Geoff Molson '87, Pre-U '88: The Business of Sport & Realities of Franchise Ownership

Matt Cundill  0:00  
We are LCC a podcast emanating from the halls of Lower Canada College on Royal Avenue in Montreal. Here's alumni officer Christine Jones.

Kristine Jones  0:12  
Welcome to the we are LCC Podcast. I'm Christine Jones, your host alum parent and the school's alumni officer. Today we have Jeff Molson from the class of 87 per University Class of 88. He's the president and CEO of Groupe CH, which owns the Montreal Canadiens, Evenko, Equip Spectra, Just For Laughs and the Bell Center. We're privileged to have him join us for a conversation about the business of sport and the realities of owning a franchise. Welcome, Geoff to the podcast. Thank you very much for agreeing to be on the we're LCC podcast. We're very happy to have with us today Geoff Molson from the class of 1987. So welcome, Geoff.

Geoff Molson  0:53  
Thank you glad to be here.

Kristine Jones  0:55  
So why don't we just start by you telling us a bit about your path after graduating from LCC, what you did, where you went and how you got to where you are now.

Geoff Molson  1:05  
I am officially from the class of 87. But I did grade 12 at LCC as well. So in 1988, I graduated from grade 12 at LCC and I went to St. Lawrence University, that St. Lawrence University I got a degree in economics. After that from an educational perspective, I went to Babson College, which is in Boston, and I got an MBA. So that was my education, post LCC. And then in terms of experience, I was lucky to get a lot of experiences over the years after getting my degrees. So I worked in several different cities. I worked in Atlanta for Coca Cola. I worked in Boston and New York for a management consulting firm. I worked in Denver for Molson the beer company. I worked in Toronto for Molson, the beer company, and I worked in London for Marks and Spencer, which is a retailer in England. So I did get a lot of experiences. And then I came back to Montreal obviously worked for Molson as the vice president of marketing. So a lot of experiences accumulated and got me to the point where, in 2009, I had the opportunity to buy the Montreal Canadiens. And the rest is history for me, and I've been the president and CEO of Montreal Canadiens since then, and the company that I bought, the team that I bought is actually a sports and entertainment company. And some of the LCC boys and girls probably are familiar with Osheago, Agha and Lasso and all the concerts at the Bell Center and other venues across the province. That's an Evenko and we manage that business as well. 

Kristine Jones  2:46  
Okay, great. And so we want to sort of focus the conversation on the business of sport and realities of franchise ownership. Can you sort of talk to us a bit about how the landscape of sports business has evolved over the years and what trends you might see shaping its future? 

Geoff Molson  3:06  
Sports business in general, has been pretty successful overall, from a business perspective. The reason I say that is because nowadays, we all have streaming, and Netflix and Apple TV, and we don't actually have to watch commercials when we watch a Netflix show. Or we could fast forward through commercials if we want to, if they're on in hockey, and sports, in general, it's live. And so live sports is exciting for people, they don't know what's gonna happen next, they can't fast forward, you have a captive audience and it's a very passionate thing. So in the era of Netflix and streaming, and downloading, it has given sports an extra boost of attraction and then other things are happening in sports that make it an attractive sport. I think that at least in hockey, we're finding that the play is faster, it's exciting. And the quality of the play on the ice is, is great, and different. So it's fun for fans to watch. And then also in hockey, we have what's called a salary cap. And so no team can spend above a certain level of money. What that does is it gives everyone a chance to win, because they're all given the same amount of money to spend, or they have the same amount of money spent. So you can't you can't buy your way to establish a cup. You have to build your way to the Stanley Cup. And so that makes it exciting for fans. Because you never know who's gonna win. You never know which team is going to be going to be good from one year to the next. 

Kristine Jones  4:37  
It's such a good point about the Netflix in the streaming I was trying to think are there other Is there anything else that we watched it's actually live like if you get up to like, go get a snack or you're gonna miss something, you know what I mean? I don't actually think there is unless you're like on TV, you know?

Geoff Molson  4:50  
Yeah, for sure. That has increased the business and the value of it. 

Kristine Jones  4:56  
Right. Like people aren't watching a replay. I mean, obviously they're watching highlight It's a parts of it maybe the next day, but you're not rewatching an entire game, you already know the outcome.

