Firm makes bid to buy all 30 NHL teams for 3.5 Billion

[jmcclain19]

http://www.cbs.sportsline.com/nhl/story/8248135

Wonder if they could save hockey from itself?

Firms reportedly make pitch to buy NHL for $3.5 billion
March 3, 2005
SportsLine.com wire reports

TORONTO -- An investment firm and a sports advisory company reportedly made a joint proposal to buy all 30 NHL teams for as much as $3.5 billion.

The two Boston companies were invited by NHL commissioner Gary Bettman to present the highly unusual offer, the Toronto Star and Globe and Mail reported Thursday. Bain Capital Partners LLC and Game Plan LLC made their pitch Tuesday in New York to NHL owners, whose season has been shut down by a lockout.

Bain Capital spokesman Sam Hollander and Collin Vataha of Game Plan declined to immediately comment Thursday to the Associated Press.

The NHL, which because of its ongoing player lockout recently became the first major North American pro sports league to cancel an entire season, has said its teams have lost a collective $500 million over the past two seasons.

Before the work stoppage, the total value of the 30 NHL franchises was an estimated $4.9 billion, according to Forbes Magazine. The Detroit Red Wings topped the list at $266 million, with the Edmonton Oilers last at $86 million. The value of the arenas are part of the assessment.

"The substance of the presentation and the reaction of the board" are "internal league matters, and ones on which we are not prepared to comment further," Bill Daly, the NHL's chief legal officer, said in a statement Thursday.

Bain managing partner Steven Pagliuca, co-owner of the NBA's Boston Celtics, and Game Plan, which recently acted as an adviser on the sale of the Ottawa Senators, are betting that many NHL owners would welcome the chance to get out of the hockey business.

But it's unclear how team owners, especially those in large markets such Toronto, Boston and New York, would react to the proposal. Maple Leafs officials declined comment, the newspaper said, as did a Game Plan spokesman.

"I would imagine different clubs had different feelings," Daly told the Globe and Mail.

He said the league was compelled to listen based on the significance of the offer.

"When someone's offering over $3 billion, we felt we had an obligation to the board to have them, at least, hear it from the proposed purchaser," Daly added.

The purchase would not depend on the NHL reaching agreement with the players on a collective bargaining deal, the newspaper said, and a sale would not affect the status of the NHL Players Association as the bargaining agent for players under U.S. and Canadian labor laws.

According to the newspaper, Bain and Game Plan said the sale would bolster the league's revenue because all the teams would work together to generate more local television, sponsorship and revenue instead of competing against one another.

The consortium reportedly told the NHL owners it had arranged for a large Canadian-based financier to join its efforts.

[M2]

Cool idea. No idea if it would work, but way cool idea.

[westofyou]

Get the Patricks, Campells and the other dinosaurs out of the game... won't ever happen.

[reds1869]

Single entity structure can work. It is the only way Major League Soccer survived its early years and is beginning to reach a point where it can be profitable. That type of structure may be just what the doctor ordered for another "foreign sport" like hockey.

[Catch22]

The company I work for was recently bought by Bain Capital. I wonder if this means I get employee discounts for seasons tickets - or better yet, access to the owners boxes.


Hmmmm....

[jmcclain19]

I think that if the new owners have a significant Canadian background, it's a good thing.

Hockey may have a lot of fans here in the US, but it's religion up in Canada. Getting back to it's roots would be a great thing, along with drastically improving the offense.

Can you say no more blue line and no more grabbing and clutching? If you want a better game, you might.

[westofyou]

MLS is minor league, NHL is the top tier, owners will want to take the risk in the proper enviroment.

[princeton]

didn't Isiah Thomas once buy the CBA?

[Stewie]

didn't Isiah Thomas once buy the CBA?

Yeah, and the league went bankrupt a year and a half later.

[Unassisted]

Somehow, I expected Vince McMahon's name to be attached to a move as audacious as this.

[Chip R]

I don't think this will ever happen for one main reasin: A lot of the owners own teams because of the status it gives them. Why give up the status symbol?

I don't think it's a good idea because who is to say that it will be on the up and up? Suppose the owners want the Rangers to win in a certain year. They could theoretically make it so all the good players wind up in NY. It sounds a lot like syndicate ball that the NL tried back in the late 19th century.

