Time ran out for Bill Manning, who oversaw Toronto FC and Argonaut championships in his role as president of the MLS and CFL teams.
Manning also ran out of results and people to fire in a ‘What have you done for me lately?” business, with Toronto FC an anchor around his neck in recent seasons.
The Major League Soccer side has posted a 26-69-30 league record since its last post-season appearance in 2020, when it finished second overall in the league but failed to make it past the first round of the playoffs.
Having changed coaches and GMs, Manning found himself in the firing line.
Toronto FC (7-13-3) is sliding down the MLS Eastern Conference standings this season having lost six straight in league play and is winless in nine (0-7-2). News of Manning’s departure comes the morning after a 2-1 loss to CPL champion Forge FC in the first leg of their Canadian Championship semifinal.
Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment says Manning’s exit was by mutual decision.
“On behalf of MLSE’s board of directors and the entire organization, we want to thank Bill for his many contributions in his nearly nine years with the company,” MLSE president and CEO Keith Pelley said in a statement. “Bill will always be an important part of the championship history for both clubs, but as we evaluate the path ahead, and measure against our ambition to consistently deliver contending teams, it was determined that a new direction was required.
“Bill is a very accomplished team executive, and a good man, and we wish him and his family the very best in the future.”
As part of the transition, MLSE says TFC general manager Jason Hernandez and Argonauts GM Michael Clemons will report directly to Pelley.
Manning was named TFC president in October 2015 and later added the title of Argos president when the Canadian Football League franchise was acquired by MLSE in January 2018.
TFC won the treble — the MLS Cup, Canadian Championship and Supporters Shield — in 2017 and made it to the MLS Cup final in 2019. But it never really recovered from having to shift operations south of the border during the pandemic.
Since the departure of Greg Vanney in December 2020, the club tried Chris Armas, Javier Perez and Bob Bradley as coach before settling on former Canada coach John Herdman last August.
Herdman is struggling to rebuild the team, which lacks depth and has spent like a drunken sailor.
Ali Curtis served as GM and Bradley as sporting director before Hernandez was elevated to GM in June 2023
The Toronto Argonauts, 2-2-0 this season, won the Grey Cup in 2022 on Manning’s watch, edging the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 24-23.
Manning was a two-time winner of the MLS Executive of the Year award with Real Salt Lake before joining TFC. His hiring meant there was a president in charge in each of MLSE’s prized assets: Brendan Shanahan with the Maple Leafs, Masai Ujiri with the Raptors and Manning with TFC.
TFC had been without a president since firing Kevin Payne, who doubled as GM, in September 2013.
At the time of his hiring, MLSE chair Larry Tanenbaum called Manning an “important and impressive executive.”
“Our ambition is to bring MLS championships to our fans in Toronto and adding a leader of Bill’s calibre is another important part of that process and vision,” Tanenbaum added.
TFC has dug deep into MLSE pockets with Italian stars Lorenzo Insigne and Federico Bernardeschi the second and sixth-highest-paid MLS players this season at US$15.4 million and US$6.295 million, respectively.
Toronto’s league record since the Italians made their debut in July 2022 is an underwhelming 15-39-16.
At the time of their signing, Manning made headlines when he revealed his player search started with the internet.
“I actually went to the Transfermarkt website and I looked up the Italian national team on what players were coming out of contract,” Manning told reporters. “And Lorenzo was one of the few players that was coming out of contract. I started writing down players that I thought were world-class, that I thought would have commercial value in this market.”
Venezuelan international Yeferson Soteldo was a bust as an earlier designated player signing.
Manning won the MLS’s top executive award in 2012 and 2014 in eight years at Real Salt Lake, winning the 2009 MLS Cup and finishing runner-up in 2013.
A native of Massapequa, N.Y., Manning began his career in sports management with the Continental Indoor Soccer League during its inaugural season in 1993. He subsequently moved on to the United Soccer League with the Long Island Rough Riders and then the Minnesota Thunder where he was named USL Executive of the Year in 1999.
He started in MLS in 2000 as president and GM of the Tampa Bay Mutiny.
After Tampa folded, Manning worked for the NBA Houston Rockets (director of corporate partnerships) and then the NFL Philadelphia Eagles (vice-president of sales and services) before Real Salt Lake brought him back to MLS in 2008.
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 11, 2024
TORONTO – The Toronto Maple Leafs have announced cookie brand Oreo as the team’s helmet sponsor for the upcoming NHL season.
The new helmet will debut Sunday when Toronto opens its 2024-25 pre-season against the Ottawa Senators at Scotiabank Arena.
The Oreo logo replaces Canadian restaurant chain Pizza Pizza, which was the Leafs’ helmet sponsor last season.
Previously, social media platform TikTok sponsored Toronto starting in the 2021-22 regular season when the league began allowing teams to sell advertising space on helmets.
The Oreo cookie consists of two chocolate biscuits around a white icing filling and is often dipped in milk.
Fittingly, the Leafs wear the Dairy Farmers of Ontario’s “Milk” logo on their jerseys.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
MacKenzie Weegar wasn’t bitter or upset as he watched friends live out their dreams.
