Leafs Up For Sale???
I was watching The Spin with Steve Kouleas, Steve Ludzik and Al Strachan on The Score tonight. Well, I don’t usually pay attention to these guys but something quite interesting caught my eye. According to at least Strachan anyways, Russian Billionaire Roman Abramovich is interested in buying MLSE. And he isn’t just any old Russian Billionaire, Abramovich is the same person who tried buying the Vancouver Canucks a few years ago but failed.
A little history on Abramovich. According to a Russian finance magazine, as of January 2007, Abramovich’s worth is apparently over 21 Billion dollars. Abramovich also bought Chelsea FC of the English Soccer Premiership and immediately poured funds into the team in order to produce a winner. Money is no option for Abramovich as he reportedly offered AC Milan over 89 million dollars for one single player (Andrei Shevchenko). Abramovich is also an owner of the CSKA Moscow soccer club.
In any case, if in fact Abramovich somehow manages to buy MLSE, he would also be owner of not only the Leafs but the Toronto Raptors, Toronto FC and the Toronto Marlies.
Personally speaking, I’m taking this news with a grain of salt, as it is Al Strachan who was saying this on The Spin. But if Abramovich does somehow buy the Leafs, he may very well be what the team is looking for in terms of stability. I believe that if the deal does in fact happen, Larry Tanenbaum and Richard Peddie will both be out of a job and perhaps with Abramovich’s “Money is No Option” philosophy, maybe he will buy the very best of everything in terms of executives, scouts, GM, coach and maybe even players(That is if the Cap keeps going up).
In any case, it is still coming from Al Strachan and he can barely tell you what a hockey puck is so hopefully no one takes this incredibly seriously.