In 2002, when Ron MacLean’s contract with the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. was about to expire, his agent negotiated a new deal with his boss, Nancy Lee, the executive director of CBC Sports.
It would have given MacLean a $25,000 annual raise.
When that deal was kicked up the food chain at the CBC, however, it was rejected by a short-sighted senior manager, who wanted to claw back $80,000 that Lee had agreed to.
He had no real understanding of how important Hockey Night in Canada is to the nation and insulted MacLean, saying “we really don’t need Ron because he has 18 producers telling him what to say.”
MacLean said he would walk away rather than settle for less than what had been previously agreed to.
That led to a national uproar, with Canadians overwhelmingly and vociferously supporting MacLean. The CBC was flooded with thousands of calls and e-mails supporting him, and protesters were marching outside CBC headquarters in Toronto.
The hammer really started to come down on the network when protestors began picketing a Labatt brewery in the Maritimes. Labatt, the chief sponsor of Hockey Night in Canada, feared national protests, sales boycotts and massive revenue loss if MacLean was pushed out.
Suddenly, MacLean had the upper hand.
Hockey Night in Canada is the only sports broadcast on Earth where television ratings rise during the intermission.
That’s overwhelmingly because of MacLean’s relationship with Don Cherry on Coach’s Corner.
MacLean’s agent Don Meehan assessed his value to the CBC at $900,000 a year, 90 per cent more than he was then earning. At that point, MacLean could have extracted a massive raise from the CBC.
Instead, he willingly settled for what he had negotiated in the first place: a $25,000 annual raise.
That tale, related in MacLean’s book Cornered, tells us a lot about the man.
He’s a lot more than the glib punster we see on Coach’s Corner. MacLean is a deep, thoughtful and principled man.
It may be a conceit, but many of us who have lived in Red Deer for a long time like to think that growing up here contributed to the development of his stellar character. His affection for the city and the region are unquestioned and undiminished.
He moves today in rarefied circles, surrounded by people of enormous wealth and egos to match.
But MacLean hasn’t strayed from the values he learned, and the friends he made here.
His new book, Cornered, is filled with references to friends and mentors.
He is no less stinting in describing the influences of personal local heroes than his rich and famous friends and acquaintances. They include lifelong pals like Todd Swanson, Marty Vellner; influential teachers like Eileen Atkinson and Ed Shields; mentors like his high school football coach Don Sinclair and, above all, his wife Cari.
The book details his life as a military brat and his career in broadcasting (which started in high school with Ron flipping a switch for five seconds every 60 minutes for $3 an hour at CKRD).
It outlines the incredibly lucky breaks that put him at the top of Canada’s television heap at a very early age.
That’s not to say MacLean didn’t earn everything he got. From the get-go, he was an incredibly hard worker, and remains one today.
This book is testament to that fact.
The heart of it is MacLean’s relationship with Don Cherry. To say it’s complex would be an understatement. “I’m a redneck from the East and he’s a tree hugger from the West,” Cherry says.
They disagree on a lot of things, from politics to hockey, but the book details a deep and abiding affection and mutual respect.
No matter how hard they go at each other during Coach’s Corner, they almost always manage to share a few beers together after the game to get back on keel.
MacLean also writes at length about his years as a hockey referee, a passion that started in high school after it became clear that he would never be an elite-level hockey player. He refereed minor hockey as well as the low-level pros for years, and once officiated an NHL exhibition game.
MacLean makes it clear that being a successful referee is not about knowing the rulebook inside out and applying its rules by rote. Rather success comes from managing the game and the most important skill is communicating effectively.
That was MacLean’s best attribute as a referee.
It’s also his strength as a broadcaster and a writer.
He loves hockey with a passion that’s clear on every page. But he is also critical of the direction it is moving in the NHL.
MacLean feels that too many changes were made at once, coming out of the 2005 lockout, with unforeseen consequences.
Speed has been emphasized at the expense of other skills, making players increasingly vulnerable to devastating injuries.
He is also critical of extended television timeouts, which allow the star players more minutes of ice-time per game while probably shortening their careers. It also leaves fourth-line players on the bench too long, making them dangerously reckless to assert themselves in the short time they are on the ice.
MacLean has little good to say about the NHL contract signed after the lockout, where stupid or reckless overspending by team owners now comes out of the pockets of the players.
MacLean’s formal education ended in Grade 12 at Camille J. Lerouge Collegiate but his learning did not.
The book shows MacLean to be smart, insightful and well-read. It was co-written by Kirstie McLellan Day, who has written five other books, including Playing With Fire, the No. 1 bestselling biography of Theo Fleury.
It’s an entertaining, edifying read, and I recommend it highly.
MacLean is now adding to his million-plus career air miles with a book tour that will bring him to Red Deer next week.
He will sign books at the local Chapters store at noon on Thursday.
Joe McLaughlin is the retired former managing editor of the Red Deer Advocate.