Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment president and CEO Tim Leiweke was credited with convincing David Beckham to leave Europe and play for the L.A. Galaxy in 2007.Jesse Johnston/The Canadian Press
Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment boss Tim Leiweke is considering a reunion with David Beckham, the soccer star he helped lure to North America in a past role.
On Tuesday, the Miami Herald quoted "sources close to negotiations" saying Leiweke, who is currently president and CEO of MLSE, is joining management at Beckham's investment group, which is seeking to launch an expansion Major League Soccer team in Miami.
A spokesman for MLSE confirmed "it is one of the options that [Leiweke] is looking at, but not until his work in Toronto is complete," and said he remains at the helm of the Toronto company, which owns the NHL's Maple Leafs, NBA's Raptors and MLS's Toronto FC franchises – with the latter a potential competitor for any new Miami team.
News that Beckham appears to be courting Leiweke is the latest chapter in the drawn-out search for MLSE's next leader. Leiweke, a high-profile American sports executive, first announced last August that he would leave his Toronto job by June 30 to pursue unspecified entrepreneurial opportunities. On May 20, he said he would in fact be staying on longer, only to be contradicted by MLSE chairman Larry Tanenbaum the next day, who affirmed June 30 as an end date.
Tanenbaum said at the time that MLSE's board of directors was "close" to hiring a new CEO. Sources said one preferred candidate was former Corus Entertainment Inc. chief executive John Cassaday. He was was reportedly offered the job, but declined it after failing to agree to financial terms, according to a source with knowledge of the search.
On May 29, the picture was made murkier once more as Tanenbaum formally extended Leiweke's tenure on an interim basis while the company extended its search for a successor. Leiweke said then that he expected to stay for "months," not years.
Leiweke was credited with convincing Beckham to leave Europe and play for the L.A. Galaxy in 2007, when Leiweke was president and CEO of Anschutz Entertainment Group, owner of the Galaxy, the L.A. Kings and the Staples Center in Los Angeles, among other properties.
With influential executives already in place at MLSE, such as Maple Leafs president Brendan Shanahan and Raptors president and general manager Masai Ujiri, the company says it is looking for "a seasoned business executive" to take over from Leiweke.
James Bradshaw