Cup committed

Wow, how thrilling is it to be working for one of the partners that just bought the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays! Ho Ho Ho!!!

I’m not exactly certain what my role with Rogers Sportsnet will be moving forward. Feeling full of pride to be part of this new team, I called Leafs coach Ron Wilson yesterday afternoon and demanded to know who he was starting in goal later in the day against the Washington Capitals.

He told me to get lost.

Truthfully, it is going to be interesting, moving forward, to see if there is a change of philosophy in terms of how the Maple Leafs are run by the new owners. Listening to fans commenting on the change of ownership Friday, it struck me how much disdain there was for the previous majority owners, the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan. Time and time again I heard fans on call-in shows on radio say the Teachers were only interested in turning a profit and winning was never high on their list of priorities.

Really?

First off, that is not true. Prior to the implementation of the salary cap system in the NHL, the Toronto Maple Leafs were one of the most aggressive and highest spending teams when it came to acquiring high-paid talent through trades and unrestricted free agents. Ed Belfour, Gary Roberts, Alex Mogilny, Joe Nieuwendyk, Brian Leetch, Ron Francis, Eric Lindros, Shayne Corson, Owen Nolan, Mikael Renberg, Jeff O’Neill, Larry Murphy, Hal Gill and on and on and on were brought to town – many way after their "best by" date.

That’s a lot of star power and yet no Stanley Cups since 1967.

And we are to believe it’s because the owners were more interested in making money?

Let’s try bad management on for size.

The Maple Leafs are an anomaly. Unlike the majority of sports organizations, they don’t need to win to produce a profit. All they have to do is open the doors to whichever building they are playing in – be it Maple Leaf Gardens of the Air Canada Centre – and the seats will be filled virtually every night. Don’t even get me started on the cost of tickets or a glass of beer.

The Carolina Hurricanes don’t have the same luxury, and yet they won the Stanley Cup in 2005-06. Nor do the Tampa Bay Lightning, Stanley Cup champs in ’03-04. How about the Anaheim Ducks, Cup winners in ’06-07? Those three teams – all based in non-traditional hockey markets – won championships because they were well-managed and well-coached teams. Period.

If those teams lose, fans stay away. Not the Leafs. They haven’t been in the playoffs for six seasons and yet when they play, the ACC is bursting at the seams.

Since the Leafs last won the Cup, a number of men have tried and failed to bring a championship back to the hockey capital of the universe. Only one, Cliff Fletcher, even got close, in 1991-92 and again the following season, 1992-93, when the Leafs were beaten in the Conference final.

Fletcher’s motivation wasn’t making money for a bunch of retired blackboard scribblers. It was winning. He wanted to sip champagne from the same Cup he drank from in 1988-89 when he constructed a Stanley Cup-winning team in Calgary.

And you cannot convince me that the other men who tried and failed to build a winner were motivated by profit. Nor is the Maple Leafs current GM Brian Burke.

Burke, too, has sipped from the Cup. He was architect of the winning team in Anaheim a few years back. He accepted the job in Toronto, not only because he was offered an inordinate salary, but because he knew winning the Stanley Cup in Toronto would be his ticket to legendary status. The next Cup-winning GM in Toronto will never have to buy a meal in this city again.

As far as Toronto is concerned, the Stanley Cup has become the Holy Grail.

Will the Rogers-Bell group hope to make a profit? Damned right, it will. These two moguls didn’t purchase one of the most prized sporting organizations (as well as the Raptors and TFC) just to win a shiny silver mug one day. The mere existence of this new business team is based on its ability to operate in the black.

And that is exactly what the people behind the scenes will do. But those running the sporting teams are in it to win; just as they were under the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan.

Veteran hockey columnist Mike Brophy will cover the Toronto Maple Leafs for sportsnet.ca for the 2011/12 season.