SIMMONS: Celebrating Larry Tanenbaum, the great Toronto sports owner who wasn't really the owner

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If you asked anyone on the Maple Leafs or Raptors who owned their team, the answer would not be complicated.

The response would be Larry Tanenbaum.

And it would not be true.

Sometimes he would be Mr. Tanenbaum to the players. But mostly, he was just Larry.

He was the owner shaking hands in the dressing room when handshaking was necessary or appropriate. He was the owner on the road for playoff games, in the hallways, almost always with wife, Judy, and with his right-hand man and lawyer, Dale Lastman, at his side.

He was the owner who had parties at his Toronto home — beginning of the season, end of the season, sometimes in between. Sometimes there were events at his cottage. If you were a Leaf or a Raptor, you were like one of his children.

He was the owner who wasn’t in the fact the owner — which makes his rise and his story and his success on his 80th birthday all the more difficult to believe and comprehend.

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Those who play for most teams don’t get involved a whole lot in ownership. They don’t try to understand who owns how much of a percentage of what.

What has been amazing to watch is the position of sporting power that Tanenbaum has built for himself over the past 27 years and one that is now about to end. He was never the majority owner, but he was in charge. He wisely and subtly finessed his way to be in the power-broker role of the Leafs and everything else that is MLSE.

As the deal with Rogers and Bell finally comes to a conclusion, with Rogers as new majority owner of everything that is MLSE — the Leafs, the Raptors, Toronto FC, the Argos, the Marlies, the real estate, the restaurant and bars, and just about anything else it wants — Tanenbaum will be slid out of the power role he has held for more than 25 years.

And what a time it has been.

The Raptors were worth $121 million when Tanenbaum and friends started MLSE. They are valued at more than $4 billion US today.

The Maple Leafs were a $47.5-million franchise in 1998. Today, they are valued at probably a low $3.8 billion.

Against the advice of NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, who thought it was a bad buy, MLSE paid $10 million for the expansion franchise Toronto FC that apparently is worth $725 million today.

Tanenbaum’s 20% of MLSE now is valued at well over $2 billion and that has enabled him to go out and purchase a WNBA expansion franchise for Toronto — which already has increased in value — and a European soccer team. All this as his 80th birthday comes Tuesday and what would you buy for the man who has everything?

In recent years, Tanenbaum has celebrated championships in the NBA, MLS, CFL and AHL. It’s about the only time the very private Tanenbaum is in any way public.

He doesn’t do interviews often. He doesn’t share his thoughts for public consumption often. But I do know this much: The two things he really wanted to do and never could — celebrating a Stanley Cup with the Leafs and bringing an NFL franchise to Toronto.

One of those remains possible today.

The rest has been a quarter-century of growth, wealth translating to weathier and a minority owner becoming more and more powerful.

When Bell and Rogers bought 75% of MLSE from the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Fund, neither would trust either side to be in control. Tanenbaum, along with Lastman, finessed his way into remaining in the position of chair — and not just any chair.

With Bell having three seats on the board and Rogers having three seats on the board, they couldn’t necessarily agree on anything. That meant the controlling votes in so many cases belonged to Tanenbaum and Lastman.

The only time it ever backfired on them was when Brian Burke was rightfully let go by the Leafs. Bell decided it wanted Burke out. It talked Rogers into agreeing with its side. The two then went to Tanenbaum and told him of their decision — and also told him to fire Burke.

While against the move, Tanenbaum fired Burke.

One flaw of Tanenbaum’s time as owner in Toronto: He loved everyone who worked for him. He treated them like they were family. He believed in what believed in. Even with a flawed general manager such as John Ferguson Jr., it took Tanenbaum years to see what others spotted rather early in Ferguson’s reign.

That was the best and worst of Tananbaum all at once. Even those who were fired over the years — from Masai Ujiri to Brendan Shanahan all the way down to Dave Nonis — all found a way to thank Larry after the fact. That is pretty rare in professional sports. You don’t get fired and thank the owner.

They did in Toronto.

And the betting still around the city is that the emotional parting with Ujiri would not have happened in Raptorland had Tanenbaum been making the call.

All these accolades for a man who owns one-fifth of MLSE until he sells that portion of his shares. And what’s amazing today and maybe for so much of the life of MLSE is how Tanenbaum has risen to power and prominence.

He’s one of the owners Bettman listens to regularly. In the much-richer NBA, he holds even more power as chairman of the Board of Governors and commissioner Adam Silver’s voice of reason.

It has been an incredible run really for Tanenbaum. He hasn’t been the perfect owner. There is no such thing. But ask the players, the coaches, the executives who worked for him and they say nothing but praise.

Maybe that’s the best sporting gift — along with a $2-billion-plus going-away present — you can receive for your 80th birthday.

ssimmons@postmedia.com

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