Tim Leiweke leaving MLSE soon?
- Thread starter GhostofPotvin29
- Start date
BlueWhiteBlood
New member
I don't like the dude. I get this awful feeling in my gut every time I see him on the screen. I can't even explain why I don't like him, but it does seem kind of slimy to discredit the report one day and the very next day, agree that he's leaving.
I hope they find a successor next week.
I hope they find a successor next week.
LuncheonMeat
New member
I remember an interview recently where someone asked Leiweke what he wanted in the future. I don't remember the context or the exact question, but his reply was to stay married. All the discussion has been around business, NFL, etc., but I've got to say if I tried to move my family from Southern California to Toronto there would be a mutiny.
Kin
New member
bustaheims said:
Yeah, I'm really struggling with some of what is being attributed to Leiweke here. At the end of the day, is there anything substantially different he did than what his predecessors did in terms of running the franchises? He made two hires to run the Basketball/Hockey franchises that are well regarded but so did Peddie when he brought in Burke and Colangelo. Attributing the analytics stuff to him doesn't make sense because that's Shanahan's bailiwick and considering the way that Burke hired scouts and AGMs, I don't think it could be argued that what stopped Brian Burke from really diving into the statistical community was an ownership that wouldn't sign the checks for a couple of lower level front office hires.
The things that I think can really be attributed to Leiweke so far are sort of nice but meaningless things like the NBA all-star game and the statues outside the stadium. I think it's probably fair to say tht he was good at his job and everything but his job, let's not forget, was to make MLSE money. I like that his vision of that seemed to be more centered on engaging with fans than on building expanding real-estate holdings but I think that could just as easily be attributed to the ownership change as anything.
Sudafederov
New member
BlueWhiteBlood said:
If you get really bored one day, you should check out his video deposition for the Michael Jackson wrongful death trial. He comes off as pretty arrogant and would have you believe that he didn't know what his position was or what company he worked for. A nice little smirk the whole way through too.
Highlander
Active member
Nik do you really believe that Tim is leaving without a full court
press? Let's face it Larry T and the suites didn't like Tim and
can't handle any one with any form of flamboyance or personality. Doesn't fit the company structure.
There is a fine line between being fired and the force out
press? Let's face it Larry T and the suites didn't like Tim and
can't handle any one with any form of flamboyance or personality. Doesn't fit the company structure.
There is a fine line between being fired and the force out
Kin
New member
Highlander said:
Yeah, that doesn't make a whole bunch of sense. I mean, for starters, it was Tanenbaum and the rest of the current ownership who hired Leiweke in the first place. It's not like he was an unknown quantity either.
Likewise, I've yet to hear a single well connected reporter attribute Leiweke leaving to the board wanting him out. His family not liking Toronto, his growing frustration with the board's in-fighting and what was apparently seen as an inevitable desire to return to New York or LA have been cited multiple times. If anything the reports are that the board wanted a firmer commitment from Leiweke in terms of how long he'd stay and Leiweke wouldn't commit to anything past this year.
Highlander
Active member
Please for more on this Cathel Kelleys article in the Friday Globe & Mail
I the first section of the paper, absolutely brilliant. Will send on link later. My viewpoint is we lost a visionary. By the way I read this after my last rant.
I have a big fear we are going back to the future, again
I the first section of the paper, absolutely brilliant. Will send on link later. My viewpoint is we lost a visionary. By the way I read this after my last rant.
I have a big fear we are going back to the future, again
Rebel_1812
New member
BlueWhiteBlood said:
thank you. How can you trust a guy like that who basically bold faced lied to everyone and no one calls him out on it.
Highlander said:
Does Leiweke have another daughter Cathal is married to or something? Leiweke did some good things, but let's not build the guy a statue.
He used a boatload of not-his-own-money to get Bradley and Dafoe to sign here. The average salary in the MLS is about $200k a season. Bradley and Dafoe signed for over $6mil. Bradley's agent can spin the signing however he wants, but he made that statement while filling his sack with giant bundles of hundred dollar bills.
As for Drake, if Kelly's version of the story is true then the focus should be on the previous regime for not hiring him earlier. Paying a mega-celebrity whose a massive fan of your team money to say nice things about the organization in public doesn't deserve the amount of praise Leiweke got there.
