Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment

Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment Ltd.

Type	Private
Industry	Sports, property management
Founded	1931 (as Maple Leaf Gardens Ltd.) 1998 (present name)
Headquarters	Air Canada Centre, Toronto, Ontario
Key people	Larry Tanenbaum, Chairman Richard Peddie, President and CEO
Products	Professional sports teams, sports venues, sports channels, commercial real estate
Owner(s)	Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan (79.5%) Kilmer Sports Inc. (20.5%) (Sale of OTPP's holdings to Bell Canada, Rogers Communications, BCE Master Trust Fund, and Kilmer Sports pending)
Subsidiaries	Toronto Maple Leafs, Toronto Raptors, Toronto Marlies, Toronto FC
References: Enterprise value — $2.25 billion USD (2011)

Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment Ltd. (MLSE) is a professional sports company based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Among its properties include the Toronto Maple Leafs National Hockey League team, Toronto Raptors National Basketball Association team, Toronto FC Major League Soccer team, and the Toronto Marlies American Hockey League team. MLSE is also involved in property management, including ownership of the Air Canada Centre, the home arena of the Maple Leafs and Raptors.

History

The corporation's roots were established in 1927, after Conn Smythe organized a group of investors to purchase Toronto's premier hockey franchise, which had earned Stanley Cup championships in 1918 (as the Toronto Arenas) and 1922 (as the Toronto St. Pats), and renamed it the Maple Leafs. In 1931, a corporate reorganization resulted in the formation of Maple Leaf Gardens Ltd. (MLGL; based at the arena of the same name), with the Maple Leafs hockey team as the leading subsidiary.

Supermarket tycoon Steve Stavro led a group to buy the Maple Leafs from the estate of the late Harold Ballard in 1991. Larry Tanenbaum became a partner in 1996 with a 20% stake in MLGL. MLGL purchased the Toronto Raptors and Air Canada Centre in 1998, at which time the company adopted its present name. Stavro sold his stake to CTVglobemedia in 2003, and the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan assumed controlling interest based on equity under the new ownership structure, with Tanenbaum taking over as non-executive chairman. On December 5, 2008, CTVglobemedia sold half of its 15% stake to Tanenbaum, making Tanenbaum the second-largest stakeholder. Each owner of MLSE has first right of refusal on any shares sold.

In April 2008, MLSE was reported to be worth $1.75 billion USD, according to a valuation commissioned by the company and cited by the Toronto Star. In addition, the Toronto Star reported that MLSE was considering the purchase of an English Premier League soccer team.

It was announced on January 23, 2009, that MLSE will acquire Insight Sports' interest in GolTV, a Canadian digital cable channel devoted to soccer.

On August 20, 2009, Teachers' announced that it had agreed to purchase the remaining 7.7% stake in MLSE owned by CTVglobemedia.

Sale of OTPP's stake

On December 1, 2010, the Toronto Star and other reputable media outlets reported that Rogers Communications made a bid to purchase the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan's 66% stake in MLSE.

Despite denying the reports in December, on March 12, 2011, La Presse reported that the OTPP is looking to sell their 66% majority share in MLSE. The OTPP later released a public statement confirming this.^{[citation needed]}

In September 2011, OTPP increased its stake in MLSE to 79.5 per cent in September with the purchase of TD Capital Group's 13.5 per cent stake. At the time, it was thought the move was a step to streamline the sale of the pension fund's stake in the team.^{[citation needed]}

On December 9, 2011, the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan announced the sale of its majority stake in MLSE to Bell Canada and Rogers Communications, in a deal expected to be valued at around $1.32 billion. Additionally, Larry Tanenbaum will increase his stake in the company to 25%. The deal is expected to be completed in summer 2012, pending the approval of Canada's Competition Bureau, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (with regards to MLSE's TV channels), as well as the NHL, the AHL, the NBA, and MLS (with regards to each of MLSE's main sports franchises).

Following the transaction, if approved, the ownership of MLSE would be divided as follows:

• Rogers Communications – 37.5%
• Bell Canada – 28%
• Larry Tanenbaum (through his holding company Kilmer Sports) – 25%
• BCE Master Trust Fund (investment fund of Bell's pension plan) – 9.5%

Bell has indicated that the involvement of Bell's pension fund is, at least in part, intended to ensure Bell can retain its existing 18% interest in the Montreal Canadiens, as NHL rules prevent any shareholder that owns more than 30% of a team from being involved in the ownership of any other team.

