MONTREAL—In late June, the NHL board of governors unanimously approved the sale of a majority stake in Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment to two Canadian communication giants, Bell and Rogers.

Well, maybe George Cope and Nadir Mohamed might want to ask for a recount.

As it stands, the Bell/Rogers alliance stands to suffer a double whammy that the partners may or may not have contemplated when together they ponied up $1.32 billion to buy out the Ontario Teachers Pension Fund.

And boy, did Teachers know when to get out, huh?

Along with the 29 other franchises that will lock out their players on Saturday, the Leafs aren’t going to be opening up their doors any time soon to sell tickets, popcorn, jerseys, foam fingers, baseball caps, key chains and all manner of hockey merchandise.

No games, nothing to sell for Rogers (Mohamed) and Bell (Cope) in what was to be their first year as NHL owners. Even worse, refunds, the scourge of any business, may be necessary down the line.

Moreover, and possibly worse, their television arms — Rogers owns the multi-channel Sportsnet universe and a huge collection of regional games, Bell owns TSN and TSN2 and a lucrative share of the national NHL package — now have no hockey content to fill the viewing hours.

Those Summit Series/’87 Canada Cup replays only get you so far.

Don’t forget, most analysts have always believed that when you cleared away the propaganda and smoke and words about winning championships, this MLSE deal was always primarily a content play. Neither company could afford to swallow MLSE on its own or afford to be left out of the potential content bonanza entirely, so they got into the hockey business together.

Now they have no games to help pay for their investment, and no content for their 24-hour sports networks or radio outfits that were set to share broadcasts of Leaf games. Leaf TV, its future already up in the air, doesn’t have much to sell, either.

There’s undoubtedly dissatisfied cable subscribers around the country who may take some joy out of seeing Rogers and Bell suffer, and those who bought the TSN vs. Sportsnet board game — the Sid and Tim trivia category is always the toughest — might feel betrayed.

But it really does stink for the new MLSE owners. At least the reborn Winnipeg Jets got to get some momentum flowing by getting one season under their belts before shutting the doors.

But if you were of the belief that this sale was going to significantly change MLSE in terms of its ability to win championships — not that I’ve heard that belief spoken, but it must be out there — it’s going to be months before Rogers/Bell can show whether they can make a difference.

Sure, they’ll have the Raptors playing soon, but that basketball squad is in the early stages still of rebuilding, so its unlikely evidence will emerge from the early NBA season that suggests these communications companies really know their stuff when it comes to winning in pro sports.

No, it’ll be the Leafs where Rogers and Bell prove whether they’ve got the knack for this sort of thing, or whether this unholy alliance will actually work in practice.

That will have to wait, and shortened seasons coming off abbreviated training camps always come with an asterisk and make it difficult to assess whether you’ve got the right players, coaches and managers in place.

Look, these guys have more than enough resources to cover any NHL-related shortfall. Between them, $1.32 billion is like buying a new car is to you or me. But they’re more helplessly wedded now to the NHL than they ever were, even more than when they were just gunning to be part of the national NHL package when it expires in 2014.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Canadian NHL teams always feel much more of the pain in these labour stoppages, and rich teams like the Leafs, who apparently voted along with the rest of the mob to lock out the players, rarely have much, if anything, to gain. All they might get out of this in the end is greater revenue-sharing obligations.

So, all in all, not a great start to the grand Rogers/Bell hockey alliance.

So Gary, about that recount ...

Read more about: