The Toronto Rock has had three different ownership groups since the team was founded in 1998.
It’s also gone through one name change and three changes in location. The current owner moved the NLL franchise from Toronto to Hamilton.
Timeline Of Ownership Of Toronto Rock
Here is the history of ownership:.
| 1998 | Toronto Raiders | Founded by Chris Fritz |
| 1999 | Toronto Rock | Canadian group led by Bill Watters |
| 2009 | Toronto Rock | Jamie Dawick |
Now, let’s take a detailed look at the owners. We’ll start with the most recent and work backward.
Jamie Dawick, Current Owner Of Toronto Rock
Toronto Rock is owned by Jamie Dawick who purchased the NLL franchise in 2009.
Dawick is a professional poker player who comes from a wealthy Oakville family. He previously worked for his father’s travel company.
Dawick’s great-uncle was the richest man in Canada.
When lacrosse fans want to know who owns a team, they are usually wondering if the owner has deep enough pockets to sustain a sports franchise in the long term.
I’m just not sure about Jamie Dawick. Unlike other owners in the NLL, he hasn’t founded a successful business or worked for years at the top of a major company.
However, members of his wider family are seriously loaded.
Dawick’s business background
It’s difficult to find the source of Dawick’s personal wealth.
Well before he was born, his father founded Adventure House Travel. It’s a successful tour operator and travel management operation.
Jamie didn’t attend university, but he worked in his father’s business for some years.
Before he purchased the Toronto Rock, he owned a sports bar. I’ve also seen references to him being involved in building custom houses.
Whatever these ventures were, they weren’t high profile.
His sporadic career as a professional poker player is easier to follow. He’s been a long-time player at the World Series Poker event in Las Vegas.
Is that how he funded his purchase of a sports franchise?
Hardly. Poker seems to be a hobby for him. Dawick told a newspaper that his career winnings were around $200K.
The puzzle for me is that it’s not just that Jamie Dawick bought the Toronto Rock. As well as the purchase price, this comes with the ongoing operational costs of player wages.
Dawick also spent about $20 million on a new training facility for the team in Oakville (the Toronto Rock Athletic Center).
That can’t be funded by running a sports bar and flipping a few houses.
There is another possible source of funds. Let’s take a look at Dawick’s wider family.
Ancestral media empire
When a great-uncle of Jamie Dawick died in 2006, the gentleman was estimated to be worth CAN$26.8 billion (US$19.6 billion).
That made Kenneth Thomson the richest Canadian (and the ninth richest person in the world).
It was Kenneth Thomson’s father Roy who founded the Thomson media empire. Kenneth grew the business and expanded into television. He also joined a successful venture in the oil industry in Great Britain.
But Ken Thomson also spotted a potential downward trend in the newspaper industry. He sold the London Times and Sunday Times to Rupert Murdoch for a huge sum.
The Thomson corporation retained the Toronto Globe and Mail in their stable. They still own a large number of newspapers.
Bill Watters, Former Co-Owner
Jamie Dawick purchased the Toronto Rock from a group of Canadian businessmen. They in turn had purchased the franchise in 1999.
Before Bill Watters put together a group to buy the franchise, it was called the Toronto Raiders and was based in Hamilton. The group was comprised of:
- Bill Watters
- Paul Beeston
- Bobby Orr
- Tie Domie
Bill Watters was the Assistant General Manager of the Toronto Maple Leaf (in the NHL).
Paul Beeston was a former President of the Toronto Blue Jays (in the MLB).
Bobby Orr is a legendary hockey player.
Tie Domi’s hockey career included a long stint with the Maple Leaf where he was known as a fierce enforce.
In 1999, Watters led this group in the purchase of the Toronto Raiders for $250K. They immediately moved the team to play at the Maple Leaf Gardens.
They also renamed the team as the Toronto Rock.
When the Maple Leaf moved to what is now the Scotiabank Arena, the NLL team moved with it.
The Canadian group had bought the team from Chris Fritz, a Kansas man with a deep involvement with the NLL.
Chris Fritz, Founder of the Toronto Raiders
We’ve arrived right at the beginning of the ownership history of the team that is now the Toronto Rock.
The team was founded by Chris Fritz in 1998 as an NLL expansion team based in Hamilton.
Fritz had been an events promoter who promoted everything from heavy metal concerts to tractor-pulling.
Together with Russ Cline, he started a new box lacrosse league in 1987. The league has gone through a few name changes, but it is now the NLL.
In the beginning, Fritz and Cline held the majority stakes of every franchise in the league. This eventually changed to individual owners.
There are still some franchises that were founder members of the original league. This means they were also co-owned by Chris Fritz. If you’re curious, check out these articles:
