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Tim Lieweke leaving?

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  • MACK11 wrote: View Post
    It has absolutely nothing to do with the weather, that was a smokescreen.

    It has everything to do with the fact there was a power struggle in upper management and he wasn't given complete control. MLSE wants a yes man, not someone who is going to question decisions
    Weather might be a smokescreen but you'll need a lot more than just a sentence without any proof to make anyone believe what you wrote.

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          • My favourite thing about Leiweke is that he made the Raptors a priority and not just an afterthought of the Maple Leafs. He will always have a special place in my heart for coming in and turfing Colangelo after years of him seemingly being able to hang onto his job because the existing board members bought his routine. I have the utmost confidence in Masai to lead the Raptors front office - my only worry is that the incoming hire may interfere in some way - although I admit that it could just be some disappointment/paranoia kicking in because I'm bummed out about this news.

            Without getting too hokey, there really did seem to be something special about the guy. Here's hoping his replacement will have a penchant for big picture thinking in the same way that Leiweke did.

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            • As many have alluded to TL was more than a suit. He was a suit with vision and a backbone. The issue was that the Board couldn't get him to commit and in business terms your CEO with unlimited power and the ability to play them against each other(Tanenbaum + Rogers/Bell >50%) was a no win situation.

              The damnedest thing of all is the, seemingly, insurmountable loss of connections to those that matter in the sporting universe. Toronto maybe 3rd/4th biggest city in NA, but it doesn't hit anyone's radar that matters.

              The weather is the straw that broke the camels back. TL's wife being unhappy maybe a ploy but doesn't make it any less significant.

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              • mcHAPPY wrote: View Post

                Warning: The worry wart need not read this ....if TL gets another NBA team under his wing and he poaches Masai with a boffo offer.
                Sorry....you know how these things go.

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                • Leiweke isn't leaving to run another sports franchise...or so he claims

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                  • He also said he wasn't leaving at all 3 days ago.

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                    • you guys ready for more bad news?

                      Ujiri is in Tim Leiweke’s office. It should be a great moment for each of them. They are offering a sneak preview of the Toronto Raptors’ newly approved $32-million practice facility. It was one of the pre-conditions for Ujiri accepting the job as general manager, and one of Leiweke’s first coups as the president and chief executive officer of MLSE just 14 months ago.

                      But Ujiri – always upbeat – seemed a bit deflated.
                      “That’s just the board trying to regain control of their process,” said once source with deep Bay Street ties. “They don’t like Tim making it seem like he’s picking when he gets to leave.”
                      He looked at Leiweke and said “F-Brooklyn” – and they both laughed at the reference to the ‘us-against-the-world’ position that Ujiri staked out during the NBA playoffs, which was central to the Leiweke-inspired rebranding in which the Raptors’ status as NBA outsiders – “We the North” – has become the franchise’s rallying cry.

                      Except now you don’t get the sense that it’s the Raptors against the world.

                      Maybe it’s the Raptors against the rest of MLSE?

                      That’s probably stretching it, but Ujiri admits that the last 48 hours have been a setback, even as he gets the practice facility he campaigned for before he ever took the Toronto job.

                      “It’s not been easy man,” said Ujiri of the news that the partnership he forged with Leiweke suddenly had a hard deadline attached. “I love chemistry, I love team sports and Tim is a great team player. He’s a great boss and a great leader. It just makes it tough. You feel you have all of that chemistry and you have to change again.”
                      It’s clear that Ujiri reveres his boss.

                      It’s also clear the Leiweke had a knack for rubbing his bosses the wrong way. “They like to believe that MLSE is a best in class organization,” said one source. “And Tim kept telling them that it wasn’t, and he wasn’t always that nice about it.”

                      Things almost got petty at times, with Leiweke pushing the board to look at outsourcing their food and beverage business to a company liked Philadelphia-based Aramark, who performed that function at Staples Center, and wondering why e11even, the fine-dining restaurant outside the ACC, needed a $150,000-a-year sommelier when the market rate was perhaps half that. Larry Tanenbaum, the MLSE chairman, didn’t appreciate the line of inquiry, and believed that keeping their food and beverage services in-house was a distinguishing feature.
                      Getting a practice facility done was nearly an obsession for Leiweke, because it was a “must-have” for Ujiri and essential to being a model NBA franchise.
                      Ujiri had been with the Raptors when Bryan Colangelo had his plans for a practice facility turned down by the MLSE board, and wanted assurances that the franchise’s new ownership would make the facility a priority.

                      Leiweke didn’t exactly make the promise in his own blood, but it was close.

                      “I told him if I didn’t get it done he could have my first born and he could leave and I’d have to pay him forever,” said Leiweke. “It’s in his contract.”

                      It wasn’t easy.

                      Two initial plans to get either the government or the NBA to share costs – under the auspices of the supporting Canada Basketball – were rejected, so Leiweke found himself trying to convince the board at MLSE that spending $32-million with no prospect of a return on the investment was a good idea. This was on top of a $120-million investment to renovate BMO Field and $100 million spent on bringing in Jermaine Defoe and Michael Bradley to Toronto FC.

                      “You can imagine how that went over,” Leiweke said.

                      But Leiweke was adamant. He says his first ally on the MLSE board was Bell Canada chief executive officer George Cope, with MLSE chairman Larry Tanenbaum next.

                      “We needed something, some bricks and mortar, that was a symbol that Raptors were important,” said Leiweke. “The board needed to make a commitment that the Raptors were as high a priority as the Leafs.”
                      The ACC has a practice facility in the building but it’s a high-school sized footprint with a cramped weight room that is an elevator ride from the locker rooms, treatment facilities and the coach’s offices. Meanwhile, the executive’s offices are in the office tower adjacent to the arena.

                      It should all be ready in time for the 2016 All-Star game, and Leiweke made no bones about why that’s significant.

                      “In order to be among the top six or 10 teams in the league, it’s about recruiting now,” he said. “They understood that we could be a great team and we need a facility that helps us keep players and it’s not lost on us that every great player in the league will be in this facility for a week during the NBA all-star game in 2016. It’s a pretty good calling card.”
                      http://www.sportsnet.ca/basketball/n...kes-departure/
                      Only one thing matters: We The Champs.

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                      • It should all be ready in time for the 2016 All-Star game, and Leiweke made no bones about why that’s significant.

                        “In order to be among the top six or 10 teams in the league, it’s about recruiting now,” he said. “They understood that we could be a great team and we need a facility that helps us keep players and it’s not lost on us that every great player in the league will be in this facility for a week during the NBA all-star game in 2016. It’s a pretty good calling card.”
                        This is an example of the kind of long-term thinking that separates the best executives from the pack. We may not fully appreciate the weight of something like this right now, because it's not tangible yet, but by the time 2016 rolls around we are going to be so pumped about getting the ASG and having that facility. Unfortunately by then Leiweke will be gone.

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                        • I heard Bud Selig is out of a job.. why not go after him

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                          • Rob Ford voted against new raptors practice facility. Punk. ( Doug Ford too. )

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                            • rocwell wrote: View Post
                              Rob Ford voted against new raptors practice facility. Punk. ( Doug Ford too. )
                              It did get approved though, right?

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                              • mcHAPPY wrote: View Post
                                It did get approved though, right?
                                Yes. Only Rob and Doug Fords voted No.

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