The Calgary Flames defenceman just hopes to experience the same feeling one day. He also knows the road leading to that moment, if it does arrive, will likely be long and winding — much like his own path.
A seventh-round pick by the Florida Panthers at the 2013 NHL draft, Weegar climbed the ranks to become an important piece of a roster that captured the Presidents’ Trophy as the league’s top regular-season club in 2021-22.
Two months later following a second-round playoff exit, he was traded to the Flames along with Jonathan Huberdeau for Matthew Tkachuk. And less than two years after that, the Panthers were hoisting the Stanley Cup.
“Happy for the city and for the team,” Weegar said of Florida’s June victory over the Edmonton Oilers. “There was no bad taste in my mouth.”
His sole focus, he insists, is squarely on eventually getting the Flames to the same spot. The landscape, however, has changed drastically since Weegar committed to Calgary on an eight-year, US$50-million contract extension in October 2022.
Weegar has watched a list that includes goaltender Jacob Markstrom, defencemen Chris Tanev, Noah Hanifin and Nikita Zadorov and forwards Elias Lindholm and Andrew Mangiapane shipped out of town since the start of last season — largely for picks, prospects and young players as part of a rebuild.
Despite that exodus, he remains committed to the Calgary project steered by general manager Craig Conroy.
“It’s easy to get out of all whack when you see guys trying to leave or wanting new contracts,” the 30-year-old from Ottawa said at last week’s NHL/NHLPA player media tour in Las Vegas. “I just focus on where I am and where I want to be, and that’s Calgary.
“I believe in this team. The city has taken me in right away. I feel like I owe it to them to stick around and grind through these years and get a Stanley Cup.”
The hard-nosed blueliner certainly knows what it is to grind.
After winning the Memorial Cup alongside Nathan MacKinnon with the Halifax Mooseheads in 2013, Weegar toiled in the ECHL and American Hockey League for three seasons before making his NHL debut late in the 2016-17 campaign with the Panthers.
He would spend the next five years in South Florida as one of the players tasked with shifting an organizational culture that had experienced little success over the previous two decades.
“There’s always going to be a piece of my heart and loyalty to that team,” Weegar said. “But now I’m in a different situation … I compete against all 32 teams, not just Florida. There’s always a chip on my shoulder every single year.”
Weegar set career highs with 20 goals — eight was the most he had ever previously registered — and 52 points in 2023-24 as part of a breakout offensive performance.
“I think my buddies cared a lot more than I did,” he said with a smile. “All I hear is, ‘fantasy, fantasy, fantasy.'”
Weegar was actually more proud of his 200 blocked shots and 194 hits as he looks to help set a new Flames’ standard alongside Huberdeau, captain Mikael Backlund, Nazem Kadri, Blake Coleman and Rasmus Andersson for a franchise expected to have its new arena in time for the 2027-28 season.
“You have to build that culture and that belief in the locker room,” said Weegar, who pointed to 22-year-old centre Connor Zary as a player set to pop. “Those young guys are going to have to come into their own and be consistent every night … they’re the next generation.”
Weegar, however, isn’t punting on 2024-25. He pointed to the NHL’s parity and the fact a couple of teams surprise every season.
It’s the same approach that took him from the ECHL a decade ago to hockey’s premier pre-season event inside a swanky hotel on Sin City’s famed strip, where he stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the game’s best.
“From the outside — media and even friends and family — the expectations are probably a bit lower,” Weegar said of Calgary’s outlook. “But there’s no reason to think that we can’t make playoffs and we can’t be a good team (with) that underdog mentality.
“You never know.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept 17, 2024.
Jose Maria Celestino da Costa was named vice-president and head of soccer operations while Marianne Brooks was appointed vice-president of partnerships, Kelly Shouldice as vice-president of brand and content and Joyce Sou as vice-president of finance and business operations.
The new six-team women’s pro league is set to kick off in April.
“Their unique expertise and leadership are crucial as we lay the foundation for not just a successful league in Canada, but one that stands among the top sports leagues in the world,” NSL president Christina Litz said in a statement. “By investing in top-tier talent and infrastructure, the Northern Super League is committed to creating a league that will elevate the game and set new standards for women’s professional soccer globally.”
Da Costa will oversee all on-field matters, including officiating. His resume includes stints with Estoril Praia, a men’s first-division team in Portugal, and the Portuguese Soccer Federation, where he helped develop the Portuguese women’s league.
Brooks spent a decade with Canucks Sports & Entertainment, working in “partnership sales and retention efforts” for the Vancouver Canucks, Vancouver Warriors, and Rogers Arena. Most recently, she served as senior director of account management at StellarAlgo, a software company that helps pro sports teams connect with their fans
Shouldice has worked for Corus Entertainment, the Canadian Football League, and most recently as vice-president of Content and Communications at True North Sports & Entertainment, where she managed original content as well as business and hockey communications.
Sou, who was involved in the league’s initial launch, will oversee financial planning, analysis and the league’s expansion strategy in her new role.
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
