Rogers linked with Maple Leaf Sports bid 02/12/2010 |
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Rogers Communications is reportedly in talks to buy a majority stake in Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment (MLSE), which includes hockey team the Toronto Maple Leafs and basketball side the Toronto Raptors.
The Toronto Star claims Rogers, one of Canada's biggest telecoms and media businesses, is offering $1.3bn to buy a 66 per cent stake in MLSE from the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan.
It would be the largest deal in Canadian sports history and would give Rogers control of all of the top professional sports teams in Toronto, Canada's biggest city, with the exception of the Argonauts of the Canadian Football League.
Rogers already owns Major League Baseball's Toronto Blue Jays. The deal with Maple Leaf Sports would also give Rogers the Toronto Marlies of the American Hockey League and Toronto FC of North America's Major League Soccer.
The Toronto Star, citing sources close to the deal, said it was not clear if Rogers was the only bidder.
A Rogers spokesman said the company does not comment on "rumour or speculation", while a spokesman for MLSE said it had no knowledge of any discussions taking place.
"If there were any [discussions] it would be an ownership matter so I would refer your questions to the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan," spokesman Rajani Kamath told Reuters.
Teachers' said its policy was "to neither confirm nor deny such stories".
The Toronto Star report said a deal would include all MLSE's sports properties, including TV stations, but not its real estate holdings.
Maple Leaf Sports owns prime sporting real estate, including the Air Canada Center, where the Maple Leafs and the Raptors play, and various other properties, along with three TV stations.
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