Report: Firms make $3B bid to buy
NHLNHL
3/3/2005
A U.S. based Wall Street buyout firm and a sports advisory company have put together a proposal to buy all 30 NHL teams for just over $100 million U.S. a team - a total of more than $3 billion U.S. for the entire league, reports the Globe and Mail.
Invited by NHL commissioner Gary Bettman to make their pitch, the newspaper confirmed that Bain Capital Partners LLC and Game Plan International held a 20-minute purchase presentation to NHL owners during the board of governors meeting on Tuesday in New York.
The Toronto Star also reported that the two Boston based firms told the league owners that it had also arranged for a large Canadian-based financier to join its efforts.
NHL executive vice-president Bill Daly was cautious in describing the level of interest the proposal received from around the governors' table.
''I'm not going to characterize it,'' Daly told the Globe and Mail. ''I would imagine different clubs had different feelings. The board listened to a presentation and that's about it.''
Daly said the league was compelled to listen to the groups 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.''
For the deal to go through, all 30 owners would have to agree to sell their franchises to the consortium. The purchase would not be dependent on the NHL reaching an accord with the players, and a sale would not affect the status of the NHL Players' Association as the bargaining agent for players under U.S. and Canadian labour laws.
A person familiar with the matter told the Toronto Star no future discussions were scheduled between the two sides.