Teachers 'exploring' majority sale of MLSE?

[Joey]

Nope. Crazily enough, he was just SO persistent on wanting a team, and made a few questionable decisions in trying to land that team, that the NHL decided he was a bit too 'sleezy' in his tactics and said NO WAY. If I remember it correctly.

[slaw]

$1.5 billion seems like a stretch. I can't see many suitors at that price. What is the scope of the real estate holdings of MLSE? Let's say the Leafs are valued at ~$400mm and the Raptors somewhere around ~$200, with the ACC around the ~$200mm mark. That means the remainder of MLSE's holdings are worth ~$1.3 billion? Wow. If that's the case, maybe there is some possibility that someone really just wants the 'other' assets and is willing to spin-out the sports teams and the ACC.

[Joey]

$1.5 billion seems like a stretch. I can't see many suitors at that price. What is the scope of the real estate holdings of MLSE? Let's say the Leafs are valued at ~$400mm and the Raptors somewhere around ~$200, with the ACC around the ~$200mm mark. That means the remainder of MLSE's holdings are worth ~$1.3 billion? Wow. If that's the case, maybe there is some possibility that someone really just wants the 'other' assets and is willing to spin-out the sports teams and the ACC.

Not sure I get your math..? Sorry.
$400M + $200M + $200M = $800M
$1.5B - $800M = $700M (not $1.3B)

But anyway, Golden State just Sold for $450M. For a team that historically is much more profitable, I can't imagine them asking any less than $350M for the Raps by themselves.
The Leafs are EASILY worth $600M. Forbes had them at $505M last year, and whoever buys them KNOWS that the Maple Leaf fan base spends money, NO MATTER WHAT. Leafs will make ANYONE money.
Plus the buyer gets ACC and Toronto FC.

Not a huuge stretch, I wouldn't say.

Still ALOT of money for a couple of crappy teams.

[slaw]

Still ALOT of money for a couple of crappy teams.

Sorry, poorly worded post on my part. Teachers only has 66% of MLSE, so I meant that you basically had to add another $750mm to get to 100%, which seemed crazy high to me (I realize there is a premium but still...).

And hey, you don't just get the Raps and Leafs - you get TFC! And the Marlies! (You also get all of that sweet, sweet, real estate).

[Apollo]

More On The Teachers

One scene defines the legacy of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan as owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Toronto Raptors.

It was at a news conference on Feb. 11, 2003, to announce that the bean counters in charge of the pensions of the province’s teachers had bought out Steve Stavro to become the majority owner of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment Ltd. A host of reporters wanted to know if this meant, in the pre-salary-cap days of the NHL, that Teachers’ was willing to spend the kind of money necessary to make the Maple Leafs a Stanley Cup champion.

ichard Peddie, MLSE’s president, suggested the best person to answer that question was Robert Bertram, the highest-ranking Teachers’ executive on the MLSE board. Bertram did not advance to the podium and the press conference quickly ended. He bolted from the room, practically running down the hall to escape a mob of interrogators.

And so it went with the group’s ownership of Toronto’s professional hockey, basketball and soccer teams. The Teachers’ executives were a faceless group quite happy to milk the MLSE cash cow but felt no responsibility to answer to anyone, least of all the paying customers, for the repeated failures of its teams. That was the job of the hired help, like Peddie, part of whose job description became taking regular abuse from a disaffected fan base.

It is safe to say hardly any of the Leafs’ or Raptors’ fans will be sad to see the last of Teachers’, if indeed it gets the price it wants for its shares and decide to sell. Among the employees at the top of the MLSE totem pole, emotions may be mixed.

The big question, though, is who will take over? The most likely answer is Tanenbaum, who will consider his options in the months this thing will take to play out. Contrary to some fans’ wishful thinking over the weekend, it will not be BlackBerry billionaire Jim Balsillie, whose attempts to put an NHL team in Hamilton made him toxic to the league’s governors, who get to approve any new owner.

Those close to Tanenbaum say he has not made a decision because he wants to study the alternatives before deciding what is best. Certainly, he would like to become the majority owner since his strategic buying of MLSE shares that went on the market were aimed at putting him in position to have the right of first refusal on enough shares to give him control.

But buying that control is an expensive proposition – those in the know say Teachers’ wants $1.5-billion for its 66 per cent of MLSE. Tanenbaum can try to find his own partners to raise the money, go to a lending institution or form a partnership with the media conglomerates expected to be the hottest bidders – Rogers Communications, BCE or Shaw Communications.

No matter what happens, change is going to come. Along with the three Teachers’ directors, Peddie is also on his way out via retirement at the end of this year, which removes four directors from the seven-person MLSE board.

By the dawn of 2012, MLSE will have a new president, three new directors and maybe even a new chairman depending on Tanenbaum’s decision.

Source: TheGlobeAndMail