from Damein Cox of the Toronto Star,

Multiple sources confirmed that the vote was 29-0 in favour of approving the 12-year agreement. The Leafs, represented by Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment chairman Larry Tanenbaum and CEO Tim Leiweke, shocked the meeting by abstaining from the vote.

It’s believed NHL commissioner Gary Bettman persuaded Tanenbaum to abstain, rather than vote against the deal and prevent a unanimous outcome.

The stunning decision to withhold approval of the Rogers deal came just days after a contentious MLSE board meeting at which representatives of Bell and Rogers, which each own 37.5 per cent of the sports conglomerate, found themselves at loggerheads over the TV agreement, the largest in NHL history.

After a decade as the national rights holder for the NHL in Canada, TSN (owned by Bell) found itself outdone by Sportsnet, owned by Rogers. While many of the details surrounding the Sportsnet deal with the NHL remain cloudy, TSN officials were shocked to learn they had lost the rights without getting a chance to outbid their broadcast rival.

Some reports have suggested the Sportsnet bid may have been only $1 million per year better than the TSN offer.

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added 2:12pm, from David Shoalts of the Globe and Mail,

The Toronto Maple Leafs abstained from the vote by the NHL’s board of governors meeting this week to approve the new $5.2-billion contract for Canadian television and multimedia rights with Rogers Communications Inc., because of an obvious conflict of interest, not because of any face-saving intervention by NHL commissioner Gary Bettman.

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