Report: A buyout offer for all 30 NHL teams

Knarlz · Post by **Knarlz** » March 3, 2005, 2:38 pm

http://msn.foxsports.com/nhl/story/3435268

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.

Lynks · Post by **Lynks** » March 3, 2005, 3:21 pm

Daly said that anyone offering that amount of money deserves a meeting with all 30 NHL owners. With that said, they won't sell it.

XunilTlatoani · Post by **XunilTlatoani** » March 3, 2005, 4:32 pm

Hey, if they can get the Wirtz family out of the Blackhawks ownership, I'm all ears

Wulfran · Post by **Wulfran** » March 3, 2005, 4:36 pm

I kinda wonder how a situation like that would work, in terms of individual team managements/budgets, etc. Would they run them each as independent subsidiaries? I doubt this will come to much though.

Truant · Post by **Truant** » March 3, 2005, 6:34 pm

Wulfran wrote:I kinda wonder how a situation like that would work, in terms of individual team managements/budgets, etc. Would they run them each as independent subsidiaries? I doubt this will come to much though.

You know, this situation could be a great future for professional sports.

Instead of each team trying to maximize profits against each other, which will always leave several struggling and forced to be assisted by the top dogs in order to maintain fairness in competition. You could essentially have a true profit sharing program with a much more fair and balanced league. Which in my mind would be much healthier for the sport in the longterm, however, I don't know how well the average American would enjoy watching a professional sport were the few elite teams don't dominate every couple of years.

I'm also not a business man, so that could very well not work at all. But it's an interesting idea.

Kelshara · Post by **Kelshara** » March 3, 2005, 7:44 pm

Good! Buy it and shut it all down!

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » March 3, 2005, 7:52 pm

I'd buy the league and change the rules so the players would have to use normal shoes on the ice. At least fans would be entertained watching the millionaires flop around.

Ogbar · Post by **Ogbar** » March 4, 2005, 8:24 am

XunilTlatoani wrote:Hey, if they can get the Wirtz family out of the Blackhawks ownership, I'm all ears

Let's get Jacobs out of Boston, too ... sheesh.

Actually, maybe they would fix some of the horrible moves the NHL has made in the last 15-20 years, starting with the return of:

Chidoro · Post by **Chidoro** » March 4, 2005, 9:43 am

First of all, the NHL is worth around 5 billion. 3.5 billion is laughable. Detroit, New York, Philly, and Toronto could each easily sell for 300 mil apiece and I'm sure Dallas, Chicago, Boston, Long Island, and Montreal are not that far behind. Are thyere teams out there only worth 20 mil or something? What does the NHL earn in revenue? Isn't at least 2 billion annually?

Second, if one corp owns the entire operation, what's the drive to win? For every winner there has to be a loser. What happens when they find that the league makes more money when Toronto, New York, Philly, and Detroit win than if <insert silly market here> wins? The idea behind ownership is to, ultimately, make money, do they just make sure the four or five high profile teams are always in the hunt? A league needs at least three things to be successful: parity, integrity, and a desire to be competitive. You can call two out of three of those into question with this type of deal. The only reason it's done for the MLS and WNBA is because they are not major sports so they practically require one entity pulling all of the strings. It's the only way either of those sports can exists.