OK Gary, you intervened to keep your buddy "BOOTS" from selling his shares in the PREDATORS to Mr. BALSILLE. The offer to BOOTS was reportedly $20 million more than was required to settle BOOTS' affairs back home. He too has to appear before , & provide full disclosure to , - the very same Securities Commmission that Mr. SAMUELI does. It has also been revealed that L.A. ownership, close friends of Mr. BETTMAN, intervened to help ol' BOOTS, AFTER BETTMAN stopped any deal with BALSILLE. If BOOTS' deal had gone through BALSILLE would have earned the same rights as BOOTS , i.e.: if in 2 years there aren't 14,000 per game & the % BOOTS was guarenteed wasn't reached ,BALSILLE could move the team. My guess would be that it wouldn't be to Kansas City.
One interesting aspect in appearing before the Securities Commission is that BOOTS & SAMUELI will have to provide full disclosure on not only the deals they have been called on , but ANY other such transactions they are aware of. That could include any financial support that was provided to get BOOTS in,and BALSILLE out,of Nashville. Its either testify or go to the BIG HOUSE with Conrad.
That should take the smirk of that little TOPO GIGIO Commissioner's face. (With apologies to those too young to remember the ED SULLIVAN show).
This must be quite a distraction from BETTMAN's threat to "fire" New York Rangers ownership.
And BETTMAN has the balls to say that BALSILLE hasn't behaved in the best interest of the NHL.
SOLUTION:
Mr. BALSILLE , you're too good to deal with these guys. Take your lead from the OPJHL,form your own 6 or 8 team Super League ,Division, Conference - with at leat one team in Russia and Sweden-and of course one in Aurora to keep SMC57 happy. Play a 40-50 game schedule so the regular season means something. Bring back the Instigator Rule just for the hell of it , and purchase the HNIC THEME
TSN REPORT:
Commissioner Gary Bettman announced on Tuesday that Henry Samueli, owner of the Anaheim Ducks, has been suspended indefinitely from any involvement with the Ducks and the National Hockey League.
On Monday, Mr. Samueli pleaded guilty to one count of making a false statement to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Sentencing by the U.S. Federal District Court is scheduled for August 18. Following sentencing, the League will review Mr. Samueli's status and will finalize the duration of his suspension as well as any other action that may be deemed appropriate.
During his suspension, Mr. Samueli may not be involved in Club matters or activities. Michael Schulman, current alternate governor, will serve as the Club's governor and will be responsible for managing the operations of the Club, reporting to the Commissioner.
In the event Mr. Schulman determines that the Club needs financial assistance from ownership, or raises any other issue that might need ownership involvement, he shall communicate that need to the Commissioner, who then will make the appropriate arrangements.
"While Mr. Samueli has been an exemplary owner, we hold NHL personnel to the highest standards and this plea requires the imposition of discipline under League rules," Commissioner Bettman said.
Mrs. Susan Samueli, co-owner of the Ducks, has advised the League that, in support of her husband and to avoid any possible improper appearance, she intends to abide by the terms of her husband's suspension.
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Methinks Mr. Bettman may run out of fingers to plug into the dike of the US hockey experiment.
As master salesman, GB is now in charge of putting out fires in a world were most NHL expansion teams were purchased on credit cards.
Now with the credit crunch in the US, hockey teams are thrust to the forefront of financial "shell games" to keep teams afloat - with Mr. Bettman behind the scenes trying to plug the holes of something he initiated.
Alledgely.
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Step right up folks, who wants to play the shell game $2 for one turn, $5 for two turns! lol
Just look what happens when Peewee Herman look alike, New York lawyers are offorded the opportunity to dabble their pipsqueaked, slimy fingers in "OUR" game! This isn't about the love of the game anymore, it's all about high finance and re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, trying desperately not to get caught in the process!
"The wheels of life are turning so much faster" ......... teehee!
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These were the guys (Leipold Henry Samueli Anschutz ) in BETTMAN's inner circle at the time of the lock-out. We lost a year of NHL hockey & today the League announced the new salary cap is $56.7 million. Also 1/3 of Leaugue profits were from Canadian teams.
BETTMAN's claim is that HE HAD NO KNOWLEDGE of the money being fronted to "BOOTS" by other owners - who happened to be BETTMAN's executive commitee.
There has been no explanation YET as to why Leipold would accept $193 million when he had an offer of $240 million from Balsillie. Its going to come out eventually - BETTMAN would do best to make it public before the courts do.
A good article from the WATERLOO RECORD:
Bettman's story: Funny, but is it 'ha ha' funny?
