Report: MLSE reaches agreement to hire Keith Pelley as president, CEO

Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (MLSE), the parent company of the Maple Leafs, Raptors, TFC, and Argonauts, has reached an agreement to hire Keith Pelley as president and chief executive, according to TSN senior correspondent Rick Westhead.

According to Westhead, the deal could be announced on Thursday. Pelley will succeed Michael Friisdahl, who was MLSE’s president and CEO from 2015 to 2022. MLSE’s CFO Cynthia Devine has been acting CEO since Friisdahl’s departure.

Pelley has been the CEO of golf’s European Tour, based out of Surrey, England, and is now known as the DP World Tour. Before then, he served as president of Rogers Media, a subsidiary of Rogers Communications. During his tenure, he successfully negotiated a $5.3 billion contract with the NHL, giving Rogers the Canadian broadcast rights for all games, including playoffs, until 2026.

Before then, he was the president of Canada’s Olympic broadcast media consortium for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver while employed as vice president of strategic planning at CTV Television Network.

In the early 2000s, he served as team president and CEO of the CFL’s Toronto Argonauts, during which they won the Grey Cup in 2004.

MLSE is a professional sports and commercial real estate company based in Toronto, Ont. With assets that include the Argonauts, the Toronto Maple Leafs and their AHL affiliate, the Toronto Marlies, the NBA’s Toronto Raptors, as well as MLS’ Toronto FC, they are one of the largest sports and entertainment companies in the world.

MLSE also owns Scotiabank Arena, which serves as the home arena for both the Maple Leafs and the Raptors.