Geoff Molson  5:05  
That's right. That's right. And you know, people watch on their phones, my kids watch a lot of games on their phones, and they just hold the phone up in front of their face. So that's, that's unique. And going to the Bell Center obviously, is a form of entertainment. It's like going to a concert or it's like going out for dinner and so the Montreal Canadiens compete for what we call entertainment dollars. And entertainment can be anything from a vacation in Mexico, to a dinner in downtown Montreal and a hockey game or a concert. So that's, that's something that we work hard on trying to make sure that when you do come to the Bell Center, you have a great experience, regardless of whether we win or lose. 

Kristine Jones  5:46  
And obviously a team like the Montreal Canadiens is rooted in tradition. It's obviously one of the longest franchises are and correct me if I'm wrong, maybe it is one of the longest standing franchises in the league. So how do you, let's say marry the traditions of the Montreal Canadiens, but also sort of have progressive forward thinking. So I'm sure at some point in the business, you want to institute change, whether it's your marketing or your player development or building the franchise, but you still have to keep some of the traditions from the past. 

Geoff Molson  6:20  
Yeah. So to answer your question, the most shocking games are the oldest hockey team in the world.

Kristine Jones  6:27  
Is probably something I should have known prior.

Geoff Molson  6:30  
Founded in 1909, and proud winner of 24 Stanley Cups, which is also the the most of any other team, actually, almost the most of any other team. In all sports. There's one team that's won more than us, and it's the New York Yankees. But apart from that, the Montreal Canadiens have been a very successful franchise. So all that tradition in that history is important. But we have 18 to 35 year old players, and we have young fans that love those player and so it is a fine balance. You want to honor your your history and be modern at the same time. So you intertwine the great history of this franchise with the captain, for example, or with Cole Caulfield. I mean, we had other goals, scores scores in our history as well. You need to focus on moving forward in the future and the team now, but always remind people that the reason we're all here today is because of the great heritage of the Montreal Canadiens. 

Kristine Jones  7:24  
And are there plans to market yourselves in Europe have any games across overseas?

Geoff Molson  7:32  
The last time we did it was probably when I was at LCC. So it's been a very long time, the Canadians played in London, and maybe when I was at St. Lawrence, but so it's been a very, very long time. And it's something that we would like to do. We have some international players on our team, obviously and, you know, there's a lot of markets that are attractive for us to look at. Even a market like Paris would be interesting, purely because there's a French Connection with Montreal with Quebec. But yes, it's on our list of things that we want to accomplish. And the league manages international games and so we're working with the league to try and make that happen. 

Kristine Jones  8:09  
Okay, and what about any other interest for Groupe CH in other professional sports teams, whether it's or leagues like NBA, MLB, now the PW HL, lacrosse, anything on the horizon there?

Geoff Molson  8:24  
Yeah. So we're always looking to do more, whether it's on the event side, or on the sports side. And so we could do anything from a one off, like we brought baseball back to the big O for some preseason games over the years. We bring an NBA game almost every year to the Bell Center. And now we're just sort of dabbling into other sports as well. We would like to bring more basketball, either to live out or to Montreal, because we think Montreal is a great basketball market. Ultimately, if we ever got a chance to have an NBA team, we would definitely look at that. But in the meantime, there's college basketball, and then there's this league called the G League, which is like a farm system for the NBA. So those things will start to see come to Montreal, and Laval. And then as far as indoor lacrosse goes, we're going to have a game actually this year indoor lacrosse game, and hopefully it does well because it would be a step towards possibly bringing a team here someday.

Kristine Jones  9:21  
What about a Winter Classic in Montreal on the horizon? 

Geoff Molson  9:24  
Yeah, that would be nice. We would love to do that, but unfortunately, we don't have an outdoor stadium that's big enough to hold that kind of event. Just talk about the provincial government renovating the big O. And there is a small window of time when they have to take the roof off. And the new roof is not going to go back on. And so maybe that's an opportunity because it will would be an outdoor game at the Big O, but as of right now, unfortunately, it'll be hard for us to have an outdoor game without a venue. 

Kristine Jones  9:52  
Yeah, a venue would be important. So turning again, back to the league a bit. It's expanded obviously so much over the years, is there a concern that more expansion would further dilute the league? And for example, there's already fewer games between the traditional rivals like let's say the Habs versus Toronto and Boston.

