Time ran out for Bill Manning, who oversaw Toronto FC and Argonaut championships in his role as president of the MLS and CFL teams.
Manning also ran out of results and people to fire in a ‘What have you done for me lately?” business, with Toronto FC an anchor around his neck in recent seasons.
The Major League Soccer side has posted a 26-69-30 league record since its last post-season appearance in 2020, when it finished second overall in the league but failed to make it past the first round of the playoffs.
Having changed coaches and GMs, Manning found himself in the firing line.
Toronto FC (7-13-3) is sliding down the MLS Eastern Conference standings this season having lost six straight in league play and is winless in nine (0-7-2). News of Manning’s departure comes the morning after a 2-1 loss to CPL champion Forge FC in the first leg of their Canadian Championship semifinal.
Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment says Manning’s exit was by mutual decision.
“On behalf of MLSE’s board of directors and the entire organization, we want to thank Bill for his many contributions in his nearly nine years with the company,” MLSE president and CEO Keith Pelley said in a statement. “Bill will always be an important part of the championship history for both clubs, but as we evaluate the path ahead, and measure against our ambition to consistently deliver contending teams, it was determined that a new direction was required.
“Bill is a very accomplished team executive, and a good man, and we wish him and his family the very best in the future.”
As part of the transition, MLSE says TFC general manager Jason Hernandez and Argonauts GM Michael Clemons will report directly to Pelley.
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Manning was named TFC president in October 2015 and later added the title of Argos president when the Canadian Football League franchise was acquired by MLSE in January 2018.
TFC won the treble — the MLS Cup, Canadian Championship and Supporters Shield — in 2017 and made it to the MLS Cup final in 2019. But it never really recovered from having to shift operations south of the border during the pandemic.
Since the departure of Greg Vanney in December 2020, the club tried Chris Armas, Javier Perez and Bob Bradley as coach before settling on former Canada coach John Herdman last August.
Herdman is struggling to rebuild the team, which lacks depth and has spent like a drunken sailor.
Ali Curtis served as GM and Bradley as sporting director before Hernandez was elevated to GM in June 2023
The Toronto Argonauts, 2-2-0 this season, won the Grey Cup in 2022 on Manning’s watch, edging the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 24-23.
Manning was a two-time winner of the MLS Executive of the Year award with Real Salt Lake before joining TFC. His hiring meant there was a president in charge in each of MLSE’s prized assets: Brendan Shanahan with the Maple Leafs, Masai Ujiri with the Raptors and Manning with TFC.
TFC had been without a president since firing Kevin Payne, who doubled as GM, in September 2013.
At the time of his hiring, MLSE chair Larry Tanenbaum called Manning an “important and impressive executive.”
“Our ambition is to bring MLS championships to our fans in Toronto and adding a leader of Bill’s calibre is another important part of that process and vision,” Tanenbaum added.
TFC has dug deep into MLSE pockets with Italian stars Lorenzo Insigne and Federico Bernardeschi the second and sixth-highest-paid MLS players this season at US$15.4 million and US$6.295 million, respectively.
Toronto’s league record since the Italians made their debut in July 2022 is an underwhelming 15-39-16.
At the time of their signing, Manning made headlines when he revealed his player search started with the internet.
“I actually went to the Transfermarkt website and I looked up the Italian national team on what players were coming out of contract,” Manning told reporters. “And Lorenzo was one of the few players that was coming out of contract. I started writing down players that I thought were world-class, that I thought would have commercial value in this market.”
Venezuelan international Yeferson Soteldo was a bust as an earlier designated player signing.
Manning won the MLS’s top executive award in 2012 and 2014 in eight years at Real Salt Lake, winning the 2009 MLS Cup and finishing runner-up in 2013.
A native of Massapequa, N.Y., Manning began his career in sports management with the Continental Indoor Soccer League during its inaugural season in 1993. He subsequently moved on to the United Soccer League with the Long Island Rough Riders and then the Minnesota Thunder where he was named USL Executive of the Year in 1999.
He started in MLS in 2000 as president and GM of the Tampa Bay Mutiny.
After Tampa folded, Manning worked for the NBA Houston Rockets (director of corporate partnerships) and then the NFL Philadelphia Eagles (vice-president of sales and services) before Real Salt Lake brought him back to MLS in 2008.
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