Edward S. Rogers III, chairman of the board of directors of Rogers Communications, holds the American League Championship Series trophy after the Toronto Blue Jays defeated the Seattle Mariners in Game 7 of the series on Oct. 20.Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press
In business, unlike baseball, Rogers Communications Inc. RCI-B-T is coming out a winner without holding a championship parade.
The Toronto Blue Jays’ gutting World Series Game 7 loss is vindication of the decision by executive chair Edward Rogers and chief executive officer Tony Staffieri to make sports a tentpole strategy at the telecom company. Owning the team more than 19 million Canadians watched chase the championship is flipping the switch on perceptions of a company consumers loved to hate, while bulking up its balance sheet.
For even the most casual of fans, the Blue Jays’ heady run through baseball’s playoffs built a bond with both players such as Ernie Clement – the guy who sat beside you in Grade 10 chemistry – and a company that never stopped reminding viewers it is the “proud owner of Canada’s team.”
Going into this season, Rogers marketing research showed only 30 per cent of Canadians knew the company owned the Blue Jays. For a cellphone and cable operator plagued by perceptions it overcharges, an overachieving team became a heaven-sent branding opportunity.
In an early-season break with precedent, Mr. Rogers and Mr. Staffieri got personally involved in negotiations that signed slugger Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to a US$500-million contract extension.
Rogers gets brand boost from Blue Jays’ World Series run
In an even larger departure from his previously low-profile role with the club, Mr. Rogers joined the new face of the franchise onstage at a press conference to celebrate Mr. Guerrero’s arrival in the upper echelon of sports celebrities.
Mr. Rogers will never seek the spotlight. He is uncomfortable speaking to crowds. However, he is stepping up public appearances to burnish the company’s brand.
Last month, after Mr. Rogers hoisted the American League championship trophy, he delivered a note-perfect line on what the trip to the World Series meant to the team.
“It’s an inspiration to 41 million Canadians from coast to coast to coast,” he said. “This team has the depth and the character, the vision and the courage, and they are going to go all the way.”
In this season’s playoffs, Canada’s team faced two showcase franchises, the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees. Both are known for their winning cultures. The Blue Jays pounded the Yankees and came within two home runs off hanging sliders of dispatching a supposedly unbeatable LA team.
What is the Toronto Blue Jays’ playoff run worth to Rogers?
The same fans and pundits who called for the head of Blue Jays team president Mark Shapiro after a last-place finish in the 2024 season are now praising Rogers for sticking with the plan.
Wrapping Rogers in the warm and fuzzy feelings generated by the Blue Jays is a huge win. It speaks to competence at a family-controlled company that hasn’t always been able to get out of its own way.
With the Blue Jays attracting record television audiences and packing their 39,000-seat stadium every night, even to watch games when the team was on the road, it is easy to forget the criticism heaped on company founder Ted Rogers back in 2000, when he bought the team for $165-million.
Then as now, Rogers carried significant debt. Investors and lenders challenged Ted Rogers over the logic of sinking money into baseball as content for a fledgling sports TV channel.
Fast forward 25 years, and soaring broadcast fees for must-see TV events such as the World Series have turned team owners from billionaires into multibillionaires. The Blue Jays are worth an estimated US$2.2-billion.
Rogers signals it may wait to acquire final MLSE stake before seeking outside investors
As Rogers prepares to take full control of Toronto’s other marquee pro-sports franchises later this year by purchasing billionaire Larry Tanenbaum’s 25-per-cent stake in Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment Ltd., the company is riding a marketing and financial hot streak.
If the past and future faces of Toronto sports ownership get it right, the transition from Mr. Tanenbaum to Edward Rogers as MLSE’s leader will have all the drama of ordering a pizza.
Rogers’s entire sports and media division – which includes stakes in hockey’s Maple Leafs and basketball‘s Raptors – is valued at $20-billion. The power of these brands is priceless.
The Blue Jays‘ run and massive valuation on Rogers’s sports platform speak to a consistent approach to building a business, after leaders swung and missed on a few pitches.
Ted Rogers always believed in big bets, financed with debt. After his death in 2008, the approach grew tentative. In 2012, CEO Nadir Mohamed teamed up with BCE Inc. BCE-T to acquire 75 per cent of MLSE. Ted Rogers would have called partnering with Bell Canada’s parent sleeping with the enemy. Buying out BCE earlier this year meant Rogers returned to a mindset of competing, not co-operating, with telecom rivals.
Opinion: Rogers needs a private equity partner for sports, not an IPO spinout
After Mr. Mohamed retired, Rogers looked to brash British telecom veteran Guy Laurence for leadership. The lasting image of his tenure is Mr. Laurence donning a black leather jacket for a 2014 press conference to unveil a $100-million investment in Vice Media. Two years later, Mr. Laurence was gone. Shortly after, Rogers wrote off the Vice partnership.
The less said the better on the Rogers family feud that kicked off in 2021 when Edward Rogers decided to cut ties with CEO Joe Natale, recruited at considerable cost in 2017, and replace him with Mr. Staffieri, the former chief financial officer.
Over the past three years, Mr. Staffieri paid down debt by raising capital from sophisticated investors such as Blackstone Inc. and pension plans. Rogers picked up the pace on signing up new cellphone customers.
The Blue Jays’ season-for-the-ages is icing on the cake. The team has a relatively minor impact on the telecom’s revenues, given its massive valuation. Last month, Rogers boosted forecast annual revenue from its media and sports platform by $100-million to $4-billion to reflect the deep playoff run.
The psychological and marketing benefits from owning the Blue Jays are far larger. In interviews after Game 7, Blue Jays manager John Schneider said: “We have set a new expectation and a new standard here, and did it with a lot of hard work, did it with a lot of cohesiveness.”
Mr. Rogers is hoping the same is true of his company, and its evolving relationship with customers.