nothing out there so he had to settle for what Indiana was offering.

He was forced to trade both of those players because 1) there was no guarantee either would sign back with the Raptors as both were UFA, 2) he was unwilling to give Pascal or OG the contracts it would take to keep them.

Pascal wanted to come back on a max. He didn't give it to him and took a step back. He got back players with potential for OG. There is a difference between going into the tank and rebuilding, yes. However, rebuilding does not mean win now. Rebuilding means win sooner than a tank. This was partly done because they believe Barnes is a cornerstone and they wanted to match players to his timeline, not grab way out picks. you can disagree with that thought, but you can't position it as "win now" because it objectively is not.

He then proceeded to trade a future first round pick in a deal that brought in Kelly Olynyk, a move specifically designed to shore up a small front court rotation in order to, you guessed it, win more games in the 2023-24 season.

One, a former lottery pick who a season ago was called untouchable on his rookie contract came back in that deal. Two, Olynyk played 26 mins a game. That's less minutes than the tanking Utah Jazz gave him the year before. And that's despite having no C on the roster once we lost Jakob. That deal had nothing to do with winning more games. If you think it did, you do not understand the NBA.

What's clear is Masai didn't want to take a step back, even for one season, even in a season he was forced to trade players who might not be back next season. He wanted to make the play-in this past season if possible, that is obvious from the moves he made to smooth out the roster including the trade with the Jazz. And your implication that Kelly Olynyk was some kind of throw in to make the math work and Agbaji was the real prize is ridiculous, Kelly was given a contract extension before the season, he is a player they sought to improve the team, Agbaji was the thrown in in this case, not Kelly, Agbaji has done nothing but disappoint, there's a reason Utah was trying to get rid of him, he wasn't the player they hoped he would be and they weren't willing to invest more resources and minutes trying to develop him. If a team that is searching for young talent is giving up on him that speaks volumes about what his value was around the league, it's very likely no other team in the NBA was even willing to take on his contract, let alone give up a first round pick for him.

If you're trying to understand why Kelly's minutes were less with the Raptors than on Utah, it's not that hard to understand - he was acquired as a backup and once both Jak and Scottie were out with season ending injuries there was no point in trying to win games. Why play an aging veteran like Kelly who is used to being a backup heavy minutes in a losing cause? There was no point. But as I've said, they only reached that point with about 20 games left in the season, giving minutes to younger players to develop them at that point is something literally 100% of NBA teams do in that situation.

Masai finally gave up on the season was when Scottie went down with injury (game 60 of an 82 game season), the season was effectively already 3/4rds over at that point. Doesn't sound like a season he intentionally tanked except when it was clearly a lost season due to injuries to two starters.

Masai came into the season with a rookie head coach and had given the blessing for the ball to be taken out of best player's hands. Both Siakam and OG saw their minutes and their usage drop in their last year prior to the trade. He may not have tanked immediately, but he never came into last season to win. Again, this is another objective fact.

Wrong. The whole plan was to build a team around pervasive passing as the future of the team, they cut Pascal Siakam ISO plays because Nick Nurse already proved that didn't work in 2022-23, it wasn't a winning strategy with Fred, it sure wasn't going to be better with Dennis replacing him and no other changes. Again, you show you have some weird conspiracy theories here, Masai hired Darko, a rookie head coach for a lot of good reasons:
- Pervasive passing system was exactly what Masai wanted to hear after years of low efficiency Nick Nurse ISO offence.
- A rookie head coach would be much more controllable than an established veteran head coach, no more clashes with the front office like what happened between Masai and Nick Nurse or Casey before him.
- No good, established veteran head coach was going to consider Toronto as an option, why coach a team on the downswing? Smart veteran coaches that are in demand have better options available, that's why Nick Nurse got himself fired in the first place, he'd rather coach a playoff team than the disappointment Masai assembled.

Facts are facts, Masai never entered a season intentionally trying to lose, and even the seasons he eventually wound up tanking at some point it was always the tail when he really no other choice and would look incompetent if he was trying to win pointless games and worsen the team's draft position.

Facts are facts. Unfortunately your interpretation of them are often wrong or incomplete. Putting aside that no one said Masai entered a season to lose, the point stands that 1) Masai did not enter last season to win and 2) he has chosen to tank much earlier than you are insinuating.

I would say exactly the same thing about you but it seems you actually don't know the facts at all which I've shown in everything I've posted above. No, he didn't have some secret plan to tank the season in Tampa, that's just ridiculous. Yes, Masai was trying to win last season, the fact that he failed is an indicator that he isn't as good at his job as many like you on this board think he is.

[ciueli]

Thanks for confirming that Masai did in fact try to intentionally lose games.

I never once said we tanked the ENTIRE year, nobody has in fact. Only that we did in fact tank.

Congratulations are in order then, your point is completely obvious and meaningless because literally every team in the NBA sits veterans and plays their young players development minutes at the end of a season where it's obvious they won't make the playoffs.

