Silver: Paul Allen's Ownership Style Led To Tod Leiweke's Departure From Vulcan
In his rankings rundown of the NFL's best owners, Yahoo!'s Michael Silver writes that NFL owners believe that Seattle Seahawks and Portland Trail Blazers owner Paul Allen's ownership style contributed to the departure of Vulcan CEO Tod Leiweke earlier this summer.
Silver writes...
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I’ve long been critical of Allen for being detached on a league level – he almost never attends meetings – and now his highly regarded right-hand man, CEO Tod Leiweke, is on his way out. Leiweke, who will give up his job running the Seahawks, Portland Trailblazers and MLS Seattle Sounders (all owned by Allen) to take a job as the Tampa Bay Lightning’s CEO – he’s hanging around until a replacement is named – said the lure of gaining a small ownership interest in the NHL franchise was what sparked his decision. Some of Allen’s fellow owners, however, believe Leiweke left because he was tired of working for a demanding, idiosyncratic billionaire. "Leiweke was great," one owner says, "and he goes from running your NFL team, NBA team and the most successful MLS team to running a hockey team in Tampa? Honestly, how is that not a statement about [Allen’s] ownership?"
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Silver ranks Allen the 21st best owner in the NFL (out of 32). Leiweke gave his side of the story in an August interview with 1080 AM The Fan and, not surprisingly, had nothing but nice things to say about Allen.
-- Ben Golliver | benjamin.golliver@gmail.com | Twitter
over 1 year ago
Ben Golliver
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thanks for the link to the radio interview
Tod is a hockey guy and he couldn’t pass up the opportunity to co-own a team when it was offered. Paul Allen is an easy target for writers (and other owners, evidently) and if Lieweke didn’t like working for Vulcans, he sure didn’t come across that way when he was up in Seattle
When reached 40 years of following Portland basketball you have, be as passionate of the Trail Blazers you will not!
Call me unconvinced
So his point is that he’s a bad owner for not being heavily involved in league affairs? …and that his lack of involvement drove his CEO away? Forgive me if I have a hard time understanding why a boss leaving you be is something that would drive you away.
I guess it makes sense that Silver also picked Jerry Jones as the (co-) #1 owner in the NFL though (and Dan Snyder at #8!!). While Jones is certainly high on the NFL owner list, he’s got a little too much of the George Steinbrenner meddling gene to be #1, and any Redskins fan can tell you Dan Snyder has waaaay too much of that meddling gene to be anywhere near the top half of the rankings.
C'mon, Tom
You don’t find idle speculation by an anonymous owner to be an extremely convincing source? I thought you were more gullible than that…… :-)
by upper left corner on Sep 4, 2010 7:27 AM PDT up reply actions
The whole article reminds me of the catty fashionistas.....
…….discussing their “worst dressed” list for the Oscars or the Emmies.
by upper left corner on Sep 4, 2010 7:29 AM PDT up reply actions
Always nice to hear anonymous people spread hurtful rumors. It reminds me of those high school guys who would talk about some certain girl being a slut behind her back, while trying to force the girl into giving him play when he was with her.
Also nice to see this sort of despicable stuff is trumpeted on a family friendly website.
In Bayless I trust.
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The maturity level is closer to
junior high girls picking on the one girl they wish they were. Terrible reporting based on gossip. Yuck.
So how does this guy miss that TL is going to be part owner in an NHL franchise?
I mean, that’s a pretty important point in the story.
Jeff Vinik remains the majority owner "by far" to quote a beat writer
And it’s a troubled franchise with financial problems and no brand identity. Even though Leiweke is known as a hockey fan, in terms of responsibility and title it’s a very lateral move at best.
"Listening to the media only increases your odds of failing at whatever you are doing" - Mark Cuban
Also they have already hired Steve Yzerman as GM, who reports directly to the owner
“It is believed Leiweke’s duties will primarily be to run the St. Pete Times Forum and handle the business aspects of the team” according to the St. Petersburg Times.
"Listening to the media only increases your odds of failing at whatever you are doing" - Mark Cuban
in terms of responsibility and title it’s a very lateral move at best.
If you miss the part about hockey being Tod’s passion then you miss the whole thing
When reached 40 years of following Portland basketball you have, be as passionate of the Trail Blazers you will not!
Does passion pay the bills?
Tampa is not exactly known for being a big spending team. In all likelihood Tod took a substantial pay cut,which begs the question-did he get a buyout/severance package or was he just desperate to leave?
It's very possible that Tod doesn't need a job to pay his bills
Which leaves him the option of doing what he enjoys instead.
Not that the story writer did any research to determine this.
With an ownership stake as well…something he most likely never would have received from PA.
"I'm a man, but I can change.....if I have to......I guess." - Red Green
by antediluvian on Sep 4, 2010 10:50 AM PDT up reply actions
especially ownership in an NHL team
It’s interesting, during the 1080 interview Tod shared about his desire for the Blazers to not have competition for ticket revenue with an NHL team (or a pro baseball team, apparently) in the same market, so for Leiweke to pursue his NHL dream he necessarily had to leave the Vulcans and the NW behind.
Tod said that working with Izerman was also an attraction
When reached 40 years of following Portland basketball you have, be as passionate of the Trail Blazers you will not!
I heard Paul Allen likes to eat kittens for breakfast, and that Todd Lieweke just did not approve.
Great find Ben. Thanks!
"Conan, what is best in life?"
"Crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentation of the women."
Apples and Oranges
The article is about the NFL. And from a quick review of previous rankings it seems Paul Allen doesn’t care about ownership meetings or the daily grind stuff. Big whoop.
Ownership meetings are basically about money,and I would guess Allen is not too worried about that. He can let the other small market teams do his bargaining for him w/out having to look like a greedy SOB.
For the operations end he hires someone else to do that,and Silver doesn’t approve of letting Leiweke-who handled that-go.
But Allen could hardly be described as a hands-off owner of the Blazers. Batum,Mills,etc attest to Allens’s active interest(or meddling,whichever floats your boat) in the Blazers.
The Seahawks were prob a civic pride kind of thing(altho I’m sure he’d rather they were winners at end of day) while the Blazers prob have his sports soul.
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