>Ujiri, the Raptors’ president and vice-chairman, and his counterpart with the NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs, Brendan Shanahan, largely have control over the operations of their teams. They are accountable to MLSE’s board of directors, but they both have more autonomy than their predecessors. They can succeed or fail on their own merits.
>**The Toronto Star reported that, among other factors, Edward Rogers’ poor relationship with Ujiri played a part in MLSE’s decision.**
>(Bell and Rogers have reportedly expressed concern about Tanenbaum selling a portion of his share.)
>To be clear, Rogers seems a convenient scapegoat for Toronto not getting a WNBA team. Edward Rogers certainly has a prominent voice within the MLSE board of directors, and three of the board’s eight members have direct ties to the company.
>**However, that still leaves five other board members — three Bell employees, Tanenbaum and Dale Lastman, the chair of Goodmans law firm.**
>**If everyone else on the board felt strongly enough about pursuing a WNBA team, MLSE would have done so. Even if Rogers was leading the charge against it, MLSE is, by design, not a dictatorship.**
>**Tanenbaum has been in place as not only something of a swing vote and buffer between the two telecom companies, but also the board member most concerned with the teams’ results. He need not be painted as an altruistic caretaker of the city’s teams, but he clearly cares a lot about winning and losing.**
>Notably, he has loudly supported Ujiri, whose name has been attached to many prominent openings with more fabled teams around the NBA almost since he arrived in Toronto.
>**They should still be held accountable by ownership, but one would hope that personal animus does not get in the way of those assessments.**
>In pro sports, if ownership is uncertain, that trickles down to every part of an organization. In an ownership group with so many interests, it doesn’t take much to upset the balance of things.
persio
Fuck WNBA bring us an NFL team
tsn101
These telecom companies should not own these sports entities. It’s terrible for the consumer. Fuck Rogers and Bell.
The government allows them to do whatever they want. They don’t work for us.
Canadian__Bacon94
Makes zero sense . Reduce the number of sold out concerts at Scotiabank to have 5,000 people at a WNBA game.
scvd21
Other way around. It’s a concern to the WNBA not to MLSE. MLSE will be perfectly fine without an WNBA team.
Raptorsthrowaway1
Not a fan of MLSE or Rogers. But how is it a failure that’s exclusively on them?
If there was such a bursting market for a WNBA team in Toronto (there isn’t) surely there would be multiple consortiums biding for the rights to a team?
medikB
LT should partner with Nav and get the WNBA team to CocaCola
awwwyeahaquaman
I think of all the doomer stuff Raptors fans havebeen into recently, this is one that actually should cause a lot of concern. MLSE is tightening their belt and is willing to miss out on key opportunities to maximize short term profit seeking, never a recipe for winning programs
MisterSG1
This stuff about concerts honestly seems like a cop out.
A regular season that’s 36 games long means that there is 18 home games.
Realistically, I think a wnba crowd would be similar to a Marlies crowd, and considering that MLSE owns the barn where they’ll play. I really wonder how one can lose money. MLSE would get all the money straight out from the snack bar would they not.
Up before the pandemic, the Toronto Rock used to play in Scotiabank Arena, they used to get around 10,000 fans per game, and MLSE didn’t seem to have a problem with them renting the space from them during the much more complicated NHL and NBA schedule.
The bottom line, I think this decision is merely a cop out.
XenaRen
I have a few dumb questions:
1. Do other WNBA teams play in the biggest Arenas of their respective cities? IE do the Liberty play at MSG, do the Mystics play at Capital One Arena, do the Sky play at United?
Quick Google search suggests no, most WNBA teams don’t play in the same Arena as NBA teams except for LA/NY/Minnesota teams. If that’s the case why are they trying to force the Toronto WNBA team to play in SBA instead of Coca Cola Coliseum? Wouldn’t it make sense to test the WNBA franchise there instead to gauge interest considering that new expansion teams will most likely suck for a couple of years? They can always move it to SBA once the team proves itself.
2. Are there events in SBA everyday, and is every single event sold out to the point they can’t stomach 18 WNBA home games? They really couldn’t come to an agreement to do let’s say 8 games in SBA and 10 games in Coca Cola, and do those 8 SBA games on nights where SBA doesn’t have an event?
Thislaydee
Perfectly fine with no wnba it would be cool and “popular” for a little bit then I’m sure viewers and attendees would fall off a cliff.