[REDREAD]

I don't think it's a good idea because who is to say that it will be on the up and up? Suppose the owners want the Rangers to win in a certain year. They could theoretically make it so all the good players wind up in NY. It sounds a lot like syndicate ball that the NL tried back in the late 19th century.

That's true.. however, they obviously couldn't make it obvious or then they disillusion all the other fans of franchises.

The interesting part of one owner, IMO, is that there's potentially an incentive to create parity. For example, in MLB, if 75% of the teams were still in the wild card race in August, that would probably generate more income than the current setup where the contenders are easily to spot before the season even starts.

[westofyou]

That's true.. however, they obviously couldn't make it obvious or then they disillusion all the other fans of franchises.

The interesting part of one owner, IMO, is that there's potentially an incentive to create parity. For example, in MLB, if 75% of the teams were still in the wild card race in August, that would probably generate more income than the current setup where the contenders are easily to spot before the season even starts.

The playoffs are a boon to NHL owners, they only pay the players during the season and if you are a team like the Red Wings that goes deep in the playoffs every year then it's gravy every year.

If you're a franchise that has no business being in your specific market (like Carolina) then you cry poor (despite helping create the salary monster you're crying about) and you veto the season to get your cost guarentee in a marketplace that has more interest in college basketball than hockey.

[Unassisted]

The buyers had better bring more money to the table...

NHL cold to offer to buy all 30 teams
Friday, March 04, 2005
Aaron Portzline
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Even though the NHL is closed for business, it’s not for sale.

The league confirmed yesterday that two companies offered to buy all 30 franchises, including the Columbus Blue Jackets, for approximately $3.25 billion at a board of governors meeting Tuesday in New York.

Quickly, voices from throughout the league downplayed the takeover attempt.

"Whenever somebody’s talking billions, you have to listen," Blue Jackets president and general manager Doug MacLean said. "But I can honestly say that after the presentation was over, there wasn’t much discussion, if any, among any of the owners. I haven’t heard any discussion of it since, and I don’t suspect I’ll hear any in the future."

Blue Jackets owner John H. McConnell was not available for comment, a club spokesman said. MacLean is planning to meet soon with McConnell, who recently returned to central Ohio from Florida.

"We’re going to talk about what went on at the board of governors meetings," MacLean said. "(The offer to buy the league) is not anywhere near the top of my list."

Bain Capital Partners LLC, a private investment firm in Boston, is the primary bidder. Game Plan LLC, which helps broker sales of sports franchises, is a secondary partner.

Under their plan, budgets would be set by a central office before each season, with revenues distributed equally among the 30 franchises.

"We would keep in place team management, team presidents, the general managers," Game Plan chairman Robert Caporale told WBZ radio in Boston. "They would be completely autonomous."

The NHL claimed $2.1 billion in revenue for the 2003-04 season. But a lockout wiped out the entire 2004-05 season and threatens to do the same to 2005-06.

The $3.25 billion works out to $108.3 million per franchise. A handful of NHL teams would love to garner that much money. But others, including the Toronto Maple Leafs, Detroit Red Wings, Montreal Canadiens and New York Rangers, are worth far more.

"I can’t speak for the other 29 teams," Maple Leafs president Richard Peddie said, "but it’s of no interest to us."

The Blue Jackets paid $80 million to join the NHL as an expansion franchise in 2000.

Would they be sold for $100 million?

"I wouldn’t think so," MacLean said, laughing.

[Chip R]

That's true.. however, they obviously couldn't make it obvious or then they disillusion all the other fans of franchises.

The interesting part of one owner, IMO, is that there's potentially an incentive to create parity. For example, in MLB, if 75% of the teams were still in the wild card race in August, that would probably generate more income than the current setup where the contenders are easily to spot before the season even starts.

Yeah, they can't make it obvious but how do you disguise something like that?

Parity isn't necessarily a good thing. Sometimes it's better when there's a top dog that others have to shoot for. You use MLB as an example. For the past 4 years people have said that the Yankees are a shoo-in to win the World Series and they didn't even need to play the season cause it's so unfair. But they have only been to the World Series two of those years and the years they went they lost. People enjoyed seeing them getting knocked off. If you want more teams in the race in August, expand the playoffs. Simple as that. Problem is that then the regular season is watered down and it doesn't mean as much to make the playoffs as it used to. That's a common complaint with the NHL and the NBA since 16 teams in each league make the playoffs. I don't think it is necessarily the case that a mediocre team will draw more even if there is that carrot of making the playoffs out there for them.