TORONTO (Apr. 20) -- Each year at this time, some much-needed hockey perspective enters my life, as I break away from the immense cocoon surrounding the Toronto Maple Leafs. Whether it's the Leafs making the playoffs and getting knocked out early (which actually used to happen), or the Leafs failing to qualify altogether, my reporter's role at The Fan-590 allows me to cover post-season series involving other teams around the NHL, and it exposes me to different methods of trying to achieve the same result. More than anything, it opens my eyes on an annual basis to the number-one issue affecting the Maple Leafs -- the problems inherent when a large corporate entity tries to operate a professional hockey team.
Let me begin by stressing that I have no personal or professional quarrel with any individual at the top of the Leafs' ownership or management chart. I admire and have warm feelings for both Larry Tanenbaum and Richard Peddie, and I would be very pleased for John Ferguson if he were to receive a long-term mandate as GM of the club. I have only met and spoken on several occasions to Robert Bertram and Dean Metcalf, who represent the Leafs' primary owner -- the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan -- on the Board of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment. Both men have been cordial to me. So, this is not an attempt to portray any person as being either incompetent, or unwilling to provide what is necessary for a losing franchise to reverse its course. It is, however, an indictment of a company that cannot seem to get its house in order.
The Leafs are simply owned by too many people; a vast conglomerate of business types with a wide array of interests and priorities that lead to the inevitable clashes of enterprise and personality. That's a long-winded profile of a corporation, and corporations -- in my opinion -- are not structured to properly administer the needs of professional sports teams. Certainly, not in this instance. To review, the Leafs are owned by a group of four large companies. The Teachers' Merchent Bank -- private equity arm of the multi-billion-dollar Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan -- has controlling interest in the club with a 58% share. Next in line is communications giant Bell-Globemedia at 15%. T.D. Capital (the Toronto Dominion Bank) owns 14% of the club with the remaining 13% controlled by Kilmer Sports (Tanenbaum's private company).
Compare that to the Ottawa Senators, a team that has breezed into the second round of the Stanley Cup tournament. The Senators are owned -- lock, stock and barrel -- by one man: Eugene Melnyk. He is the tangible, visible, undisputed voice and face of the franchise, and he has a defined background in hockey. When the Sens kayoed Pittsburgh in Game 5 on Thursday night, Melnyk was right there -- in person -- outside the Ottawa dressing room at Scotiabank Place. There is no question about, or confusion over who calls the shots in the nation's capital. The composition of upper-level hockey management is solely Melnyk's domain. Credit for a job well done and/or blame for lack of achievement falls directly at his feet.
Similarly, the Pittsburgh Penguins are owned by a small group headed by hockey legend Mario Lemieux. No one has to search for the place where team and business decisions are made in that organization. Same with the Presidents' Trophy-winning Buffalo Sabres and Tom Golisano. Other, more complicated ownership structures, like that of the New Jersey Devils, step aside and allow the best hockey minds to call the shots. In this case, Lou Lamoriello.
The Maple Leafs, by comparison, are maneuvered by a conflicting entanglement of well-dressed, moneyed individuals -- none of whom possess even a hint of pro hockey acumen. They are indisputably top-notch businesspeople, with an innate ability to maximize profit, an expertise that no one should begrudge. Whether you own a world-famous hockey club, or a corner hardware store, making as much money as possible is the primary, underlying objective. In the case of a pro sports team, however, success is judged on two levels -- at the bank, and on the field of play. The Leafs, because of the unique, at times inexplicable market in which they operate, never have issues of finance. Even a bumbling fool like Harold Ballard can keep the franchise rolling in dough through years of mismanagement and failure. It's on the field of play, though, where the wealthiest of business tycoons cannot hide their ineptness. And, this is where the Leafs reside on a daily basis.
It boggles the mind to consider that, after almost four years of employment, the Leafs' hierarchy is still divided on the merits of Ferguson as GM. The reason for this is elementary: the people put in charge of making hockey management decisions are not on the same page, and the bankrollers -- the Teachers -- are either unqualified for, or uninspired to step in and make a call. To think that Ferguson has to present Peddie with "a plan" for the short-term future of the Leafs -- after being allowed to lock up the core of the roster with long-term, restrictive deals -- is laughable. This is an organization spinning its wheels because the people truly in charge are busy counting the proceeds. Too busy, apparently, to either notice or care that those entrusted with the well-being of the hockey club simply cannot do the job.
If the Teachers' honestly wished to propel the on-ice substance of the Leafs to the forefront, they would completely rework the MLSE management structure... with the cooperation of those involved. It wouldn't mean getting rid of Peddie, or minimizing Tanenbaum's influence. Nor would it hugely impact Ferguson. It would simply involve hiring an established, decorated hockey administrator and allowing him free reign to operate the club as he sees fit. An umbrella executive to whom everyone -- Peddie and Ferguson included -- reports. Only when it appeared the NBA's Toronto Raptors were going to plunge into financial disarray, and become a bit-part on the city's sporting landscape, were Tanenbaum, Peddie et al instructed by the money boys to find a top-notch basketball man... and get the hell out of the way.
No such threat will ever inhibit the Maple Leafs, who merely throw open the doors of the Air Canada Centre to fill the place every night; every year, regardless of the product on the ice. So, in the mentality of a corporation, there is virtually no incentive to make difficult personnel decisions. Only when the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan decides to prioritize the on-the-field welfare of the Maple Leafs -- or chooses to sell its controlling interest in the company -- will the hockey club have a chance of emerging from its unending spiral of conflict and inadequacy. As it stands, no such intentions are apparent.
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