The casual sports fan might not recognize Keith Pelley. But they certainly appreciate his work. Before becoming president of Rogers Media in September 2010—a job that involves managing Rogers’ publishing and broadcasting divisions, along with the Toronto Blue Jays—Pelley led the media consortium that broadcast every moment of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics to every corner of the country.
Long before tackling these heady tasks, Keith Pelley the running back laced up his cleats in the Etobicoke Minor Football League.
His love of sports continued at Martingrove Collegiate, where the onetime athlete of the year played hockey, football and soccer.
“Since I was a little kid, I was fascinated by all facets of sports, and followed it religiously,” said Pelley, who can remember thumbing through the TV Guide to find the Argonauts’ away games. Home games were blacked out then, which no doubt caused the future TV producer some consternation. Though he loved to be on the field, broadcasting also intrigued him. In Grade 10, Pelley did play-by-play for high school games on the Maclean-Hunter community channel alongside future TSN talent Gino Reda. At first, Pelley wanted to be an actor. He studied speech and drama at Trinity College in London, England, and competed in drama festivals across the country. But the busy athlete had trouble finding time for rehearsals. Being a broadcaster was the next best thing.
During the second year of a Radio and Television Arts degree at Ryerson, Pelley hosted a minor hockey report on Channel 47, which is now under his purview at Rogers as OMNI. “I realized very quickly that I wasn’t going to be a very good on-air personality, and got behind the camera,” Pelley said. He also worked at Citytv, another current Rogers station, for Peter Gross, now a sports reporter at Rogers-owned 680 News. That summer, Scott Moore hired the promising student as an editorial assistant with TSN’s SportsCentre. Though he had already committed to a day job downtown, Pelley seized the chance to break into the business. “It’s obviously a very competitive industry, and I didn’t want to lose the opportunity,” he explained. The sleep-deprived student put in a full day at Yonge and Bloor and then worked the 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. shift at TSN.
“I didn’t have much of a summer,” he quipped.
After graduation, the quick learner became assignment editor at TSN, producing CFL football, curling, tennis and baseball, and beginning to amass the extensive knowledge and experience that today make Pelley a respected industry veteran. Pelley ultimately hired Moore as Rogers president of broadcasting.
A “terrific opportunity” to produce NHL hockey and NFL football for FOX took Pelley to the United States for a few years, before he returned to TSN, becoming president in 2000. The results-driven leader created Friday Night Football to showcase the CFL, and brushed off his skeptics to debut sports talk show Off The Record, which became a network staple.
Only in his mid-30s and already in his dream job, Pelley thought his career had peaked. But during a breakfast meeting to negotiate the CFL’s broadcast deal, local businessmen David Cynamon and Howard Sokolowski, the Toronto Argonauts’ enthusiastic new owners, floated the idea of Pelley joining them as team president and CEO. At first, the lifelong football fan laughed off the idea. But the more he considered it, “I thought, wow, to actually run a team would be really cool,” Pelley said. His wife Joan thought he was “absolutely crazy.” “Most people did, but those four years, they were magical. Just fantastic,” he said.
The childhood running back joined the Argos in 2004, and the team responded by winning its first championship in seven years. Riding in the victory parade down Yonge Street was “surreal,” Pelley said. The new president helped triple attendance, reviving fan interest on the way to hosting a raucous Grey Cup game in 2007.
“Then I thought, wow, this is the dream job. I’ll never leave this one,” he said. “But then the opportunity to run all facets of the Olympics for your own country (came up), and I said, how do I turn that down?” In 2007, Pelley was lured back to the media world to lead an unprecedented broadcast coalition preparing to cover the 2010 Vancouver Olympics like no Games had ever been covered before.
Pelley energetically embraced the challenge, drawing on and quickly adding to his expertise in production, marketing, and promotions to guide a consortium encompassing 11 networks in 26 languages. He designed and produced nearly 5,000 hours of coverage over multiple platforms and introduced Canadians to a new generation of sporting heroes.
“That gig was unbelievable,” Pelley said. “Four hundred thousand Canadians were going to experience the Games in Vancouver. The other 33 million were going to experience it through one of our platforms. And to have the opportunity to showcase the culture, the people, the fabric of our country was a responsibility and a challenge, and it was something I’ll never forget.”
The Olympics went beyond the events themselves and captured the imagination of the country. “The Games outside your own country are sport. When the Olympics are in your own country, they shape your culture. It became a rallying point, a chance to galvanize a nation, and we were behind that. The power that we had to influence and to shape the way these Games were showcasing our country was a real honour,” he reflected. “We created memories that are indelibly etched in Canadians’ minds in perpetuity. It’s a great feeling.”
He was set to reprise his role at the 2012 London Olympics, but several months after Vancouver Pelley began a new chapter in his serendipitous career by becoming president of one of Canada’s largest media empires. With 7,000 employees and $1.7 billion in assets including 53 radio stations, 70 magazines, several television networks and a major league baseball team, Pelley thinks he’ll have his hands full for years to come. “I can guarantee you, this job I’m never leaving,” he laughed.
The fiercely competitive executive now has his sights set on making Sportsnet Canada’s number one media brand. He speaks excitedly about sports as a “rallying point,” whether fans are watching on their televisions or their smartphones. “You cheer together, you celebrate together. You go through emotions. It’s pretty powerful,” Pelley said.
The 2006 Etobicoke Business Person of the Year commits his scarce free time to charities such as Special Olympics Canada, the Rick Hansen Foundation, the Holland Bloorview Foundation—a children’s rehabilitation hospital in Toronto—and Baycrest. When he can, he volunteers at his church, Kingsway-Lambton United, and was a founding board member of The Argos Foundation—Stop The Violence. The community-minded executive hopes to work for a not-for-profit after retirement, and plans to get his children—Jason, 8, and Hope, 5—into philanthropy early on.
“I think everyone should be involved in charitable work and be engaged in our community in some way. It’s a way that we should give back, if you have time— and even if you don’t, you need to make time. You get so much out of it,” he said.
Now that he is the father of an 8-year-old hockey player, Pelley realizes the great effort his own father, Walter, made to hustle back from his Bay Street job in time for young Keith’s games. “The influence of my father’s commitment to my hockey and how important that was resonates now that I have a child playing in the GTHL,” he said.
Pelley feels lucky to work in such a fascinating industry.
“I’ve been fortunate to be in the right place at the right time. I’ve had a number of wonderful opportunities and great jobs, and worked with some special people,” he said.
“As I tell people all the time, all the young kids: find something you like to do, and if you have passion for it, you can be successful.”