At a media conference Friday, Ted Rogers, president and CEO of the communications giant, ended speculation that had been swirling around the team for weeks, announcing his company had finailzed a deal for majority interest in the Blue Jays.
"The city and the country love sports," Rogers said after signing the contract. "And we love sports and that's why we're here."
Under the deal, Rogers attains an 80 per cent interest in the 1992 and 1993 World Series Champion franchise for $112 million US, paid in a combination of cash and stock. The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce sells its 10 per cent stake in the team while fomer controlling owner, Interbrew SA of Belgium, will hold on to a 20 per cent interest in the Jays.
Ted Rogers, right, shares a laugh with incoming president and CEO Paul Godfrey at the media conference to announce the Jays sale to Rogers.(CP Photo)
Although the sale does not include the SkyDome, home of the Blue Jays, Rogers is negotiating to purchase the sports facility for about $100 million. Currently, ownership is divided between Interbrew and Sportsco International Corp.
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Rogers hinted that the acquisition marked just the beginning of a major foray into sports for the company. He discussed a desire to become more involved in the Canadian Football League and the potential of acquiring a National Football League team for Toronto.
Toronto mayor Mel Lastman, never one to shy away from hype, extolled the sale as blessing for the city of Toronto. He said he was worried the team might fall into American hands, and was proud a Torontonian like Rogers had taken control instead.
"Today, Ted Rogers has hit a home run for Toronto," Lastman said. "And Paul Godfrey has a job."
Godfrey was announced as the team's new president and chief executive officer, a job he admitted he wanted since he helped bring baseball to Toronto in 1977 while he was chairman of Metropolitan Toronto.
"Ted Rogers is a winner," Godfrey said. "And I don't think this is going to be any different."
"There is no doubt we are a long way from when we used fill Skydome in 1992 and 1993, but we can build towards that again. What we have to do is win fans one at a time."
The simple way to do that would be to make the Blue Jays a winner again. Which means investment in a team that has been using a shoestring budget to compete in the very rich American League East.
When asked how much he was willing to increase the Blue Jays sub-$50 million US payroll, Rogers replied: "I'm not dumb enough to answer that question."
He passed the query over to Godfrey, who offered the response of a true politican.
"It would be irresponsible to pull a number out of the air and go with it, that would be misleading," Godfrey said, adding he would have to discuss the Blue Jays payroll with other members of the front office before making any decisions.
Rogers then added: "We didn't buy the team to skimp on replacing the light bulbs."
Major League Baseball still needs to approve the sale to make it official, but seeing as commissioner Bud Selig values nothing more than stability, approval is virtually assured.
Which means the Interbew era, one characterized by frugality, frustration and uncertainty, has finally come to a close.
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Since Interbrew bought the Jays from Labatt Brewing Co. in 1995, the ownership didn't hide the fact that it viewed the team as a business, and was only concerned about the Jays financial situation, and not the results on the field.
The outcome turned out to be disastrous, as the Jays struggled both on the field and at the gate. As the Jays' record plummeted following their World Series wins in 1992 and 1993, fans no longer found baseball an attraction and stayed away from the SkyDome.
Just 13,514 fans came and watched the Jays second home game of the season, a record low. But all of that should change under Rogers.
With no argument from Rogers or its president and CEO, the media has done its best to paint the communications giant as a corporate white knight, one which is ready to pour heaps of money into the Blue Jays budget with the simple interest of making the team a winner.
The truth is that Rogers is just as interested in its overall bottom line as Interbrew. It just happens that Rogers is in a position where a winning baseball team should improve its overall bottom line.
Rogers Communications emcompasses the largest cable television system in Canada as well as the country's biggest mobile phone company, Rogers AT&T wireless.
Rogers has made building a vertically-integrated sports-media empire one of its primary goals, and at the press conference Ted Rogers offered a glimpse of his grand ambition. Holding up a cellular phone, Rogers promised that in a few years, Blue Jays fans will be able to watch the team on the phone's view screen.
Rogers also owns a number of radio and television stations including CFMT in Toronto, which would be used to broadcast Blue Jays games.
But in order to turn to the Blue Jays into a successful national brand, Rogers would need to control a national sports network, which is why it has made no secret of its desire for majority interest in the cable sports television station CTV Sportsnet, a company it already has a 30 per cent stake in.
CTV has until March 2001 to sell its 40 per cent stake in Sportsnet, and as minority owner, Rogers could take control of the channel. (CTV was ordered by the CRTC to sell Sportsnet by virture of its parent company, BCE Inc., also controlling TSN).
The Canadian Radio-Television and Communications Commission would be loathe to allow Rogers to purchase Sportsnet, as its official policy does not allow cable companies to own cable channels.
Proponents of this policy point to Rogers' enviable dial placement of CFMT (cable four in the Toronto area), a channel that is marginal at best.
Sportsnet (at cable 22) is currently included in the basic cable package in Toronto where rival TSN is not. And it has been suggested that Rogers gave preferential treatment to Sportsnet because it owns a piece of the channel, and would increase such favoritism should total control of the channel fall under the Rogers umbrella.
But Rogers claims a purchase of Sportsnet would be fair game after the CRTC approved control of CTV to Rogers' main rival, BCE Inc.
BCE owns the Bell ExpressVu small-dish system, making it a cable operator like Rogers. And even though ExpressVU has 550,000 subscribers compared to Rogers' 2.2 million, Rogers argues that allowing other cable operators to purchase cable channels would balance the BCE deal.
BCE, of course, will do everything in its power to stop Rogers from acquiring Sportsnet and adding a futher foundation to a future sports-media giant.
Both companies are racing to that end and both have been rumoured as parties interested in purchasing the Montreal Canadiens and Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment Ltd., which owns the Toronto Maple Leafs and Toronto Raptors.
