Canada’s sports scene lost a significant contributor Tuesday when cable magnate Ted Rogers passed away at his Toronto home. He was 75.
In addition to the cable TV and mobile phone company he founded and built, Rogers also owned the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team – including the Rogers Centre where the team plays its games – and the sports channel Sportsnet.
In 2005, the Rogers company partnered with Bell Globemedia to become the host broadcaster of both the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and the 2012 Summer Games in London and most recently began an initiative to have the Buffalo Bills of the National Football League play regular-season games in Toronto.
A statement from the company early Tuesday said he was surrounded by loved ones when he died.
“Ted Rogers was one of a kind who built this company from one FM radio station into Canada’s largest wireless, cable and media company,” said Rogers Communications chairman and acting chief executive officer Alan Horn.
Rogers, long listed as one of Canada’s wealthiest people, earlier handed over his corporate duties to Horn.
Blue Jays president Godfrey called Rogers “a visionary” for the way he built his communications empire.
“I honestly believe he could see things before anyone else could see them,” Godfrey said. “This man was one of Canada’s all-time top business leaders. He is going to be sadly missed. We all became better leaders and better CEOs because of Ted Rogers.”
The statement from Rogers Communications said a permanent successor as chief executive officer will be appointed by the company’s board, “which intends to form a special committee to lead a search considering internal and external candidates.”
The list of potential CEOs is headed by Ted Rogers’ son Edward, president of Rogers Cable, as the family retains control of the corporation through multiple-voting shares. Rogers’ daughter Melinda, a vice-president of the corporation.
"Ted Rogers was one of the greatest entrepreneurs and builders our country has ever seen. I admired him enormously. For us at CTVglobemedia, he was both a wonderful partner and very tough competitor. But at all times, he was a gentleman and his word was his bond." — Ivan Fecan, CEO of CTVglobemedia.
Rogers’ passing was noted by Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment, which owns both the NHL’s Maple Leafs and the NBA’s Raptors.
"Mr. Rogers will always be remembered as a supporter of sports in the city as evident when he purchased the Toronto Blue Jays in 2000, effectively integrating his media and sports businesses," MSLE said in a statement. "Earlier this year, he played a role in bringing the NFL’s Buffalo Bills to Toronto to play eight home games for the next five years. Mr. Rogers also served on the Board of Directors of Maple Leaf Gardens Ltd. in the 1990s."
Rogers Communications vice-chairman Phil Lind, who worked alongside Ted Rogers for almost 40 years, says the cable pioneer "will be missed by so many."
"Though Ted was relentless in business and building this company over the years, he was also very much a family man," said Lind.
In 1950 at the age of 17, Ted Rogers made a list of things he wanted to accomplish in life which included, among other things, becoming a successful entrepreneur.
In his recent autobiography, "Relentless: The True Story of the Man Behind Rogers Communications," Rogers described the resistance he faced when he asked his board of directors to invest $500,000 in wireless technology in 1983.
"Every board member voted against me, even my wife," he wrote.
"They forced me to put my own money on the line, which I did. I just knew wireless was the next big thing and I wasn’t about to miss it."
Rogers’ investment paid off in spades, turning what started out as Rogers Cantel into Canada’s largest cellphone company. Today Rogers Communications employs 24,000 people and is worth about $18 billion.
Rogers was widely regarded as a visionary who could size up the latest communications technology, then produce a plan and a pot of money to invest in it — taking on breathtaking debt if necessary.
"Today we honour the memory of a man who was not only a leader in telecommunications but also one of the greatest, if not the greatest, entrepreneur that Canada has known…. He never feared forging ahead and he undertook enormous risks in a career crowned with great success."- Pierre Karl Peladeau, CEO of Quebecor Inc. and son of Quebecor founder Pierre Peladeau.
Rogers’ early investment in high-speed Internet, making Rogers one of the first cable companies in the world to do so, was a pivotal decision that solidified the company’s market presence.
Rogers believed that while only a limited number of people would subscribe to high-speed services initially, the investment would pay off in the long run.
The company now has 1.6 million Internet subscribers across Canada.
But not every business decision Rogers made was as successful.
In 1989, Rogers paid $288.7 million to buy 40 per cent of CNCP Telecommunications, later renamed Unitel Inc. By 1995, Unitel’s debt forced it to restructure and Rogers pulled out, with a loss of $500 million.
In his book, Rogers described this as "the worst business disaster of my life."
While he was widely praised for his business acumen and willingness to take risks, he was also criticized for taking on too much debt and emphasizing expansion over profits and dividends. He was unabashedly proud in recent years as Rogers Communications became regarded as a blue-chip corporation with a steady payout to investors.
Tall and sandy-haired, Rogers was known as a workaholic and a demanding boss.
An event that decisively shaped his life was the death of his father when he was five years old.
Edward Rogers, a radio pioneer who founded Toronto radio station CFRB (for Canada’s First Rogers Batteryless), was 39 when he died of overwork and a bleeding ulcer in the late 1930s.
"I didn’t get into broadcasting out of any smarts," Rogers once told a reporter. "I was emotionally attracted to it because of my father."
Rogers grew up as part of the establishment in Toronto. He lived in the upper-crust neighbourhood of Forest Hills and attended nearby Upper Canada College, which educated many of Canada’s wealthiest families for decades.
His first business foray came in 1960 while articling as a law student. Using borrowed money, Rogers bought Toronto radio station CHFI-FM at a time when it was the only FM station in Canada.
Capital supplied by the wealthy Eaton and Bassett families helped pay for a move into the cable TV business in 1967 that capitalized on the spread of television.
Rogers stayed on top of developments in telecommunications, branching out into cheap long-distance telephone service, cellphones and high-speed Internet. Most recently, the company became the sole Canadian distributor of Apple’s spectacularly selling iPhone.
In 1991, Rogers was named an officer of the Order of Canada.
In later life, Rogers suffered from heart problems and at one point underwent quadruple bypass surgery.
"It seems like I am undergoing some sort of medical procedure every six months or so related to heart failure, or to aneurysms, melanoma, glaucoma and other things," he wrote in his book.
But Rogers didn’t let his poor health slow his work habits. Indeed, he was conducting business from his bedside almost immediately after his bypass surgery.
Prominent political leaders were also quick Tuesday to comment on Rogers’ passing:
– With his passing, Canada has lost a media giant." – Federal Liberal Leader Stephane Dion.
-"No Canadian of his generation achieved more and gave more back than Ted Rogers. He was a visionary, an entrepreneur and a nationalist." – Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader and former Rogers Communications Inc. executive John Tory.
– "He employed so many people and thereby supported so many families and helped support this fabulous quality of life we enjoy here in Ontario and Canada. He also became a powerful champion of philanthropy." – Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty.
– "Ted Rogers was a great Torontonian through and through. His legacy will forever be one of connecting people — connecting them to family, friends and information through his telecommunications and publishing empire and also to opportunity through his philanthropic work." – Toronto Mayor David Miller
He is survived by his wife, Loretta, whom he married in 1963, and their four children — Edward, Lisa, Melinda and Martha.
Funeral arrangements will be announced by the family.
– Sportsnet.ca / Canadian Press