The Toronto Raptors play their final game of another miserable basketball season tonight when they host New Jersey in a meaningless affair.
Recently I was lounging around my mother’s house in Midland with precious little to do.
Being a retired elementary school teacher, you can easily imagine there’s all kinds of literature for her from the Ontario Teacher’s Pension Plan.
So, I picked up the magazine on this day and there was a ” Q & A ” session outlining the Teacher’s Pension financial moves, specifically their sale of the sports properties to Bell-Rogers.
When the Teacher’s Pension Plan purchased their initial holding in the Toronto Maple Leafs, back in the 1990’s, it was a $ 44 million dollar investment.
When they sold their stake in MLSE, in fairness after a sequence of risk-reward projects, their holdings were worth $ 3.2 BILLION Dollars.
Twenty years, major return on investment.
However, even as a non-teacher, I still question the sale.
The various operations appear like they will exist forever, and the cash should continue to roll for decades, supporting the hundreds of thousands of retired teaching professionals in perpetuity.
I can only imagine that the Teacher’s bailed because with the Leafs, the Raptors and Toronto FC all displaying the essence of mediocrity, the Teachers pension just didn’t want to be associated with losers, no matter how profitable they may be.
I’m Fred Wallace