$RCI - Rogers Communications - The true sleeping beauty of anti-AI trade

My RCI sports brain dump

So I think Rogers Communications RCI is secretly one of the craziest sports stocks on the planet and the market is treating it like a boring phone company. [sportico](https://www.sportico.com/business/finance/2026/rogers-buys-mlse-toronto-maple-leafs-raptors-1234938017/)

They own the Toronto Raptors the Toronto Maple Leafs the Toronto Blue Jays Toronto football club plus arenas and a big sports network and the math on what that is worth compared to the share price is actually wild. [iphoneincanada](https://www.iphoneincanada.ca/2026/04/24/rogers-thinks-its-combined-sports-empire-is-worth-25-billion/)

What Rogers actually owns

Rogers has been buying out everyone around Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment which is the holding company that owns the Leafs the Raptors and Toronto football club. [bloomberg](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-03-17/td-says-rogers-may-sell-stake-in-18b-sports-giant-to-cut-debt)

They already bought the Bell stake and now they are paying about 4 point 35 billion Canadian for the last 25 percent from Larry Tanenbaum which implies MLSE alone is worth about 17 point 4 billion Canadian. [bloomberg](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-07-06/rogers-buys-tanenbaum-s-25-maple-leaf-sports-stake-for-3-1-billion)

On top of MLSE they already own the Toronto Blue Jays and the Rogers Centre and the Sportsnet brand which is the main sports channel and streaming service in Canada. [sports.yahoo](https://sports.yahoo.com/article/rogers-execs-next-10b-sports-140000761.html)

So in one stack you have

1. Raptors

2. Maple Leafs

3. Toronto football club

4. Blue Jays

5. Scotiabank Arena

6. Rogers Centre

7. Sportsnet and Sportsnet plus

All under Rogers. [linkedin](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/rogers-18b-canadian-sports-empire-meta-overtakes-google-6xgpc)

How much the teams are worth

Sportico says right now the Raptors are worth about 5 point 2 billion dollars the Leafs about 4 point 25 billion the Blue Jays about 2 point 9 billion and Toronto football club about 730 million. [sportico](https://www.sportico.com/valuations/teams/2026/mlb-team-values-2026-yankees-dodgers-1234887564/)

Just those four teams together are around 13 point 1 billion dollars before you even add the arenas and television rights. [linkedin](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/365247-sports\_sports-sportsbiz-linkedinsports-activity-7454518834524213248-iJq9)

Rogers itself says when you add in the venues Sportsnet and concerts their combined sports and media group is worth more than 25 billion Canadian and they claim that is a conservative number using public data from Forbes and Sportico. [broadcastdialogue](https://broadcastdialogue.com/rogers-slashes-spending-bets-on-sports/)

TD Securities and other writeups basically agree and call it a 25 billion Canadian sports empire and say Rogers could sell almost one third of it to cut debt. [connectcre](https://www.connectcre.ca/stories/rogers-could-sell-one-third-of-sports-empire/)

What the market is doing

One report on the Kilmer deal says the 17 point 4 billion Canadian MLSE valuation alone is about 71 percent of Rogers whole equity market cap which is around 24 point 5 billion Canadian. [finance.yahoo](https://finance.yahoo.com/media-advertising/articles/rogers-buy-remaining-25-mlse-135945030.html)

So the market is valuing the entire company at roughly the same number as just MLSE plus is barely giving any extra credit for the Blue Jays Sportsnet and everything else. [linkedin](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/365247-sports\_sports-sportsbiz-linkedinsports-activity-7454518834524213248-iJq9)

A newsletter that broke down the sports empire says management and analysts think the combined sports and media assets are worth around 25 billion Canadian but public investors are only pricing in somewhere between zero and five billion Canadian for that inside the stock. [365247newsletter.substack](https://365247newsletter.substack.com/p/inside-rogers-18-billion-toronto)

Rogers own chief financial officer literally said on an earnings call that they get zero credit for the sports stuff in the share price right now. [linkedin](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/365247-sports\_sports-sportsbiz-linkedinsports-activity-7454518834524213248-iJq9)

So in simple terms

1. Teams and sports media probably worth around 25 billion Canadian on private market numbers. [sportico](https://www.sportico.com/business/finance/2026/rogers-buys-mlse-toronto-maple-leafs-raptors-1234938017/)

2. Whole company equity value only around mid 20s billion Canadian. [finance.yahoo](https://finance.yahoo.com/media-advertising/articles/rogers-buy-remaining-25-mlse-135945030.html)

3. Telecom business internet wireless and all the boring cash flow stuff basically priced like it is worth almost nothing once you strip out what the teams should be worth. [finance.yahoo](https://finance.yahoo.com/media-advertising/articles/rogers-buy-remaining-25-mlse-135945030.html)

What they plan to do

Rogers is not just sitting on this. They said on earnings calls they want to roll all the teams the arenas and Sportsnet into one separate sports and entertainment company and then bring in outside investors at that 25 billion Canadian kind of valuation. [iphoneincanada](https://www.iphoneincanada.ca/2026/04/24/rogers-thinks-its-combined-sports-empire-is-worth-25-billion/)

