Back in June, former AEG executive Tim Leiweke angered some Kings fans when he said Los Angeles wasn’t a hockey town.
Now that Leiweke’s in Toronto, as the new president and CEO of MLSE, he’s learning what happens when the NHL team is the big dog in town.
Last week, Leiweke made a number of bold statements during various media interviews, from admitting he already had the parade route planned out for when the Maple Leafs win their first Stanley Cup since 1967 to sharing his plans to rid the ACC hallways of pictures of the team’s more glorious past.
His bravado was not appreciated by everyone. including at least one former Leaf, 94-year-old Wally Stanowski, who thought that Leiweke may have “lost his brain.”
So today, Leiweke offered some clarification.
“I understand our history and I honor our history and I’m proud to be a part of it now,” he told the National Post. “But I also understand that at some point or another, we’ve got to go win another Cup. And I think the way we’re going to do that is build an organization that dreams about that each and every day. That’s all. It’s just that simple.”
As for the parade comment, he’s not backing away from that. He will, however, “think about it a little more quietly, that’s all.”