MGSdeco4
It’s not profitable. That’s all there is to it, this is Bell & Roger’s we are talking about.
13 Comments
Here’s the Raptors related aspects:
>Ujiri, the Raptors’ president and vice-chairman, and his counterpart with the NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs, Brendan Shanahan, largely have control over the operations of their teams. They are accountable to MLSE’s board of directors, but they both have more autonomy than their predecessors. They can succeed or fail on their own merits.
>**The Toronto Star reported that, among other factors, Edward Rogers’ poor relationship with Ujiri played a part in MLSE’s decision.**
>(Bell and Rogers have reportedly expressed concern about Tanenbaum selling a portion of his share.)
>To be clear, Rogers seems a convenient scapegoat for Toronto not getting a WNBA team. Edward Rogers certainly has a prominent voice within the MLSE board of directors, and three of the board’s eight members have direct ties to the company.
>**However, that still leaves five other board members — three Bell employees, Tanenbaum and Dale Lastman, the chair of Goodmans law firm.**
>**If everyone else on the board felt strongly enough about pursuing a WNBA team, MLSE would have done so. Even if Rogers was leading the charge against it, MLSE is, by design, not a dictatorship.**
>**Tanenbaum has been in place as not only something of a swing vote and buffer between the two telecom companies, but also the board member most concerned with the teams’ results. He need not be painted as an altruistic caretaker of the city’s teams, but he clearly cares a lot about winning and losing.**
>Notably, he has loudly supported Ujiri, whose name has been attached to many prominent openings with more fabled teams around the NBA almost since he arrived in Toronto.
>**They should still be held accountable by ownership, but one would hope that personal animus does not get in the way of those assessments.**
>In pro sports, if ownership is uncertain, that trickles down to every part of an organization. In an ownership group with so many interests, it doesn’t take much to upset the balance of things.
Fuck WNBA bring us an NFL team
These telecom companies should not own these sports entities. It’s terrible for the consumer. Fuck Rogers and Bell.
The government allows them to do whatever they want. They don’t work for us.
Makes zero sense . Reduce the number of sold out concerts at Scotiabank to have 5,000 people at a WNBA game.
Other way around. It’s a concern to the WNBA not to MLSE. MLSE will be perfectly fine without an WNBA team.
Not a fan of MLSE or Rogers. But how is it a failure that’s exclusively on them?
If there was such a bursting market for a WNBA team in Toronto (there isn’t) surely there would be multiple consortiums biding for the rights to a team?
LT should partner with Nav and get the WNBA team to CocaCola
I think of all the doomer stuff Raptors fans havebeen into recently, this is one that actually should cause a lot of concern. MLSE is tightening their belt and is willing to miss out on key opportunities to maximize short term profit seeking, never a recipe for winning programs
This stuff about concerts honestly seems like a cop out.
A regular season that’s 36 games long means that there is 18 home games.
Realistically, I think a wnba crowd would be similar to a Marlies crowd, and considering that MLSE owns the barn where they’ll play. I really wonder how one can lose money. MLSE would get all the money straight out from the snack bar would they not.
Up before the pandemic, the Toronto Rock used to play in Scotiabank Arena, they used to get around 10,000 fans per game, and MLSE didn’t seem to have a problem with them renting the space from them during the much more complicated NHL and NBA schedule.
The bottom line, I think this decision is merely a cop out.
I have a few dumb questions:
1. Do other WNBA teams play in the biggest Arenas of their respective cities? IE do the Liberty play at MSG, do the Mystics play at Capital One Arena, do the Sky play at United?
Quick Google search suggests no, most WNBA teams don’t play in the same Arena as NBA teams except for LA/NY/Minnesota teams. If that’s the case why are they trying to force the Toronto WNBA team to play in SBA instead of Coca Cola Coliseum? Wouldn’t it make sense to test the WNBA franchise there instead to gauge interest considering that new expansion teams will most likely suck for a couple of years? They can always move it to SBA once the team proves itself.
2. Are there events in SBA everyday, and is every single event sold out to the point they can’t stomach 18 WNBA home games? They really couldn’t come to an agreement to do let’s say 8 games in SBA and 10 games in Coca Cola, and do those 8 SBA games on nights where SBA doesn’t have an event?
Perfectly fine with no wnba it would be cool and “popular” for a little bit then I’m sure viewers and attendees would fall off a cliff.
It’s not profitable. That’s all there is to it, this is Bell & Roger’s we are talking about.
No I am not concerned