As for bringing Shanahan, Ujiri, and Bezbatchenko, again kudos him to. He made some smart hires and then allowed those guys to go out and do their jobs. But MLSE hasn't exactly had trouble attracting star executives to their teams in the past. Burke and Colangelo were both pretty big scores when they were brought on board too.
Lastly, this is all basically how Leiweke wanted things to go. He signed a 5-year contract with an out-clause after 2. It was clear he wasn't going to be here forever. He wanted to make some big splashes and set the franchises under MLSE's control on the right path. You can argue that he did just that. So let him leave and bring in a more business-oriented guy who doesn't need to be in the spotlight all the time. His replacement isn't going to go out and undo all the changes that have been made.
Kin
New member
Highlander said:
Wow, I guess I'm not as big of a Drake fan as Cathal is.
Elliotte Friedman, who I think is pretty well plugged in, was on PTS today and said that the only thing that is surprising about Leiweke's departure is that it's maybe happening 10 months before everyone figured it would anyway. As CTB points out his contract seems structured to allow for this very thing. So regardless of whether you see Leiweke as some amazing wunderkind who lays golden eggs or just a business executive with a flair for promotion who took over three mediocre sports franchises and has left them as three marginally less mediocre franchises it still seems like his decision to leave.
Highlander
Active member
future-looks-bleak-for-mlse for those of you who have not read the article.
In all fairness, what has the guy done wrong?
In all fairness, what has the guy done wrong?
Highlander said:
My response wasn't about what he's done wrong, it was showing that we shouldn't be falling over backwards over the stuff that he did right. There's no reason to suggest that the 3 MLSE teams are going to take massive steps backward after he leaves. That Cathal article is honestly painful to read with how much Kelly is sucking up to Leiweke.
But if we are looking for faults, it's been rumoured that Tim told the Leafs to go out and get the biggest fish on the market last offseason, which of course led to Nonis and co. giving David Clarkson the worst contract in the NHL.
Chev-boyar-sky
New member
Highlander said:
From reading the comments it seems not much but he hasn't really done much right either (i.e. he hasn't really accomplished anything that's made a huge difference).
Toss in the big personality promising things in the media (planning a cup route.....I mean come on), trying to get rid of photos and then backtracking after Bower felt hurt, and the guy decides before any of that actually happens that he's out of here.
If he really cared as much as he went out of his way to show in the press (remember all of those interviews with Peddie? Yeah neither do I) then he'd stay until the Leafs/TFC/Raptors made the playoffs and did some damage. After that? Well at least he made good on a promise and can say he accomplished something of note.
As it stands he's just another blow-hard which is one too many in a relatively short span of time.
BlueWhiteBlood
New member
Does anybody think that we wouldn't have landed Shanahan if Leiweke wasn't here? Personally, I don't attribute a whole lot of praise for his hiring of Shanny, as I'm not convinced that we couldn't have hired him either way, it's a good opportunity for him regardless.
Excuse me if this has been discussed already.
Excuse me if this has been discussed already.
bustaheims
Active member
BlueWhiteBlood said:
I don't think question is could they have hired Shanahan without Leiweke, but, would they have hired him? And, I'm not sure they would have.
BlueWhiteBlood
New member
bustaheims said:
Explain your thinking here. You don't think he's the right guy? Not that we know that yet, but what are your thoughts on this?
BlueWhiteBlood
New member
2badknees said:
No, it's the opposite from my perspective. I think Shanny is at MLSE because it's MLSE and the Leafs.
bustaheims
Active member
BlueWhiteBlood said:
Before Leiweke, there didn't seem to be much inclination to separate the position of President from that of GM. Burke was both, and, JFJ didn't have anyone in that title overseeing him (Dryden had previously been in that position, but, his position was essentially eliminated when the OTPP bought the team from Stavro). Before bringing in Leiweke, the new ownership hadn't really shown much interest in the position either way. For a decade, the Leafs' GM had been reporting directly to the MLSE's board of directors. So, without Leiweke, the position might not exist at all.
On top of that, with someone else making the decisions for MLSE, they could have very easily decided to go in a different direction with the hire. The story is that Leiweke is the one who identified and pursued Shanahan for the position. That might no have happened without him. No judgement on Shanahan yet - it's way too early on that - but, it's impossible to know for certain what direction MLSe would have taken without Leiweke steering the ship. While they probably still would have had the ability to convince Shanahan to leave the league offices, there's a very real possibility they would not have gone in that direction.