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Joe Bowen Takes Parting Shot At Rogers As He Retires After 4 Decades
The veteran Leaf play-by-play man, who is ending his 40-year plus career at the end of this season - which sadly for him will come without a final playoff appearance - decries Rogers' practice of not sending crews to away games, forcing their announcers to call every face-off from a monitor.
“For the last 5 years we’ve had to (broadcast) road games off TV monitors. That’s not what I signed up for.”
He believes an owner that earns so much money is cheapening out on a franchise that brought them nothing but success and profit, regardless of performance. And it may be one reason he decided to leave when he did.
Broadcasting legend Joe Bowen calls out Leafs' cheapness for his retirement
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Re: Joe Bowen Takes Parting Shot At Rogers As He Retires After 4 Decades
"Cancel the sheet cake saying 'Happy Retirement, Joe!'. Send someone down to No Frills to get cupcakes instead. Have them look on the 'reduced' rack first."
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Re: Joe Bowen Takes Parting Shot At Rogers As He Retires After 4 Decades
RadioActive wrote:
The veteran Leaf play-by-play man, who is ending his 40-year plus career at the end of this season - which sadly for him will come without a final playoff appearance - decries Rogers' practice of not sending crews to away games, forcing their announcers to call every face-off from a monitor.
“For the last 5 years we’ve had to (broadcast) road games off TV monitors. That’s not what I signed up for.”
He believes an owner that earns so much money is cheapening out on a franchise that brought them nothing but success and profit, regardless of performance. And it may be one reason he decided to leave when he did.
Broadcasting legend Joe Bowen calls out Leafs' cheapness for his retirement
And he isn’t wrong. Rogers/MLSE make a disgusting amount of money off the non-winning Leafs and yet they pull a cheap ass move like this that started a few years ago. Like most people, you’d understand if they were not making money, but they are, even when they put a lacklustre team on the ice, and unfortunately I think it will just continue to be that way as the fans just keep shelling out regardless.
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Re: Joe Bowen Takes Parting Shot At Rogers As He Retires After 4 Decades
I agree with Binson Echorec, never a good move to slam the company that gave you good employment for many years. Like Binson said, if doing the play by play off the screen was so terrible, he should have packed it in long before now. Besides isn't this becoming common for other broadcasters as well?
Rogers is looking at the big picture for the company beyond MLSE and Rogers Media. Looking at Rogers Communications, they are carrying a lot of debt, about $44 billion worth of debt..Rogers Communications Inc. (RCI) Balance Sheet - Yahoo Finance
Last edited by paterson1 (April 7, 2026 10:24 am)