Geoff Molson  10:13  
At the current moment, there are no imminent plans for the NHL to expand. But should the day come when the NHL decides to expand? Do I think it's going to dilute the quality of play on the ice? I don't think so. I think hockey is becoming much more of an international sport. Not long ago, call it 25 years ago, probably 75% of the professional NHL hockey players were from Canada and now that number is below 50%. And that's not because Canada is not performing it just it's because other countries like the US, Finland, Sweden, Russia, Switzerland, Slovakia Czechia, are all delivering more high caliber hockey players and so we'll just see more high quality play. So I don't think it started with. As for rivalries, I do think that as you expand and you get more and more teams, there were 32 now, and even at 32. Playing every team every year, Home and Away, does have the impact of reducing the rivalries. And so we played the Toronto Maple Leafs, for example, on the first game of the season this year, and we haven't played them since. And late last week. We played the Ottawa Senators for the first time this whole year. And we've we've played Boston only twice. So the all those amazing rivalries that have been developed over the history of the NHL, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, New York and New Jersey, New York and the islanders, Rangers Eilers. All those great rivalries are less than they used to be because these teams don't play against each other. And personally, my personal opinion is I would, I would love to see more games against rival teams, and maybe not necessarily going to every single other venue every year.

Kristine Jones  12:02  
If we turn to the actual athlete for a minute, and the concept of athlete branding, obviously, that's become increasingly more prominent, and athletes are trying to build and monetize their own personal brands. So how do you navigate that? And is that does that become challenging and how does that affect sort of your, your day to day sports, sort of business management and environment? 

Geoff Molson  12:28  
Yeah, for sure. I mean, there's especially the star athletes, they have their own brand, and they manage that themselves. From my perspective, there's a few things that are really important and if they're able to do all of them, while they build their own personal brand, I have absolutely no issues with it. And for me, it's team first, and being part of the team and part of the organization and that includes on and off the ice, it's being responsible, it's being ready to deliver, in practice ready to deliver in the weight room and ready to deliver on the ice when we play games, and a total commitment to the team and to winning. And if there's any distraction from that, because of personal brand building, it can really take away from the team. And so that's the line that can't be crossed. Almost all players are able to do that, you know, every player gets a day off every week, for example. And so that's probably the day that they're gonna pick to do things that are more for themselves than for the team and it's fine, it's good. It's not another way of generating income and exposure. And we're supportive of it. In fact, we help them with it if they need it. So but it can't take away from the reason they're there and that's to win hockey games.

Kristine Jones  13:39  
And then if we talk about owning a sports franchise, often it's seen as a very glamorous endeavor. But there there must be some lesser known challenges and realities that you face on a day to day basis. Can you address some of those?

Geoff Molson  13:54  
Yeah, I mean, it's it certainly is, especially in Montreal, being the owner of the Montreal Canadiens means that you're a public figure. And it does mean that people recognize you everywhere you go, that's part of the job I put that into the category is part of my job is to be responsible publicly. And to make sure that I treat everyone with respect, because they recognize me and so that part of it, you could argue that that's glamour. It's a responsibility that I have. And the reality is every day when I wake up, I have a hockey team to oversee. But I also have a business to manage and I love doing both, but I wouldn't call it glamorous. There are days when managing the hockey team are tough, and when the team is not performing, or if somebody isn't performing decisions have to be made. And the amount of times I've heard people say I wish I was a fly on the wall in your meetings with Ken Hughes and Jeff Gordon and Martin and St. Louis. But you know, they're not always easy discussions and tough decisions have to be made. In fact they made one yesterday. They sent one of our good defenseman good young defenseman down to Laval and that's a tough decision to make, but it's thought through and it's with an eye on developing the player to be more ready to play in the NHL. And then there's times when you have to let people go, that's not glamorous, either. So that that part of it then the business, it's like anyone else managing a business you, you want to maximize your exposure, and you want to perform to the best of your ability, whether it's game presentation, concerts, television rights, whatever it is, you want to oversee those and manage those, basically, the way I look at us to maximize the revenues so that we can pay our players and have as many alternatives to having a winning team on the ice. 

Kristine Jones  15:44  
And I guess with the added, I mean, most businesses aren't in the spotlight of the media, the way that owning a sports franchise is. So I'm sure having to manage what comes out in the media, especially in the market here is is can't always be easy.