Not really shocking then that Masai didn't intentionally sabotage his own team's draft odds this past season by demanding Darko push for wins after Scottie and Yak went down with season ending injuries.

[Pointgod]

This news probably means Masai is out. I think our front office needed a shakeup, but I don’t trust Nepo baby **** Ed Rogers to make good decisions. Best case scenario he’s like Dolan and brings in a good team, then gets the hell out of the way but not holding my breath.

[Raps in 4]

This news probably means Masai is out. I think our front office needed a shakeup, but I don’t trust Nepo baby **** Ed Rogers to make good decisions. Best case scenario he’s like Dolan and brings in a good team, then gets the hell out of the way but not holding my breath.

It took Dolan two decades, and a near constant stream of fan vitriol towards him, to get to this point (and even then, I'd argue he lucked out into this FO being competent). Ed still has fans in this city (just read through this thread).

Anyway, it's amazing how similar Ed and Dolan's stories are. Both their daddies owned cable companies. Both of them feuded with their families because they're cheap, petty bastards. Both have owned sports teams for two decades. Both are terrible at their jobs but love to be the centre of attention anyway. Both are friends with Trump.

[Randle McMurphy]

I’d love it if Ed came in and immediately removed Masai like the Leiweke/BC situation. I don’t want to have to wait through another 2 years of mismanagement, but his salary is so high that we may have to.

[douggood]

outside of all this talk about ed rogers on this forum/speculations etc, has there been any interesting news/tidbits about the sale since the initial news?

[ATLTimekeeper]

I don't think Bell is particularly better run overall. But what Bell did do was keep him in check though by supporting Tannenbaum as the Chairman of the Board and having him really mostly run the team. Tannenbaum had done a better job than anyone in the history of MLSE fwiw, in our lifetimes. I don't see how Rogers doesn't fail given its history.

I dunno, Larry was there for all the horrible Leaf years, too. Here's one for memory lane!

https://torontolife.com/city/larry-tanenbaum-mlse-chairman-losing-legacy-last-chance/

He got the Leafs to sign a cooked Tie Domi just because he they were buddies. He ran interference when Leweike tried to fire Bryan Colangelo, leading to that awkward phase where Bryan was just wandering the halls with nothing to do until he quit. His positive contribution was advocating for Masai. I don't even give him credit for his influence as chair for the NBA owners, because his power was so toothless he was unable to get league action on CBA circumventions by the Clippers.

I mean... the bar is pretty low for being the best leafs owner isn't it?

It is. But Larry was definitely front and centre for one of the worst eras, as well as one of the better ones (post-expansion era). My view is he has no tangible impact on the success of failure of MLSE franchises. His ideas are no better nor worse.

[WuTang_CMB]

outside of all this talk about ed rogers on this forum/speculations etc, has there been any interesting news/tidbits about the sale since the initial news?

Leiweke said it would be good for MLSE , prob cuz he hated navigating both companies bi*tching

[And1Skip]

No comment on the basketball operations side, but from the corporate side, I'm curious to see how this plays out. I've been in the corporate (finance) world for a while and being a diehard fan since Day 1, obvious I looked into maybe one day working for the company that owns my favorite team. That quickly went out the door as MLSE is known not to pay their employees that well. Also, being a STH for quite some time now, MLSE is still pretty disorganized and operate more like a small business than a large corporation, from a customer point of view (which has pros and cons of course). Now with one owner, what would that do to the overall product (again, ignoring the basketball ops part, but the stuff around it)? I foresee Scotiabank Arena being more like Rogers Centre which I dont know if its a good thing as I havent attended a Jays game for a long time.

[WuTang_CMB]

Rogers has been super aggressive trying to buy up content the last few years. Just did deals with UFC and NBC Universal most recently. They want to own it all even if they have to overpay because they are playing the long game. The deal they made with Bell just cements that. They now own all the sports teams across Toronto and can bully all the corporate sponsors and ticket sales. They are going to run things their way now with no other chefs in the kitchen. Larry will be gone in 26'. In the next 10 years that investment will age quite well with the way live sports is going and all the revenue the leagues are getting.

[Reeko]

outside of all this talk about ed rogers on this forum/speculations etc, has there been any interesting news/tidbits about the sale since the initial news?

Leiweke said it would be good for MLSE , prob cuz he hated navigating both companies bi*tching

He said that because he got along with Rogers and not with Tanenbaum. Leiweke and Larry T butted heads on some issue and it was Ed Rogers who had to step in and talk Larry down.

[WuTang_CMB]

outside of all this talk about ed rogers on this forum/speculations etc, has there been any interesting news/tidbits about the sale since the initial news?

Leiweke said it would be good for MLSE , prob cuz he hated navigating both companies bi*tching

He said that because he got along with Rogers and not with Tanenbaum. Leiweke and Larry T butted heads on some issue and it was Ed Rogers who had to step in and talk Larry down.

Mainly cuz he also admitted it was a nightmare navigating 2 telecom's to agree on anything