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Nashville Rejects Balsillie’s Offer For Preds
by Alanah McGinley on 06/22/07 at 06:11 PM ET
Comments (11)
From TSN, breaking news,
Nashville owner Craig Leipold has advised the NHL to no longer consider Jim Balsillie as a prospective owner of the team.
Sources say Leipold told the league the absence of a finalized sale agreement and Balsillie desire to move the franchise to Hamilton are the reasons for his decision.
more soon… (whoa…)
Updated 9:28pm EDT:
More from TSN,
It’s the second time Balsillie has been spurned in his efforts to buy an NHL team. He backed out of an earlier agreement to buy the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Balsillie had agreed to pay up to $238 million for the Predators. There was a deadline of June 30th put in place to complete the details of the sale.
Leipold, however, pulled the plug early.
Balsillie had already started putting the wheels in motion to move the team to Hamilton.
At a board of governors meeting in New York earlier this week, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman called talk of moving the Predators “premature.”
Updated 10:26pm EDT:
More from Scott Burnside at ESPN.
Filed in: NHL Business of Hockey, Nashville Predators | KK Hockey | Permalink
Comments
Hmmmmm…....
Maybe Leipold saw the numbers of ticket deposits collected and figures he can move the Predators to Hamilton (or thereabouts) himself and make enough profits to recoup his investment and still own the team?
(Crazy thought that just popped into my head. No basis whatsoever in reality, I’m sure.)
Posted by Baroque from Michigan on 06/22/07 at 06:30 PM ET
No, I sincerely doubt the Preds have been saved. Off the top of my head, I’d say Leipold felt a lot of pressure from the NHL not to sell to anyone who’d take the team to Canada… why else does he reject an offer like $220 million? Kansas City (or Vegas) will continue to loom.
And, like Spector, I too am very interested to hear Balsillie’s comments about this.
Not to mention Damien’s Cox’s next column in the Star. That should be entertaining.
Posted by Alanah McGinley from British Columbia on 06/22/07 at 06:36 PM ET
Cox will be on this like a pitbull on a steak.
Posted by Spector from Charlottetown, PEI, Canada on 06/22/07 at 06:47 PM ET
The other piece of breaking news today is that DelBiaggio (who would have moved the team to KC) is no longer interested in pursuing that deal.
Nashville can worry about hitting the 14,000 mark for now.
Posted by The Forechecker from Nashville on 06/22/07 at 07:27 PM ET
Forechecker: that story came out before Leipold officially killed the Balsillie deal. I think it’s entirely possible that Delbiaggo (sp?) may be interested again now. Who knows though.
Posted by Alanah McGinley from British Columbia on 06/22/07 at 07:32 PM ET
What I wonder is whether the local money that’s been putting together a bid will enter a minority ownership agreement with Leipold, just he asked for earlier this year.
Posted by The Forechecker from Nashville on 06/22/07 at 07:40 PM ET
Congrats Preds Fans! I never wanted Canada to get another team at the expense of another Franchise! Besides, I think Winnepeg and Quebec City are more deserving than Hamilton! Balsillie may be passionate about hockey and probably would be a great owner, but he went about this entirely the wrong way…twice! I think he just ruined any chance of owning an NHL franchise.
Posted by Mac from Canada on 06/22/07 at 08:21 PM ET
Not so fast! Bob McKenzie just reported that Leipold actually told the league not to do any due diligence on the sale of the team to Balsillie until the latter gets moving on a finalized sales agreement.
In other words, this was according to McKenzie a “shot over the head” of Balsillie, saying that if you want a finalized sales agreement then let’s get it done, otherwise there’s an interested buyer from Kansas City willing to purchase the Preds.
Posted by Spector from Charlottetown, PEI, Canada on 06/22/07 at 08:37 PM ET
Heard that as well…interesting situation for sure…but I still think that if Balsillie hadn’t jumped the gun on Hamilton we wouldn’t be talking about this!
Posted by Mac from Canada on 06/22/07 at 08:52 PM ET
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I’ll admit it, I’m surprised by this development, but I’m gonna be curious to read about this further in the coming days. I suspect there’s more to this than Balsillie’s desire to move the team to Hamilton or any absence of a finalized sale agreement. I’m really curious to hear Balsillie’s side of the story.
This doesn’t mean the Preds have been saved, though, just that the inevitable move out of Nashville is postponed. I think the league’s true desire is to move the Preds to KC.
Posted by Spector from Charlottetown, PEI, Canada on 06/22/07 at 06:18 PM ET