Few years ago, The Press published a report on a student radio project in a fourth-grade class in Montreal. The president and general manager of RNC Media, Mario Cecchini, contacted our journalist the same day. “I would like to explore with them how we can help them. Two months later, two hosts from 91.9 Sports visited the school to give interviews to the children.
This anecdote sums up Cecchini’s strengths well.
Curious, efficient, involved, he is very well connected in the business community. All journalists envy his contact book. This is why I was surprised, shortly before Christmas, when the Montreal Alouettes chose not to renew his mandate.
Cecchini will have been president of the club for only three years – all marked by the pandemic. It’s short. Especially since the owners and him had agreed, in 2020, on a five-year recovery plan. I asked him if he felt like he had a chance. His answer couldn’t be more candid.
“I was taken out of the game in the second quarter – when we were up 10-7. I don’t quite understand why. I’ll be the first to acknowledge that there was still a long way to go, but 2022 was our first real year of operations. [depuis la COVID-19]. We all agreed that our plan would last several years. But this plan, it is not done by shouting scissors. »
If someone has a magic wand, so much the better. Me, I don’t have one.
Mario Cecchini
Cecchini says Alouettes minority owner Gary Stern was in more of a hurry than he was. Nothing abnormal. But COVID-19 slowed the execution of the plan.
The first year of his mandate, in 2020, was lost. “The season has been cancelled. It was unheard of in the history of the Canadian League. We had no income for 18 months. All of our employees had to go home. There have been temporary layoffs. It was quite a learning curve. »
The second year was also complicated. Again, due to uncontrollable factors. “We officially learned on June 14 that we were starting on July 2. And that we resumed our activities with restrictions and protocols [de la santé publique] that we had never known. We qualified for the playoffs. »
And 2022? “We forget it, but until March 15, everyone was still at home. It was rock’n’roll. At the beginning of April, we moved all our employees to the Olympic Stadium. We were supposed to build a practice field, but the COVID-19 postponed this project. We finally got a playoff victory here in Montreal, which hadn’t happened since 2014.”
Happy to regain some normalcy, Cecchini looked to the future with optimism.
“Selling tickets in Quebec is a big challenge right now. Consumer behaviors have changed significantly [pendant la pandémie]. Buyers are less committed to the long term. Despite this, we still managed to increase our number of subscriptions. »
We are one of only two teams to increase our paid ticket sales last season. We had green indicators.
Mario Cecchini
1er December, seeing the end of his contract approaching, Cecchini contacted the lawyers for the estate of Sidney Spiegel, the majority owner who died during the pandemic. “I wrote to them that I wanted to continue my mandate. I had a few questions, especially about how we operate. We arrived in the crunch [de l’entre-saison]. We had to plan our budget. Our meetings were postponed day by day. »
It was then that Cecchini began to suspect that something was afoot. “On December 19, one of the lawyers informed me that he was unable to renew my contract. »
That’s all ?
Yes that’s all.
For a month, Cecchini has been trying to understand the decision.
Is it because of his relationship with Stern, who owns 25% of the club’s shares?
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Gary Stern
“My relationship with him was okay. We didn’t always have the same vision. It’s normal in the business world. When he decided to resign [de son poste d’administrateur] last August, I felt that he had a certain impatience. He might have wanted the five-year plan to be done in a year. But that’s not how it works. I also had a good relationship with one of the estate attorneys. »
A few days after leaving the Alouettes, Cecchini came across an interview with Stern on TSN. His former boss said the decision taken in December was by mutual agreement. This is false, says Cecchini. “My departure was not a mutual decision. However, I give him the benefit of the doubt. Our last conversation was in November. Perhaps he had been misinformed. »
In the same interview, Stern dropped a little bombshell. The possibility of the current owners selling up to 90% of the team’s shares, ideally to local shareholders. Ever since he heard that, Cecchini wonders if that’s not what precipitated his departure.
“I’m speculating,” he warns me. But maybe their vision is not to have a president under contract, so that the next owner can choose the next president. It is said. It is explained. They could have told me that. But maybe that’s not the case either.
“Our management team was heading in the right direction,” he continues. I would have liked to continue the plan. When I went to Corus in 2006, or to RNC Media later, it was to turn the company around. The sit-ups are kind of my trademark. These are great challenges. And the Alouettes, it was a challenge like that. We would have gotten there nicely. »
Cecchini had just gained momentum. He wanted to carry the ball to the pay zone. Unfortunately, that won’t happen.
Not because he dropped the ball.
Because his bosses took it away from him.