TD and others think they could sell a minority slice and raise around 4 to 9 billion Canadian to pay down debt while keeping control of the sports group. [youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAHtnTg38eM)

If they actually pull that off then there will be a clear market price on the sports arm and everyone will see in real numbers how much value was hiding inside RCI. [linkedin](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/rogers-18b-canadian-sports-empire-meta-overtakes-google-6xgpc)

Extra MSG and sports empire context

Madison Square Garden is the best example of what happens when public markets underprice teams. They split their stuff into separate sports and entertainment companies so people could see what the Knicks and Rangers are really worth compared to the share price. [forbes](https://www.forbes.com/sites/joecornell/2020/04/01/madison-square-garden-to-spin-off-msg-entertainment-on-april-17/)

Now they are looking at another split where the Knicks and Rangers become separate companies to make the value even clearer and early reports put the combined team values around 13 point 5 billion dollars while the market is only valuing MSG Sports at around 9 point 6 billion. That is a gap of almost 4 billion dollars. [fintool](https://fintool.com/news/msg-sports-knicks-rangers-spinoff)

People call it the Dolan discount. The market punishes messy structures super voting shares and family control so you get a big gap between what private buyers would pay for the teams and what the stock trades at until the structure is cleaned up. [sportico](https://www.sportico.com/business/finance/2026/knicks-rangers-msg-sports-split-explainer-1234901440/)

Rogers is basically the same story but bigger and in Canada. Their plan is to put Raptors Leafs Blue Jays Toronto football club Sportsnet and the arenas into one sports and media company then sell minority stakes to private capital at sports world valuations not telecom ones. [linkedin](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/mytelcomba\_rogers-planning-sports-team-stake-sale-at-activity-7453472519929655297-mPyc)

CNBC says the top twenty sports empires worldwide are worth about 269 billion dollars combined and that number is growing fast. [cnbc](https://www.cnbc.com/2026/06/26/cnbcs-most-valuable-sports-empires-2026-heres-how-the-worlds-top-20-stack-up.html)

Rogers wants that sports and media stack to sit in that group alongside names like Kroenke Sports and other giants and is targeting more than 25 billion Canadian for the combined entity. [iphoneincanada](https://www.iphoneincanada.ca/2026/04/24/rogers-thinks-its-combined-sports-empire-is-worth-25-billion/)

Why I think RCI is dumb cheap

From a high school level view

1. They own four giant pro teams plus two arenas plus the main sports television network in the country. [sports.yahoo](https://sports.yahoo.com/article/rogers-execs-next-10b-sports-140000761.html)

2. Independent sports sites say those teams alone are worth more than 13 billion dollars and the whole sports media package is around 25 billion Canadian. [sportico](https://www.sportico.com/business/finance/2026/rogers-buys-mlse-toronto-maple-leafs-raptors-1234938017/)

3. The stock is only priced like the whole company is worth around mid 20s billion Canadian in equity. [finance.yahoo](https://finance.yahoo.com/media-advertising/articles/rogers-buy-remaining-25-mlse-135945030.html)

4. That means telecom internet wireless and all the boring cash flow stuff might be coming for almost free if the sports valuations are even close. [linkedin](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/365247-sports\_sports-sportsbiz-linkedinsports-activity-7454518834524213248-iJq9)

Rogers is a controlled company with a family trust and lots of debt from deals so it is not no risk but the disconnect between the sports numbers and the market cap is huge and they are literally building the same kind of sports empire that other owners are getting paid billions for. [cbc](https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/ted-rogers-family-trust-explained-1.6237088)

How I would own it

If you want exposure to this whole thing you just buy RCI on the New York Stock Exchange or RCI B on the Toronto Stock Exchange which are the non voting common shares that actually trade. [about.rogers](https://about.rogers.com/investor-relations/shareholder-information/)

The voting shares are locked up by the Rogers family anyway so for regular people the non voting shares are the real way to ride it. [blg](https://www.blg.com/en/insights/2021/11/dual-class-share-structure-issues-in-the-spotlight-in-rogers-battle)

So the story is

You get a boring telecom that throws off cash.

Inside it there is a monster sports and entertainment group that might be worth more than the whole company right now. [linkedin](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/mytelcomba\_rogers-planning-sports-team-stake-sale-at-activity-7453472519929655297-mPyc)

Management is trying to force the market to notice by spinning it into its own thing and selling a piece at sports valuations instead of telecom valuations. [linkedin](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/joaomariamartins\_rogers-is-paying-c435bn-for-the-last-activity-7480276714879815680-fu9U)

If that works then RCI could rerate hard as people realize they were basically getting some of the best teams on earth plus arenas and media for a huge discount. [facebook](https://www.facebook.com/cnbc/posts/the-worlds-20-most-valuable-sports-empires-are-worth-a-combined-269-billion-20-m/1408772694457453/)

Not financial advice but this looks like one of those times where the math does not line up and I kind of want to be there when it does.