Richard Pettie a former CEO & President of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment has agreed to join the Canadian Interuniversity Sports board of directors.

Pettie has a wealth of experience in media negotiation and was responsible for most the deals that involved the creation of Raptors NBA TV.

The CIS has taken a lot of heat over the past 10-15 years for the lack of management and vision towards the its key products which include CIS Basketball and football.

Like many other aspects of Canadian Basketball, the collegiate/University leagues have also grown in many ways but the management team has failed identify a strategic approach how provide a better experience for student athletes and capture the growing but still niche audience of Canadian university sports.

The appointment of Pettie is certainly a good move which finally signals, and opens up the debate for some sort of creation of a CIS Sports channel given Pettie's experience?

“Richard is a widely respected leader with extraordinary business and sport management expertise, and we are delighted that he is joining our board of directors,” said MacPherson. “He will provide our board and management team with new insight and perspective as we pursue exciting opportunities relating to our broadcast and media rights along with our corporate partnership initiatives.”

What are your thoughts?