Staff

Board of Directors

• Larry Tanenbaum – Kilmer Sports (Non-Executive Chairman Of The Board)
• Richard Peddie – President & CEO
• Robert Bertram – Senior Advisor, Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan
• Glen Silvestri – Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan
• Ashvin Malkani – Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan
• Jane Rowe- Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan
• Dale Lastman – Goodmans

Assets

Sports teams

• Toronto Maple Leafs (NHL)
  • Valued at $521 million USD, the Maple Leafs are the most valuable team in the NHL.
• Toronto Raptors (NBA)
  • Valued at $382 Million USD, the Raptors are the twelfth most valuable team in the NBA
• Toronto FC (CONCACAF/MLS)
  • Valued at $44 million USD, Toronto FC is the second most valuable team in Major League Soccer
• Toronto Marlies (AHL)
• TFC Academy (Canadian Soccer League)

Facilities and properties

• Air Canada Centre, a multi-purpose indoor arena in Downtown Toronto, home arena of the Maple Leafs and Raptors. ($265 Million CAD)
• Maple Leaf Square, a real estate development in Downtown Toronto, adjacent to Air Canada Centre, developed in partnership with fellow OTPP subsidiary Cadillac Fairview. The development includes, among other tenants, the following businesses operated by MLSE:
  • Real Sports Bar & Grill, a sports-themed restaurant
  • Real Sports Apparel, a sports clothing store
  • e11even, an upscale restaurant on the corner of Bremner and York streets.

MLSE also operates two facilities owned by the City of Toronto:

• BMO Field, home of Toronto FC (MLS) and the Canadian men's national soccer team (CONCACAF)
• Ricoh Coliseum, home of the Toronto Marlies (AHL).

Television channels

• Leafs TV, a specialty television channel devoted to the Toronto Maple Leafs and Toronto Marlies
• NBA TV Canada, a local version of NBA TV, also airs programming and coverage for the Toronto Raptors
• GolTV Canada (80.1% holding), a local version of GolTV, is the primary television broadcaster of Toronto FC, along with other international soccer games.

Note that the valuations done by Forbes are not based on actual numbers provided by MLSE. In 2003, MLSE was internally valued at over $1 Billion CAD by the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan in its annual report. The December 2008 sale of 7.5% of the company to Larry Tanenbaum for $90 Million values the company at $1.2 Billion.

Recent or proposed projects

Maple Leaf Square

In April 2005, MLSE announced that they would be working with Cadillac Fairview (wholly owned subsidiary of Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan) and Lanterra Developments to build Maple Leaf Square, a major entertainment complex situated next to the Air Canada Centre in Downtown Toronto. The $500 million CAD complex will be a mixed use facility including office space, residential condo towers and 170,000 square feet (16,000 m²) of retail and dining space. 

The complex was completed in 2010 and features many amenities including the Hotel St. Germain, e11ven restaurant, Real Sports Apparel, Real Sports Bar and Grill, Longos grocery store, and condominium residences along with a connection to the neighbouring Air Canada Centre.^{[citation needed]}

Real Sports channel

In November 2009, MLSE applied to the CRTC for a Category 2 digital TV license to operate a general interest sports service provisionally named Mainstream Sports, which was granted in June 2010. Since then, a number of media reports had suggested that MLSE was looking to use the licence to launch a channel to carry its teams' broadcasts, along the lines of team-owned regional sports networks in the United States such as YES Network and NESN, with the tentative name "Real Sports" (in keeping with the branding of MLSE's sports bar and apparel store). It is not clear whether such a channel would have replaced, or be supplemental to, MLSE's existing digital channels.

With the pending sale of OTPP's interest in the company to Rogers and Bell, owners of Sportsnet and TSN respectively, and associated agreements around the division of MLSE teams' regional broadcast rights between those two entities, it is no longer expected that such a channel will launch.

See also

• Edmonton Investors Group Limited Partnership
• Canucks Sports & Entertainment

References

• Vardi, Nathan. Winning Isn't Everything [2], Forbes, 2007-11-16.

External links

• http://www.mlse.com/
• http://www.theaircanadacentre.com/