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Originally Posted by ericmacm
There is little to no chance that Bell jumps back into sports ownership for a while at least. Their current liabilities (debts expected to be settled within the fiscal year) are almost double their current assets (assets that can easily be liquidated within the fiscal year), compared to Rogers having a similar amount of current assets vs liabilities. Bell has already stated that they will be using the cash to pay debt. They will most likely be fine in the long run though if they don’t junk their credit rating.
I would sooner expect Larry Tanenbaum/Kilmer ahead of Bell to make any new ripples in the Canadian sports landscape, especially if Rogers buys him out of MLSE. His 25% share is currently worth approx $2.5B USD. A buyout would come with a premium and there will be a lot of cash available if he were to choose to reinvest that back into sports. My speculation is that Tanenbaum could be the guy to bring the NHL to Hamilton if bought out.
Additionally, I read another article detailing that Edward Rogers has further plans for MLSE per insider info. There are suggestions that the Blue Jays will be incorporated into MLSE (making it into the largest sports holding company in the world), and that Edward Rogers will pursue an NFL team through personal ownership after the fact (since the NFL does not like corporate ownership). Seems like he has grand ambitions. |
The story for the last year has been that in the MLSE partnership, Larry has an exit clause in 2025 and has to sell to the other partners (who is now just a partner). I don't know if at 79 that he is going to try to bring a team anywhere, but I have no idea what the succession plans are with his family or who his partners may be, if any, in Kilmer.
As for Rogers, I think it makes sense to roll the Jays in with the rest. Will they leave it as MLSE at that point, or rename it Rogers Sports And Entertainment or something? I think there is more value in the MLSE name though. It's been no secret of Rogers interest in the NFL over the years. That's going to basically take the entire net worth of this sport conglomerate to make happen, but I don't discount Rogers could do it.
I still don't count Bell out of getting back in to ownership though. I think they even still have a small stake in the Canadiens, although I'm not sure how they were originally allowed to keep that when they bought into MLSE. Rogers has done a masterful job, corporately speaking, of using sports to promote and expand their broadcasting and mobile businesses, and I think Bell will try to replicate that. The Dream for many I think would be a Montreal MLB team but that would take every bit of that $3.5B and then some I think. But a call to Bettman with a fat check and a ready arena in Quebec City also poses some interesting possibilities.
One thing's for sure, it's going to be fun to speculate what all this will mean for the sporting landscape in Canada over the next few years.
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