Interesting Article.

[DRIFTER_016]

http://www.thestar.com/sports/football/2013/11/24/jon_bon_jovi_mlse_give_toronto_inside_track_on_buffalo_bills_kelly.html

 

By: Cathal Kelly Sports Columnist, Published on Sun Nov 24 2013

When rock star Jon Bon Jovi was made the first member of the ACC’s Wall of Fame a month ago, the city cocked its head and said, “They made who what now?”

Bon Jovi acted as if we were all old friends.

“Since 1984, Canada and especially Toronto have been there for the band and myself,” the New Jersey-based rock star said. “We have had so many memories together and look forward to many more.”

At the time, that sounded polite (and a bit weird). Now it’s starting to sound like a promise.

Bon Jovi emerged Sunday as the leading contender to buy the NFL’s Buffalo Bills.

But rich as he is, Bon Jovi’s not going to be able to do so alone. He needs friends. He suddenly has a lot of them in Canada.

All of those friends want to help Jon Bon Jovi bring the NFL to Toronto.

The Bills will not be sold until their current owner, 95-year-old Ralph Wilson, dies. The purchase price could reach as high as $1 billion (U.S.). Whoever buys the team will need to build a new NFL-specific stadium, likely doubling the sunk cost.

This is where Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment and CEO Tim Leiweke come in.

“Jon and I are very good friends,” Leiweke said Sunday. “We talk weekly about his NFL ambitions. And so we’re actively engaged, but I think it’s still a work in progress.”

What’s MLSE’s role in all this?

“We can’t own a team (per NFL rules), but we do have more expertise on how to build (stadiums) than anyone,” Leiweke said. “MLSE can play a role. We’re not the lead here. Our job is to augment whatever group may come together.”

As is his wont, especially when navigating such fraught territory, Leiweke was speaking very carefully. He must serve many masters here (and is, in a very real sense, a master himself).

 

But the upshot of his comments — We’re not picking sides, because we don’t have to. We’re pals with all of them.

As first reported by CBS Sports’ Jason La Canfora, Bon Jovi has created a small team designed to win him the Bills. A key member of that team is Leiweke’s daughter, Francesca. Bon Jovi was a guest at her August wedding to Maple Leaf Troy Bodie.

These are the two key points of local contact. Tim Leiweke — who’s gone through much of this process during his attempt to bring an NFL team back to L.A. when he ran AEG — plays the role of rabbi. Francesca Leiweke is the go-between for all the main players.

Rogers may still have some say in this, though they cannot be lead buyers. The NFL stipulates that a private individual must head every ownership group, holding at least a 30 per cent stake in the team.

Logically, who has that sort of ready cash in Toronto, as well as a deep history in the local sports landscape? MLSE chairman Larry Tanenbaum leaps to mind. Depending on your valuation, Tanenbaum’s 25 per cent ownership of MLSE is worth north of $500 million. Good news — Bon Jovi and Tanenbaum are old friends.

 

The speculation runs like this. Bon Jovi works his relationships within the NFL — among his other go-to golf buddies are Patriots owner Robert Kraft and Cowboys owner Jerry Jones — to get the inside track on the Bills. He elicits sympathy (and perhaps even a small discount) by promising to keep the team within its traditional boundary — upstate New York and southwestern Ontario.

Once Ralph Wilson dies, what other NFL owners will fear most is some rogue billionaire making an agreement with the Wilson family, then trying to leverage the value of an NFL franchise for stadium concessions in a current owner’s backyard.

While the league may badly want to expand overseas, no one wants the current balance upset in the United States. Thus, no one wants the Bills to move (far). Bon Jovi can promise that.

He’ll need help with the asking price — Tanenbaum can help with that. He’ll need help building and financing a state-of-the-art stadium — Leiweke and MLSE can help with that.

Tanenbaum, Leiweke and MLSE need someone with the red-white-and-blue bonafides to steer the team over the border — Bon Jovi can, in turn, help with that. It’s an almost perfect circle.

 

One obvious wrinkle — and a poignant one considering the day the story broke — is the CFL and the Argos. There’s also a plan for that: move that team to BMO Field.

“(BMO) is a city facility. If the city and/or the CFL want to have a conversation about a renovation, we’ll be there,” Leiweke said. “But the only way we’ll be a part of that conversation is if the current environment for soccer gets better. We won’t go backwards.”

Again, you have to parse the meaning, but it’s clear and getting clearer — the CFL in Toronto can live on our terms, or die on their own.

When the NFL was some distant horizon, people felt the need to put a comforting arm around the CFL’s shoulders every time the subject came up. It’s a measure of how close things suddenly are that no one cares about hurt feelings any more.

Nonetheless, this all has a familiar feel. We’ve talked about it for years. Here’s what’s changed.

Plenty of Torontonians wanted a team. A few of them had the money. None had the relationships.

That’s the difference — relationships. Making this happen is a matter of moving in the continent’s most rarefied social circle, where the top ends of American business and entertainment meet. God bless them, but the Paul Godfreys of the world don’t qualify.

In Bon Jovi and Leiweke, Toronto now has two members of that small club.

It’s far too early to say that Toronto is getting an NFL franchise, but it can now be fairly said that Toronto has the inside track on one.

And though Leiweke will never put it this bluntly, this was a large part of the reason he came in the first place.

 

[kickingfrog]

I think a second NHL team is in T.O. before a full time NFL team.