What’s the deal with Wayne Gretzky and MLSE? Has he been approached to join an ownership bid or not?
Wysh is wondering the same thing over at Puck Daddy, where he provides the following background:
In summary: Providence Equity Partner, a US-based financial firm, has been sniffing around the purchase of MLSE and the Toronto Maple Leafs. After initial backlash against dirty, stinkin’, no-good Americans buying the Leafs — all of Toronto was in a panic over having to explain what icing was to the new owners — news was leaked that the firm had reached out to Wayne Gretzky to be their ownership group window dressing.
The Great One has shot that down, and the original story has changed a bit.
Yesterday Gretzky told Fox Sports Tonight that he has “not talked to anyone who has the possibility of buying the Toronto Maple Leafs.”
Um, OK. But didn’t Sportsnet quote Gretzky on Thursday as saying he’s “been approached by multiple firms considering the purchase of MLSE”?
Oh wait, that quote’s been removed from the original Sportsnet story.
The Toronto Star’s Damien Cox has more on that. Cox called up Sportsnet reporter, John Shannon, about the little edit.
“Wayne may be backtracking, but I stand by my sources and the story,” Shannon told Cox. “I believe in them and what they told me.”
Weird.
