March 29, 2019
In North America, only one investor makes key decisions for a team in each of four major leagues
A new season starts this week for the Blue Jays and FC, while the Leafs and Raptors head for the playoffs, in the only North American city in which one investor plays a dominant role on a team in each of four major leagues.
Edward Rogers is Chair of Rogers Communications Inc., and a member of the board of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment.
Rogers Communications owns the Toronto Blue Jays.
MLSE owns the Maple Leafs of the National Hockey League, the Raptors of the National Basketball Association, and Toronto FC of Major League Soccer, as well as the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League.
Each of Rogers Communication and BCE owns 37.5% of the stock of MLSE, whose development teams include the Toronto Marlies of the American Hockey League, Raptors 905 of the NBA G League, and Toronto FC II of the United Soccer League.
MLSE owns or operates all of the venues in which its teams play, including Scotiabank Arena and BMO Field.
Sportsnet, a division of Rogers Communications, has 1 million followers on Facebook and 350,000 on Instagram.
One of Canada’s top three providers of mobile telecom services, Rogers Communications in 2017 earned $1.8 billion on sales of $14 billion.
A former member of the Economic Council of Canada, Rogers is a graduate of the University of Western Ontario.
