New documentary: Maple Leafs owner Harold Ballard's greed and ego led the team to chaos and ruin
Toronto’s showman promoter knew how to make money, but former players say he refused to spend it on the team
Offside: The Harold Ballard Story airs Sunday January 22 at 8pm on CBC and CBC Gem.
Harold Ballard was the principal owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs for nearly two decades of headline-grabbing mayhem. From the day he assumed ownership in 1972 until his death in 1990, he was a magnet for publicity.
In actor and director Jason Priestley's new documentary Offside: The Harold Ballard Story, players, sports journalists and former employees describe Ballard as a man who liked nothing more than a good time, a full cash register and the attention of anyone who'd listen.
Not-so-humble beginnings
The team now known as the Toronto Maple Leafs was founded in 1917. Over the next 100-plus years, they'd see the highest highs and the lowest lows the ice had to offer.
Born in 1903, Harold Ballard was the son of a successful businessman. As a rich man's son, he pursued a life of excitement. "During the Great Depression, he had a playboy lifestyle," journalist Mary Ormsby says in the documentary. "He never had a worry in his life."
Passionate about sports, Ballard raced miniature speedboats and was even the flag-bearer for Canada at the Winter Games in St. Moritz in 1928. He went on to coach a minor league hockey team, and in 1940, became president of the Toronto Marlboros, where he developed a friendship with Stafford Smythe, the son of Maple Leafs owner Conn Smythe.
In 1957, an aging Conn Smythe turned over control of the Maple Leafs to a seven-person committee headed by Stafford. Soon, Ballard was brought on board to fill a vacancy and the stage was set for his ultimate takeover.
Opportunity knocks
By 1961, the management of the Leafs was in the hands of Ballard, Stafford Smythe and newspaper publisher John Bassett . The team went on to win three consecutive Stanley Cups between 1962 and 1964, and won again in 1967.
Ballard's main role was to keep their home arena, Maple Leaf Gardens, full. Over the years, Ballard gained more control of the daily operations of the Gardens and dreamed up clever ways to increase profits.
Rock concerts, religious events and the famous Mohammed Ali vs. George Chuvalo bout: Ballard booked them all. By 1969, profits had tripled to just over one million dollars.
"If there was money to be made, he didn't care who played Maple Leaf Gardens," says Bob Stellick, who managed publicity for the Leafs in the late '80s.
That same year, an RCMP investigation accused Ballard and Stafford Smythe of income tax evasion and illegally taking money from Maple Leaf Gardens to pay for personal expenses. They were removed from their management posts, though they remained on the board — and the largest shareholders.
In 1971, Stafford and Ballard managed to gain the other shareholders' support, retook control of the board, and reinstalled themselves as president and executive vice president. They eventually bought Bassett's shares and gained complete ownership of the Maple Leafs.
Shortly after, Stafford died unexpectedly due to complications from a bleeding ulcer. At 68 years old, Ballard saw an opportunity: he went into debt to buy Stafford's shares and gained a 71 per cent stake in the Gardens and the Leafs. He then installed himself as president and chairman of Maple Leaf Gardens.
A talent for making money but a refusal to spend it
Less than a year after becoming the principal owner of the Maple Leafs, Ballard was sent to Millhaven Institution, where he served one year of a three-year sentence for 47 white collar crimes. In his absence, his son managed the team. But upon his release, Ballard was back to his usual tricks.
At the same time, a rival hockey league — the World Hockey Association — was attracting a lot of attention and luring players from the NHL.
The WHA paid good money and Ballard's hardline refusal to pay resulted in the departure of several players. It was clear when legendary Leaf Dave Keon left the team for the WHA's Minnesota Fighting Saints in 1975 that the club was in ruins.
Even after an incredible playoff run in 1977, Ballard refused to pay the players what the WHA was offering. "That team could have gone the distance," says sportscaster Suneel Joshi in the documentary. "And then the next year, of course, everything was broken up."
The curse of Harold Ballard
Player after player left the Leafs or were traded, and by the early '80s, Ballard's mismanagement had the team in shambles.
The new drafts, who formed the bulk of the team, were young and inexperienced. Teenagers faced off against NHL legends.
"It was pretty crazy," says former Leaf Rick Vaive in the documentary. "[Ballard] wouldn't pay for a good general manager that could make good decisions. So those players … were forced into action at 18 years old when most of them weren't physically or mentally ready to play in the National Hockey League."
Ballard's persona and comments to the media were even more outlandish. "If Harold Ballard existed in 2022, he would have been cancelled very quickly," says Sportsnet journalist Donnovan Bennett in the film. "Pick what equity-deserving group he decided to offend…. He decided to offend them all at different points and was not apologetic about it."
"He was abusive to his players. He was abusive to his general managers and his coaches," says Ormsby. "And he had this platform that really went unchallenged." In an infamous radio interview with the CBC's Barbara Frum, Ballard's misogyny was on full display.
While Ballard's outward persona was callous, he was an active philanthropist who frequently donated to charity. "Harold would donate $25,000, $50,000 at a time … to Special Olympics," says former Leaf Lanny McDonald in the documentary. "On one condition: that no one could ever find out where that money came from."
On April 11th, 1990, Ballard died at the age of 86. He left the majority of his estate to charity. An outrageous character in life, Ballard suddenly became one of Toronto's biggest philanthropists.
Still, the legacy of the "Ballard curse" lives on for many Leafs fans, who believe that the decisions he made as owner continue to haunt the franchise today.
