Breaking: Rogers Aquires Bell Stake In MLSE

[duppyy]

Im guessing Masai quits or gets fired once the sale takes place.

[DreamTeam09]

Imagine being so in debt these shareholders make you sell your entire sporting ownership portfolio.
Some of these big wigs at these companies make **** moves after **** moves & somehow they still hold the highest acclaim in society lol smh

[douggood]

Imagine being so in debt these shareholders make you sell your entire sporting ownership portfolio.
Some of these big wigs at these companies make **** moves after **** moves & somehow they still hold the highest acclaim in society lol smh

can anyone share the business side of the story
bell,rogers financial situation/stock price, has there been investor presssure one way or another etc.

[carlosey]

Absolutely awful. Masai is gone. Raptors will be run exactly like the Blue Jays, which is so disappointing. Welcome back to the teachers pension fund years where a little profit is all that matters.

[douggood]

Absolutely awful. Masai is gone. Raptors will be run exactly like the Blue Jays, which is so disappointing. Welcome back to the teachers pension fund years where a little profit is all that matters.

people say this, but its not like rogers has cheaped out on blue jays to my knowledge. bad decisions maybe, but not cheap.

[ill-Will03]

Well the Masai haters will finally get what they wanted. Let’s see how long it takes for them to turn on his replacement lol

[carlosey]

Absolutely awful. Masai is gone. Raptors will be run exactly like the Blue Jays, which is so disappointing. Welcome back to the teachers pension fund years where a little profit is all that matters.

people say this, but its not like rogers has cheaped out on blue jays to my knowledge. bad decisions maybe, but not cheap.

Well its the politics that goes with it. They double down and hang on as long as they arent losing. Spending tons of cash when you do it like the blue jays and you get results like the blue jays well...its not great.

[Jerry Lucas]

Ed Rogers getting full control over Toronto's sports teams is terrible news.

[RINSE]

Yup Masai is gone

I remember the story that came out about Edward openly questioning why he was paid so much

[Fairview4Life]

Absolutely awful. Masai is gone. Raptors will be run exactly like the Blue Jays, which is so disappointing. Welcome back to the teachers pension fund years where a little profit is all that matters.

people say this, but its not like rogers has cheaped out on blue jays to my knowledge. bad decisions maybe, but not cheap.

The media rights deals and management hires have always been the issue with Rogers ownership.

[Ado05]

Masai had a good run

Godspeed my guy

[ItsDanger]

You knew there was imminent ownership change, a little sooner than expected. Overall, Jays (Rogers has been majority? owner since 2000) record hasn't been great but not terrible with them in charge. 2015 club was a legit Word Series contender, they just fell short. The 3 major sports leagues are quite different and require different styles. It all comes down to who their guys pick for GMs and their respective visions.

[Michael Bradley]

Absolutely awful. Masai is gone. Raptors will be run exactly like the Blue Jays, which is so disappointing. Welcome back to the teachers pension fund years where a little profit is all that matters.

people say this, but its not like rogers has cheaped out on blue jays to my knowledge. bad decisions maybe, but not cheap.

Yeah the Jays are run just fine from an ownership standpoint. They are one of a handful of teams paying the luxury tax, and the Jays have been on the big free agents every year since 2019. Rogers seems willing to spend on the Blue Jays without any issues. The Jays biggest issue is player development, which has nothing to do with Rogers.

Whether this is good or bad for the Raptors is another story, but Rogers hasn’t been an issue with the Jays.

[Lord_Zedd]

Rogers going to let go of Masai and hire Danny Ferry

That's what I'm afraid will happen. They will hire some good old boy retread who sucks up to Ed and they will give him full control for a decade plus.

Sounds like Bryan Colangelo. Wouldn't surprise me if the Rogers camp were big fans of Colangelo

[Duffman100]

Absolutely awful. Masai is gone. Raptors will be run exactly like the Blue Jays, which is so disappointing. Welcome back to the teachers pension fund years where a little profit is all that matters.

people say this, but its not like rogers has cheaped out on blue jays to my knowledge. bad decisions maybe, but not cheap.

Yeah the Jays are run just fine from an ownership standpoint. They are one of a handful of teams paying the luxury tax, and the Jays have been on the big free agents every year since 2019. Rogers seems willing to spend on the Blue Jays without any issues. The Jays biggest issue is player development, which has nothing to do with Rogers.

