LOS ANGELES – Tim Leiweke, one of the brightest deal-makers in his industry, was trying to figure out what to do with a trophy no one wanted to be around or touch.
Temporary custody of the Clarence S. Campbell Bowl had fallen to Leiweke, governor of the Los Angeles Kings and president and chief executive of Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG).
(Hockey superstition calls for players to not touch any trophy presented for winning a playoff series until they win the Stanley Cup.)
No stranger to the big stage, Leiweke regularly advises political and civic leaders, and this month met President Barack Obama when the Major League Soccer champion Los Angeles Galaxy visited the White House.
But when it came to what to do with a shiny piece of hardware given to the Western Conference playoff champion Kings …
“I bring it home and I’m like, ‘What am I doing to do with this?’ ” Leiweke said. “What if someone comes in to my car, breaks in and steals it? So I lock it up in my house. I haul it out and put it in my trunk the next morning.
“I’m driving around to various meetings that day and it suddenly occurs to me, it’s probably not the smartest thing I’ve ever done, having the Campbell trophy in my trunk.”
Kings president and general manager Dean Lombardi didn’t want possession, either, and so it didn’t accompany the team back on its charter from Phoenix.
Lombardi told Leiweke to keep it.
“I said, ‘What? Keep it in my trunk? You want me to keep the trophy in my trunk for three weeks?’ ” Leiweke said. “I can’t do that.
“Anyway, Luc (Robitaille, former Kings star forward and the team’s president of business operations) took it and did something with it and I don’t want to know.”
Joking, he said, “It might be in the tunnel between Staples (Center) and L.A. Live (the entertainment complex next to Staples Center developed, in part, by AEG) for all I know.”
Leiweke’s Kings reached the Stanley Cup finals for the first time in 19 years (since some guy named Wayne Gretzky played for L.A.), and the first time under the stewardship of parent company AEG, owned by billionaire Philip Anschutz.
Leiweke is the older brother of Tod Leiweke, former chief executive officer of the Seattle Seahawks from 2003-10 and current CEO/minority owner of the NHL’s Tampa Bay Lightning.
Tod Leiweke told his brother to savor the moment when the eighth-seeded Kings won the Western Conference finals, and Tim shot back, “Four more games.”
So although it is something short of a victory lap for Leiweke, the spot in the Stanley Cup Final does represent a career-defining moment for the man who joined the Kings in 1996.
At the time, it looked like nothing more than an ordinary corporate footnote on a late April day when it was announced Leiweke was leaving his position as president and chief executive of U.S. Skiing to become president of the Kings, coming off a long string of previous success with the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves and Denver Nuggets.
Leiweke lured global soccer icon David Beckham to the Galaxy and persuaded him to stay in Los Angeles in the face of months of European media reports saying it would never happen.
Despite global and local triumphs, there was something missing.
Success kept eluding AEG’s first child, the Kings.
“You have no idea how frustrating it is to have success in every other aspect of our company and yet that first piece, the foundation, always had cracks,” Leiweke said.
His team, which opens at New Jersey on Wednesday, is four wins away from hockey’s ultimate prize.
Stanley Cup Finals
Wednesday
Los Angeles at New Jersey, 5 p.m., KONG 6/16, CBUT
Saturday
Los Angeles at New Jersey, 5 p.m., Ch. 5, CBUT
Monday
New Jersey at Los Angeles, 5 p.m., NBCSports, CBUT
June 6
New Jersey at Los Angeles, 5 p.m., NBCSports, CBUT
June 9
x-Los Angeles at New Jersey, 5 p.m., Ch. 5, CBUT
June 11
x-New Jersey at Los Angeles, 5 p.m., KONG 6/16, CBUT
June 13
x-Los Angeles at New Jersey, 5 p.m., KONG 6/16, CBUT
x-if necessary
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