Geoff Molson  15:58  
No, the media is tough. My approach to the media is you can't get too excited when things are going well, you can't get to down when things are going badly. And, you know, we lost last night and you know, they're not as gentle the media has the day after I put it into a category of passion. So like these, these journalists, they love our team. They essentially work for our team, because they're covering our team on a daily basis and they get angry to just like fans. And so when they write those things, it doesn't mean they don't love our team, it means that they've been disrupted or they're not, they're not happy with what's going on. And that's fair, it's fine. They can do that, when it gets a little trickier is when a journalist attacks players or, or people in the organization personally and that's not necessary. We're all in it together. And there's no reason to attack people personally, in journalism.

Kristine Jones  16:50  
Do you consider yourself a fan? I mean, obviously, you are passionate about the sport. So are there any unique challenges managing the dual role as your as being a sports enthusiast and a business person behind the organization?

Geoff Molson  17:05  
Yeah, I mean, obviously, I am a fan and I was a fan my for my whole life. I still am a fan. And I consider myself when I when I go to games, even though I'm working, I'm still a fan.

Kristine Jones  17:17  
You have like a Habs t shirt underneath your suit.

Geoff Molson  17:20  
A little tattoo, no, I don't have a tattoo. But it's really important to take the fan away from business decisions and hockey decisions. And so that's something I have extreme discipline with, regardless of how happy I am with with performance of the team. At the end of the day, I've hired professionals to oversee various parts of the business or the team. And that's what they do for a living. And I have to trust them to do their job properly and I'm very supportive of the group that oversees the team and the group that oversees the business. And so I've been doing this for 15 years now, it's become pretty easy for me to take the fan out of me and focus on the business. But it is still fun to be a fan. And I consider myself a fan.

Kristine Jones  18:10  
And I guess just sort of as we come to a close in the conversation, I wanted to talk a bit about sort of some social and political issues that sort of, I guess, have become increasingly intertwined with sports. So as an owner, do you feel like you have to navigate the responsibility of representing the team in some of these sort of social political conversations? And how and does that impact your overall business strategy and maybe fan base?

Geoff Molson  18:42  
I do think that given the importance of the team, culturally, and to the population that we represent, it is important for us to address social issues, political, not so much, but social. And we do we're very strong supporters of diversity, for example. And diversity can mean a lot of things and so our organization believes in diversity. And we won't necessarily go deep into one form of diversity. Because to us, it's all encompassing, and there's fans of all different types that love our team. And so that's a big priority for us. And then through the NHL, there's a campaign for cancer. There's a campaign for LGBTQ, there's a campaign for Black History Month, and we support those as well. And so it's important for our fans to know that we that we are involved in the community, and we care about social issues. 

Kristine Jones  19:36  
Right. Well, I mean, just even I think was it yesterday that was about mental health. So yeah, absolutely. And can you choose which causes you'd like to support? Or do they come from the league as a whole?

Geoff Molson  19:49  
It's both. We try to be consistent as a league. And I think the other leagues do that as well. And so the league has initiatives that they invest heavily in and they were requests that we embark and we do that with pleasure because they're all good causes and they're all good social issues, and they're all encompassing. So, and then there's times when we do things specifically within our community, like a blood drive or building an outdoor hockey rink in an underprivileged community. We just built our 14th, one in St. Jerome. And these things are awesome. The refrigerated rinks with a Zamboni and a hat to warm up and put your skates on. We give them 100 pairs of skates, 100, hockey sticks, gloves, helmets, so these kids that probably never would have dreamt about actually skating because it's an expensive sport. Well, they can do it now. And so it's been really good for the 14 communities that we've put those rings in. 

Kristine Jones  20:46  
You know, it's fun just to get a little bit, you know, into the details of this sort of day to day stuff and the other things other than just what people might see on television when they watch a game so I don't know if you have anything else you'd like to add or let our listeners know about your world. But I'm done with my questions.

Geoff Molson  21:05  
I'm good. If you have everything you need. I'm happy. 

Kristine Jones  21:08  
Okay, good. Well, thank you so much.

Geoff Molson  21:10  
Thank you. It was a pleasure.

Matt Cundill  21:11  
Thanks for listening to we are LCC. For more go to lcc.ca/podcast and remember to hit subscribe or follow on your podcast app so you never miss an episode.