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http://www.thestar.com/sports/leafs...on_radar_to_replace_mlse_ceo_tim_leiweke.html
John Collins, the NHL's chief operating officer, is on the the radar to replace outgoing MLSE CEO Tim Leiweke.
John Collins, the NHL's chief operating officer, is on the the radar to replace outgoing MLSE CEO Tim Leiweke.
Could the next head of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment be Gary Bettman’s right-hand man?
As the search to replace Tim Leiweke continues, one high-profile candidate reportedly being considered is John Collins, currently the National Hockey League’s chief operating officer.
Through an NHL spokesperson, Collins declined to comment on whether he’d be interested in the job of MLSE CEO. Leiweke announced this summer he would be leaving the post by next June.
An MLSE spokesperson also declined to comment on the status of the search for Leiweke’s replacement.
Collins, who has been with the league since 2006, has played a key role in the NHL’s business success over the past several years.
Collins has been a driving force behind several of the league’s biggest sponsorship deals and TV contracts, including the recent 12-year deal handing the NHL’s Canadian TV rights to Rogers for $5.2 billion. That’s roughly double what the NHL was getting under its previous Canadian broadcast contract.
In 2011, Collins also stickhandled the biggest sponsorship deal in league history, a seven-year, $375 million pact with Molson-Coors for North American rights.
The beer deal also showed Collins was able to survive controversy.
After Molson-Coors signed with the NHL, Labatt sued its brewing archrival and the league, saying it had already reached an agreement for Canadian rights. While the deal was temporarily blocked by an Ontario court, Labatt’s lawsuit was eventually tossed out. It was revealed in court that the deal Labatt believed it had reached was for just $36 million over three years — a figure dwarfed by the pact Collins eventually signed with Molson-Coors.
The negotiating skills which can lead to major sponsorship deals are a big reason teams would be interested in a league executive like Collins, says David Carter, executive director of the Sports Business Institute at the USC’s Marshall School of Business.
But his understanding of the league and the issues it faces are just as important, adds Carter.
