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“OFFSIDE: The Harold Ballard Story” premiered at the Whistler Film Festival.

Photo courtesy Lone Eagle Entertainment

Jason Priestley directs and narrates movie based on former Toronto Maple Leafs’ owner Harold Ballard.

Photo courtesy Jim Gordon

Jason Priestley narrates / directs new documentary

By Jim Gordon and Leeta Liepins

Published 11:58 PDT, Fri March 31, 2023

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Jason Priestley, a Canadian born actor and television director is best known for his role in the long-running television series, Beverly Hills 90210. His more recent Canadian television series Private Eyes, Priestley the executive director, also played the lead role of Matt Shade, a retired hockey player turned private investigator.

A very recognizable actor in the world of television and movies, Jason Priestley’s latest project has him directing and narrating the documentary film OFFSIDE: The Harold Ballard Story which debuted at the Whistler Film Festival this past December.

Our City Tonight interviewed Priestley on the red carpet at the Whistler Film Festival.

Our City Tonight (OCT): I’m here with a guy that is no stranger to our readers out there, he just made a great movie that I enjoyed, it’s Offside: The Harold Ballard Story. As a guy that grew up in the 70s and 80s in Toronto and cheered for the Toronto Maple Leafs until I moved to Vancouver, I can attest that these were painful years for hockey fans.

Please, explain for those who may not know the story behind this film and the story of Harold Ballard, the owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs who was a very different owner, to say the least.

Jason Priestley (JP): For people of my generation and older, the film will be a trip down memory lane. It is terribly difficult to encapsulate this movie in a short interview for people who don’t know who Harold Ballard was.

He can be described as the very mercurial, extremely difficult to understand owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team. He owned the Toronto Maple Leafs from 1972 until he passed away in 1990. He almost single-handedly destroyed that franchise. As you can attest to.

OCT: What is also interesting is that you bring up details in this movie, and I thought I knew a lot about Ballard and the team but what I didn’t know was that his roots went that far back into the organization and the Con Smyth days.

JP: These roots went back to when he was one of the managers of the Toronto Marlies hockey team. In fact, he was the general manager of this Toronto Maple Leafs farm team, and he worked his way up.

He was a member of the “Silver Seven” which was the group that managed the team when hockey legend Conn Smythe was exiting his ownership of the team.

That group sort of shepherded the team through their last bit of glory in the 60s. But then in the early 70s, he sort of had the team land in his lap as Stafford Smythe, Conn’s son, died unexpectedly from complications.

Ballard was sort of the last man standing after this tragedy, and he found himself in ownership of this piece of hockey legend or hockey royalty in Canada.

OCT: You brought up some points as the director and narrator of the movie Offside: The Harold Ballard Story. I didn’t know this, as I was a little too young at the time, but you reveal in this film that Harold Ballard was in the process of going to prison during this time.

JP: Yes, he was about to head to prison to serve a three-year term, and he only served one year of that term. He was on his way to prison for forty-seven counts of white-collar crimes, and he had to go to Millhaven Penitentiary (now Milhaven Institution). The story is remarkable because these were all crimes that he committed against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

OCT: These are just a few of the stories that make this film fascinating and if you’re a Toronto Maple Leaf fan, you certainly do not want to miss OFFSIDE: The Harold Ballard Story.

The interview in full can be seen on richmondsentinel.ca/videos