{"id":179015,"date":"2025-09-30T01:50:35","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T01:50:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/179015\/"},"modified":"2025-09-30T01:50:35","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T01:50:35","slug":"stewart-johnston-mlse-huge-cfl-supporters-rogers-excited-about-rule-changes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/179015\/","title":{"rendered":"Stewart Johnston: MLSE ‘huge’ CFL supporters, Rogers ‘excited’ about rule changes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Courtesy: CFL<\/p>\n

CFL commissioner Stewart Johnston has communicated with Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment (MLSE) and its majority owner, Rogers, about their ongoing commitment to the Toronto Argonauts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had great conversations\u00a0with Keith Pelley and Phil King at MLSE \u2014 they are huge supporters of the league, both of them have a long history with the league. I\u2019ve really leaned on them as we\u2019ve tried to push these changes through, very supportive\u00a0of that,\u201d Johnston told 3DownNation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had communication with the leadership at Rogers.\u00a0I can tell you for sure they\u2019re excited about the changes that we\u2019re bringing to bear. I\u2019m looking forward to having more conversations with them moving forward, but MLSE, they\u2019re showing me nothing but support for the Argos.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many CFL fans have long believed MLSE lacks support for the Argonauts and prioritized the Maple Leafs, the Raptors, and Toronto FC in that order. Then came the supposed one-of-a-kind partnership with the Buffalo Bills and MLSE<\/a>, which happened two weeks less one day prior to the CFL\u2019s announcement about significant changes to its game.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has absolutely nothing to do with that.\u00a0We started our work on this almost the day I began, so five months less two days ago. That\u2019s when we really ramped it up over the course of the summer. Clearly, it had nothing to do, we didn\u2019t even know the Bills thing was happening until\u00a0after we\u2019d already begun this work, so totally unrelated,\u201d Johnston said.<\/p>\n

In December 2017, MLSE struck a deal to buy the Argonauts<\/a>. At that time, there was some cross-ownership as the Double Blue were purchased by Bell and Larry Tanenbaum from David Braley in May 2015. Rogers agreed to buy Bell\u2019s 37.5 percent MLSE ownership stake for a reported $4.7 billion<\/a> in September 2024 and closed that deal in July to increase its ownership share to 75 percent. Tanenbaum continues to own 25 percent in MLSE under his holding company Kilmer Sports Inc.<\/p>\n

MLSE has proven its ability to give great entertainment value and drive revenue to new heights. That\u2019s exactly what the CFL hopes to do by implementing game changes and, in Johnston\u2019s words, trade field goals for touchdowns. He truly believes the CFL can reach a new level for fan enjoyment while attracting new three-down league enthusiasts.<\/p>\n

\u201cCan I draw a line directly from that to revenue-making? I think if more people think this is a fun game, they\u2019re going to buy tickets. If more people think it\u2019s super fun to watch at home, then our media discussions with the media rights partners are probably going to be improved,\u201d Johnston said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do believe there is a correlation. We didn\u2019t go into it thinking, \u2018What\u2019s the exact line that I\u2019m going to draw between entertainment value and rising revenues?\u2019\u00a0However, I think instinctively, we understand that\u2019s going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to sources, the CFL\u2019s estimated revenues are between $200 and $300 million. League revenues are up around $18 million combined over the last couple years, which triggered the second-largest salary cap increase in history<\/a> leading into the 2025 season. Johnston wants to keep growing revenue from coast-to-cost-to-coast in his tenure and feels these significant game changes can accomplish that goal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Courtesy: CFL CFL commissioner Stewart Johnston has communicated with Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment (MLSE) and its majority…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":166879,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-179015","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cfl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-canadian-football-league","11":"tag-canadianfootballleague","12":"tag-cfl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179015\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}