Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment has named Michael Friisdahl the new president and CEO of MLSE, the company announced Thursday.
Here’s MLSE chairman Larry Tanenbaum on the hiring:
Given our unparalleled sports executive and team leadership, MLSE’s CEO search focused on the appointment of a seasoned Canadian business executive to lead the organization and we’ve found exactly what we were looking for in Michael. As both an entrepreneur and a C-level executive in consumer-facing businesses at the Canadian and international level, Michael has shown an unwavering commitment to delivering for the customer. His focus will be on supporting our fans and our teams while maximizing the potential of MLSE’s iconic sports, entertainment and real estate assets.
And here’s Friisdahl himself:
It is a true privilege to be chosen to lead MLSE, a proudly Canadian sports and entertainment company that rivals any in North America and indeed the world. As a Torontonian, I’m thrilled by the opportunity to focus all of our resources on supporting the Leafs, Raptors, TFC, Marlies and Raptors 905, and making Toronto the championship city that our fans deserve. We have Toronto FC in the playoffs, Raptors 905 tipping off next month, NBA All-Star and the World Cup of Hockey at Air Canada Centre in 2016, Grey Cup 2016 at BMO Field and the 100th anniversary of the Maple Leafs in 2017. These are exciting times for Toronto, indeed for all Canadian sports fans, and I’m very proud to be leading the MLSE team that will deliver for them.
The potential addition of Friisdahl was first reported by TSN earlier Thursday morning.
Friisdahl will take the role over from the outgoing Tim Leiweke beginning in December. Leiweke, who has been on the job since June of 2013, was originally expected to be gone by the end of June but extended his tenure while MLSE continued to search for a replacement. It’s believed that Leiweke will remain in the industry but return to Los Angeles or take his talents to South Beach, looking for “a new challenge,” according to reports preceding his resignation.
It’s difficult to evaluate Leiweke’s tenure as MLSE’s main public figure. While he had a penchant for over-promising, especially on the Maple Leafs side of things, he did accomplish several fairly major goals. He overhauled the management structure for both the Leafs and the Raptors, landing Brendan Shanahan and Masai Ujiri in the process, added stars to Toronto FC’s roster, helped secure the 2015-16 NBA All-Star Game for the city, helped lay the groundwork for a new, $30-million practice facility, and helped establish Raptors905 on an expedited timeline. That’s not to say his two-plus years were a success, and there are justified Leiweke detractors, but it would be difficult for fans on the Raptors side to have much issue with the Leiweke Era.
It’s equally difficult to evaluate the hiring of Friisdahl. Again, Leiweke helped put strong management teams in place for each sports property, so hiring a president without experience in the sports industry may be fine in the short-term. It’s likely that Friisdahl’s hiring signals a shift in the role’s focus, back to the business and real estate arms of the parent company, and he’ll have the unenviable task of serving two competing masters in Bell and Rogers. Reactionary groans in response to having flown Air Canada in the past are reasonable – Rouge, really? – but assuming the airline’s practices will be carried over to the ACC’s customer service is probably premature (and is Air Canada even that bad?). It makes for good twitter, though, as does Leiweke’s now-official departure.
Tim Leiweke’s executive tombstone will just read: “October was not a fluke.”
— Travis Yost (@travisyost) October 29, 2015
Have to say the Leiweke Era was really Peak Twitter. You had him and the Leafs misfits doing daily radio spots, stumbling over themselves..
— Travis Yost (@travisyost) October 29, 2015
At least now we know for sure that the Leafs’ rebuild will be delayed for no apparent reason at first and then 10 different ones
— Drought Free in 2015 (@mlse) October 29, 2015
“What does Friisdahl know about sports?” He knows about luxury flights, which is a good indicator of MLSE’s priorities #corporateseats
— Richard Whittall (@RWhittall) October 29, 2015
Thank God the naming rights to the Leafs’ stadium weren’t bought by Donald Trump.
— Draglikepull (@draglikepull) October 29, 2015
Prior to joining Air Canada, Friisdahl was CEO of the Thomas Cook Group, and almost all of his career experience comes in the leisure and travel industries. If we’re being completely honest, it’s hard for me not to look at the hire and see a clear line between Friisdahl’s experience and MLSE’s general desire to appease corporate seat holders over the average fan, but I’m trying to withhold judgment. That’s a core part of the business, anyway, and it would be wrong, given where the Raptors are relative to three years ago, to overreact until we see and hear some of what Friisdahl envisions for the future.
