[News] Rogers acquires 37.5% of MLSE for $3.5 billion USD

[rohara66]

Guess they can afford this by charging everyone an extra ~$5/month per cable box.

[activeStick]

Originally Posted by bluejays

That's what I meant meant in my explanation. They pour money in on one hand but because they're corporately run, have to have a person who can speak the corporate language, in the President chair. It's not ideal in many ways because not many people are business savvy and sport savvy, so it closes out having a sports person if they can't have the ability of selling something to the Board. I don't fully agree that they don't actively want to win - I would bet most of the discussions happen around that. The problem with the corporate run world is when it's the same management team, the truth is never told explicitly. It's always washed or if a new team comes in they'll point out their new vision of what went wrong. I imagine the Jays will get rid of Atkins this year. Shapiro is the mix between corporate and baseball having both, but a head will have to roll eventually and that will be Atkins. I think that can eventually be attributed to a corporate run team. If it was a rich owner, the president can convince ownership to hold on, but in Corporate results speak volumes. So I'd wager he's gone pretty early as soon as the season wraps.

Many love to hate on him, but Tre is a very good communicator and would be excellent in that seat in my opinion.

[bluejays]

Originally Posted by activeStick

Many love to hate on him, but Tre is a very good communicator and would be excellent in that seat in my opinion.

Hard to say. We obviously know his dad is a business guy. Did that business side rub off on him? Likely. But can he speak numbers to the board? No clue, as his entire life has been on the hockey side.

[activeStick]

Yeah it has been in hockey, but his experience is wide as he also co-founded that league (still hockey, but very different from being a GM) and then he was a big part of the eventual merger of that league with the CHL. Being part of any M&A is very complex, let alone apparently Tre being a key person involved in that.

[dustygoon]

Originally Posted by Sidney Crosby's Hat

As a part of this, all the media rights for Leafs and Raptors are going to Bell/TSN (as opposed to the split they've had). 20-year deal. I bet that's big dollars going back into Rogers' pockets.

https://www.tsn.ca/nhl/bell-sells-st...mlse-1.2175971

They would rather sell the rights than keep them for themselves and create a killer broadcast and media property that could charge huge money for ad slots?

[madmike]

Originally Posted by activeStick

Yup, as of early April of this season, the Jays ranked 7th in the entire league in roster spend, behind only the Mets, Yankees, Dodgers, Phillies, Astros, and Rangers. Leafs ownership has never been afraid to spend on players, coaches and management and I don't think that's about to change now with Rogers buying them as long as the Leafs continue to be a money printing machine.

There was the unfortunate release of Anthopoulos (now regarded as one of MLB’s top execs) because he didn’t kiss Eddy’s butt enough. Ujiri won’t last long and I doubt Shanahan does either. They’ll both be seen as too independent and too expensive.

[activeStick]

Toronto would riot if they let Masai go. City loves him.

[redmile04]

Originally Posted by getbak

This will fill up TSN's schedule and give Rogers the money to extend their exclusive NHL national rights deal.

How does that work for Leafs Saturday games if Rogers has HNIC , would Rogers have HNIC games and TSN have just the Leafs game?

[Finger Cookin]

Originally Posted by BlackRedGold25

It doesn't say _all_. I'd suspect it would be a continuation of their current setup.

Exactly. My first thought on hearing the news was "Well, there goes any Leafs or Raptors games on TSN", as I assumed Rogers would want exclusive broadcast rights. Bell ensuing access to those games for 20 years means they'll still have plenty of games on the schedule.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/bel...mlse-1.7326526

Rogers and Bell currently share the rights for the Leafs and the Raptors. Bell Media says it has reached a long-term, 20-year agreement with Rogers to renew the rights deal once it expires.

Pending approval from each league, Rogers says Bell will have access to content rights for "50 per cent of Maple Leafs regional games and 50 per cent of Toronto Raptors games for which MLSE controls the rights."

[albertGQ]

Originally Posted by redmile04

How does that work for Leafs Saturday games if Rogers has HNIC , would Rogers have HNIC games and TSN have just the Leafs game?

I would assume Bell just gets the regional rights. National (which HNIC is) would stay with Rogers

[monkeyman]

Anyone who thought Leafs coverage was insufferable before better hang on to their hats.

[1qqaaz]

I do not like the telecommunications company known as Rogers Communications.
I don't like the Leafs either, so I guess it makes sense.

[InternationalVillager]

I don’t understand the hate for Rogers.

[Paulie Walnuts]

Originally Posted by InternationalVillager

I don’t understand the hate for Rogers.

You can’t hate the company that sponsors your building.

[bizaro86]

The rights is the same 50/50 split they have now.

Pending approval from each league, Rogers says Bell will have access to content rights for "50 per cent of Maple Leafs regional games and 50 per cent of Toronto Raptors games for which MLSE controls the rights."

I'm sure Rogers wanted to have all the rights, but Bell probably made that a condition of the deal.

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by InternationalVillager

I don’t understand the hate for Rogers.

They paid far too much for the national TV rights and compensate by cutting everything else to the bone. They have shoddy production values, and they keep losing their most talented people because they are too cheap to pay them the going rate.

They earn negative bonus points for running their other businesses the same way. If you're a Rogers cable or Internet customer, and call their support number, there is no option in the maze of voicemail menus that actually allows you to talk to a human being. When I had trouble with my connection recently, I had to find the number for a specific human-staffed department in one of my saved emails, and then ask them to route me to a human technician. I never had any such trouble with Shaw before the merger.

I call them ‘Jolly Rogers’ for abundant reason. They should change their logo to this:

[browna]

It was inevitable when that deal was struck originally between two competing firms in the same industry that one would buy the other out at some point, just a matter of when and how much.

At the time it allowed both companies to put in less money and have equal content rights and say...and structuring it the way they did made sure the regulators stayed off their back for "monopoly"....similarly now, the deal to give Bell 50% content is to make sure the Feds rubber stamp the deal quickly and without conditions (like the Shaw deal was).