Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment, the group that owns the Toronto Maple Leafs, is making all kinds of headlines. After the announcement that CEO Richard Peddie will retire at the end of 2011, there’s now talk that the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan may be willing to sell their ownership in the company. The Teachers own two-thirds of MLSE and the money they could make selling its stake can seriously help them out. They paid $180-million in 1994 to get their share of what became MLSE, and reports are coming out that there may now be interest in selling that ownership for as much as $1.3 billion.

The Teachers say they have no plans to sell their shares in MLSE, but that doesn’t mean they won’t. This isn’t too different from any story where an owner denies that he’s selling his team for $150 million. The truth may be that the sale is actually $140 million, so technically he’s not lying. The Teachers are just saying they have no plans to sell. Often when a story breaks, where there’s smoke, there’s fire, and something smells like it’s burning here.

Sure, the Leafs are among the most profitable franchises in the league, but we’re still talking about an NHL team here. The Toronto Raptors and Toronto FC aren’t exactly blossoming in their respective leagues either. The Toronto Marlies are an AHL team, so there’s nothing worthwhile there. The company also owns the Air Canada Centre, so that helps in saving some operating costs for the owners of the Leafs and Raptors. But is MLSE worth over a billion dollars?

The only real group anybody thinks could even afford to buy MLSE is Rogers Communications, the company that already owns the Blue Jays and Rogers Centre in Toronto. However, they don’t believe MLSE is worth the price tag that’s been put on it. They’re right. Unless another major media company, which seems to be the way ownership groups are trending lately, or some group of individuals come together, chances are Rogers will become majority owners of MLSE, but that deal may be years in the making.