Whether this is good or bad for the Raptors is another story, but Rogers hasn’t been an issue with the Jays.

Except that they've kept the management on and nobody has been fired...

[dagger]

You knew there was imminent ownership change, a little sooner than expected. Overall, Jays (Rogers has been majority? owner since 2000) record hasn't been great but not terrible with them in charge. 2015 club was a legit Word Series contender, they just fell short. The 3 major sports leagues are quite different and require different styles. It all comes down to who their guys pick for GMs and their respective visions.

A better question is whether Keith Pelley, the new CEO, stays around. He was C.E.O of Rogers Media, so he would likely have considerable sway. I expected Masai to leave at the end of his contract, and not because of this. His African interests are large and growing, and is likely headed for a joint venture with someone on that continent. Also. Bobby Webster is all regarded, has probably been making his fair share of key decisions, and hasn't hung around this long for nothing. He could have had the #1 job at another team by now. Webster is probably Pelley's kind of guy, not going to be media high profile, and his salary as President wouldn't be nearly as large as Masai's. Shanahan on the NHL side might have a shorter leash.

There are some important differences between the Jays and the Leafs/Raptors. The Jays are more sensitive to stadium revenue fluctuations, they need more walk-on and single-game purchasers - a losing Jays team loses hundreds of thousands of fans. Sportsnet loses a lot of viewers. That will be apparent next season and it's why the idiots in charge are trying to fool us with this "We plan to compete" crap. There is little chance the Jays will do a proper rebuild, especially with the stadium renovations that are just being completed. MLSE is different - the Raptors and Leafs are pretty much immune revenue-wise from the consequences of losing, the Raptors sucked royally last season but you are not going to see a lot of empty seats. The Leafs, as always, are competitive if not real contenders. The Leafs operate under a hard cap, the Raptors under a soft but hardening cap. If the Raptors stay under the tax line, they get a share of tax redistributions. The Jays do not, even if they are non-tax payers. That's because baseball has a perverse system of giving tax redistributions only to the teams with the lowest payrolls. (Playoff revenues in the NBA and especially the NHL are especially lucrative, so there is still an incentive to go as deep as you can in the playoffs). So the bean counters can always find lots to be concerned about with the Jays, but with the Raptors and Leafs, the floor is solid, and with the Raptors, rising exponentially with TV media rights. From a financial perspective, MLSE can be ambivalent about winning with the Raptors, preferring a winning team for playoff revenues, and be swayed by how fast the NBA draft can cough up new poster kids for a future champion. Even if the Jays make brilliant scouting and drafting decisions, it can take 2-4 years for even a future all-star to get to the majors. It's hard to sell hope until such a kid reaches the upper minor leagues. So a losing Jays season, or worse, two losing seasons in a row, can turn the team into a financial black hole. Bottom line, I dislike todays news, but am less concerned than I am for the mid-term outlook for the Jays.

[OakleyDokely]

Absolutely awful. Masai is gone. Raptors will be run exactly like the Blue Jays, which is so disappointing. Welcome back to the teachers pension fund years where a little profit is all that matters.

people say this, but its not like rogers has cheaped out on blue jays to my knowledge. bad decisions maybe, but not cheap.

Yeah the Jays are run just fine from an ownership standpoint. They are one of a handful of teams paying the luxury tax, and the Jays have been on the big free agents every year since 2019. Rogers seems willing to spend on the Blue Jays without any issues. The Jays biggest issue is player development, which has nothing to do with Rogers.

Whether this is good or bad for the Raptors is another story, but Rogers hasn’t been an issue with the Jays.

The investment in the team has been fine, but Rogers is like the 2nd or 3rd wealthiest owner in all of baseball (with complete inhouse control over lucrative TV rights), so being a borderline top 10 payroll team should be the bare minimum spent. This is not as much of an issue with the Leafs/Raps because both of their leagues have cap systems so you can only spend so much. It might be an issue if the Raps become good again and they need to go into the tax though.

The bigger issue is the type of people they let run these teams.

[JD143726]

Looks like we get to see Kate Beirness midget legs in heels for a while longer (Bell keeping 50% of broadcasts)

[Cyrus]

This Rogers buying out Bell, can't be good for Masai, all that bad Blood/grudge that Ed Rogers had for Masai. Wonder how long he sticks around, nothing immediate, as this will take a while to get approval, atleast a year, but still, not good overall for the team in my books.

[CPT]

Gotta hope the WNBA team is good.