Humble Leafs TV was a serious participant within the making of MLSE

When Leafs TV was launched 21 years in the past, the primary large problem — and take a look at of its relevance — was going to be protection of the Maple Leafs’ coaching camp, to be held in St. John’s.

Planes had been chartered, accommodations booked. The crew and workers had been purported to fly there on Sept. 11, 2001, the day terrorists hijacked 4 planes and crashed them in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania. All air visitors got here to a halt.

The Leafs, and Leafs TV, didn’t make it to Newfoundland that yr. The massive splash the brand new channel wished to make grew to become a a lot smaller ripple.

However the present — really a premium specialty cable subscriber channel, with remarkably little or no content material and a relatively small price range — needed to go on.

“The problem was to create compelling sufficient programming that will have interaction hardcore Maple Leafs followers and hopefully increase the viewers,” says John Shannon, the primary government producer at Leafs TV.

If Leafs TV had an uncommon beginning, its loss of life is being mourned by these behind a few of its groundbreaking improvements: the primary hockey video games to be streamed, rapidly edited game-in-an-hour rebroadcasts and stay post-game scrums with coaches.

The sports activities enterprise is full of expertise that began there, or received an enormous increase. Former goaltender Glenn Healy first did color commentary on Leafs TV after taking part in for the crew. YouTube big Steve (Dangle) Glynn, Andi Petrillo and Gareth Wheeler labored there. And numerous TSN, Sportsnet and CBC administrators and producers received their behind-the-scenes begin.

However its best legacy is the affect it had on possession, the way forward for the franchise and its construction.

“Leafs TV is the explanation that Bell and Rogers now personal MLSE,” says Aaron Lafontaine, director of enterprise growth with Maple Leaf Sports activities and Leisure from 2011 to 2019. “They wanted to safe content material at an inexpensive value.”

It began from humble beginnings.

Grocery magnate Steve Stavro largely managed the Leafs, Raptors and Air Canada Centre (now Scotiabank Area) when he green-lit Leafs TV and Raptors TV.

“We had no actual broadcast experience and no assets,” says Richard Peddie, then chief government of MLSE. “Our rationale was, initially, we’ve received to maintain Bell and Rogers trustworthy. We’re not saying they’re colluding, however boy, they certain didn’t need to take the worth up of our rights. So we needed to make our personal competitor.”

Having one other bidder for rights to broadcast regional video games — primarily the crew itself — ensured that Sportsnet and TSN would pay way more. Regional rights for Leafs video games rose from $100,000 a recreation to $450,000 within the first 10 years of Leafs TV.

Leafs TV began with none recreation rights. They did Recreation Time, a pre-game present that morphed into an in-game present that morphed right into a post-game present — all with out exhibiting stay motion. Broadcaster Paul Hendrick, sportswriter Alan Adams and others would watch on a monitor and discuss no matter they wished.

“I form of seen it as the 2 Muppets within the balcony, Statler and Waldorf,” says Shannon. “Our pre-game and our post-game present had been really longer than the sport. Our objective over the two 1/2 hours of the sport was to mainly keep on the air and be as low-cost as potential. In the perfect curiosity of the franchise, we didn’t need you watching us; we wished followers watching the sport.”

There was a phone-in component.

“We had a man named Johnny from the Patch — Peterborough,” says Hendrick. “He referred to as in each Saturday evening. This was a possibility for these folks to be on air. It was their large break in present enterprise, proper? And there may need been 5 folks watching us.”

Typically the conversations had been inane. Typically the pizza order was an enormous occasion. However a fan with picture-in-picture may watch the sport and take heed to Leafs TV specialists discuss in regards to the crew.

“It’s humorous, in lots of ways in which’s the best way the world has gone. It was Peyton and Eli (Manning) with out the sport,” says Shannon. “Perhaps we had been forward of the curve.”

Ultimately, the sport grew to become the factor.

“We began broadcasting all of our exhibition video games,” says Peddie. “Nobody was shopping for these. We began placing them on and making a living. In a while, we begin broadcasting the Marlies recreation. So we had been creating content material.”

Then a light-weight bulb went on.

“We’re rolling alongside, after which we are saying: You already know what we’ve received? We are able to maintain all of our (native and regional) rights offers — and by then we owned TFC — to ourselves. One thing like 50 Leaf video games, 70 Raptors video games and 20-odd TFC video games and limitless Marlies video games. Now we have the makings of an excellent channel right here.

“We thought it’d be value $1 billion inside a yr.”

Leafs TV was going to be rebranded Actual Sports activities Community. However at roughly the identical time that executives had been figuring out the main points, MLSE went up on the market.

The Ontario Lecturers’ Pension Plan, which had turn out to be majority proprietor in 2003, determined to promote its stake. The difficulty was looking for a purchaser.

The $1.32-billion asking value for the pension fund’s share was too excessive for Bell or Rogers, however each had been frightened that MLSE had the facility to construct a community that would deprive TSN (owned by Bell) and Rogers Sportsnet of beneficial content material.

“Leafs TV set the stage for the Actual Sports activities Community,” says LaFontaine. “We had the licence. That was the plan. However clearly Bell and Rogers had been involved about what was going to occur.”

The rival telecom giants talked issues over and, in 2011, determined to separate the price of the pension fund’s stake.

“This funding suits squarely into our technique of securing premium content material,” then Rogers CEO Nadir Mohamed stated on the time.

The Leafs had been within the midst of darkish days on the ice again then, and Leafs TV wore it.

“After one too many losses, the folks on the balcony proper behind and above us had been dumping beer on us on our set,” says Hendrick. “They had been pissed off. There have been waffles being thrown on the ice and beer being tossed onto our Leafs TV expertise.

“When it was good, it was nice, particularly when the crew was profitable. However there was a stretch of years the place I knew, come April, I used to be heading over to the Toronto Marlies.”

Since taking on MLSE, Rogers and Bell — with long-time minority stakeholder Larry Tanenbaum because the tiebreaker — have been calling the pictures. They employed high-profile American sports activities government Tim Leiweke to vary the tradition and make-up of the groups, finally placing Masai Ujiri in control of the Raptors and Brendan Shanahan within the prime job with the Leafs.

Raptors TV survived. It’s NBA TV Canada now, however doesn’t present any Raptors video games stay.

Leafs TV was left to wither on the vine. It misplaced the handful of Leafs video games it needed to TSN and Sportsnet in 2014-15.

Rebranded Leafs Nation Community in 2017, the plug was pulled on the finish of August, to the lament of the individuals who labored there.

“We grew to become part of the material of Leafs protection to the purpose the place regardless of the place we had been — on the highway, at house — they acknowledged our microphone design, the mic flash they usually knew who we had been,” says Hendrick. “It had a serious affect when it comes to the enterprise of sport on this nation. What I’m remiss about is, there’s no extra Leafs TV and each different crew on this nation, and in addition within the States as properly, has their model of TV. Flames TV, Sens TV, that each one began with us.

“It’s disappointing {that a} crew that large isn’t doing what these groups are doing. However it’s the character of the enterprise.”

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