June 26, 2008
AL COATES
RECORD STAFF
This is rich, almost too funny, irony personified. This comes straight from the what-goes-around-comes-around file -- and at the heart of it all is Gary Bettman, which makes it truly swell.
Off the top, an acknowledgment of the work of a media colleague, Toronto Star sports/business writer Rick Westhead, whose research and writings I have borrowed liberally.
Let's start here: Eleven years ago, Bettman's fourth year as NHL commissioner, a 32-year-old Texas businessman/fraudster by the name of John Spano bought the New York Islanders for $165 million (all figures here in Yankee dollars).
He told Bettman that he held a net worth of $230 million. In fact, he had nothing of the sort and forged a bunch of documents in hope of fooling the bankers and lawyers. Next thing you know, he winds up in jail, five years in the slammer, for his indiscretions.
Earlier this week, the NHL suspended Anaheim Ducks owner Henry Samueli after he pleaded guilty to charges of lying to U.S. stock-market regulators in regard to stock-options dealings at his company, Broadcom.
A bit to the east, in Nashville, William (Boots) Del Biaggio III, a California "venture capitalist" who owns a $23.5-million stake in the Predators, is seeking bankruptcy protection as he faces a slew of lawsuits and a criminal probe into his business activities.
Turns out that Del Biaggio III is underwater on the money front, with $88 million in debts and only $53 million in assets. That includes debts totalling $17 million to two current NHL owners -- Craig Leipold, now of Minnesota, and Leipold of the L.A. Kings.
You will remember Del Biaggio III as Bettman's favourite son when a deal was put together last year to keep the Preds in Nashville. Bettman and the NHL governors pretty much forced the hand of Leipold, who owned the Preds at the time, obliging him to accept only $193 million for the franchise when Waterloo gazillionaire Jim Balsillie had an offer on the table for as much as $240 million.
Of the $23.5 million that Del Biaggio III put up for his Preds' stake, $17 million of it actually came from Leipold and Anschutz. Bettman was never advised of that backroom deal -- and both Leipold and Anschutz sit on Bettman's NHL executive committee.
Balsillie got the butt end of the stick with the Nashville shenanigans, as he did earlier with his bid to buy the Pittsburgh Penguins. For his $240 million, he wanted the Preds shipped to southern Ontario. Bettman battled Balsillie, then more or less shafted Leipold on the sale price, but rewarded him later by working the room to swing the sweet deal that allowed Leipold to buy the Minnesota Wild.
And so, under Bettman's watch -- he's a lawyer, remember -- we have this: the Spano scandal, the Del Biaggio III scandal, the Samueli scandal, the Leipold deals, the Balsillie shutout, and the Anschutz loan to DB III.
Anschutz happens to own the Spirit Center in Kansas City, which is where DB III wanted to move the Preds, were he to become sole owner.
And there is more: former Buffalo Sabres owner John Rigas has gone to prison for fraud; former New Jersey Devils part-owner Dennis Kozlowski is still in jail for fraud; and San Jose Sharks ex-owner Greg Reyes this year was sentenced to prison for backdating stock filings. And, just for the heck of it, the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission is probing the Biovail stock dealings of Ottawa owner Eugene Melnyk.
Have we covered off all 30 NHL franchises yet? Maybe it only seems that way.
Here's the thing: Under the NHL three-ring circus tent of Gary Bettman, there appears to exist plenty of room for fraudsters, hypesters, grifters, rounders and crooks, mainly American crooks, with American franchises.
There appears to be no room under the Bettman Big Top for a Canadian, a rich Canadian, a hockey-passionate Canadian, a Canadian who is not a crook, a Canadian whose only shortcoming is his desire to add a seventh Canadian franchise to a league with too many floundering U.S. ones.
Funny, huh?
Record sports editor Al Coates can be reached at acoates@therecord.com
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Very well done, man quite an article, and so true. But you know the Americans have always had a thing against Canada when it comes to major league sports. Remember when Pete Rozelle was Commissioner of the NFL and there was talk of Toronto applying for an NFL franchise. I remember his comment and I quote, as far as I can remember, he said:
"as long as I am Commissioner of the NFL, no franchise will ever be given out to a Canadian city".
I don't know what it is, we saved the asses of their embassy people in Teheran some years ago and they still treat us as subordinates. If you watch the PGA golf tournaments on TV, even if a Canadian is leading or in the top ten on the final day he will hardly get on camera, but if some new guy from Borneo is one of the leaders they will follow him on every shot.
Maybe it has something to do with Canada being part of the British Empire and we are still paying for that since 1776.
Anyway, great article Hanson, it sure makes Bettman look like a total incompetent.
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"I think we'd expect it would only be a matter of time before he told us he was moving to Hamilton and would sue the league if we said no. Why get in business with someone like that?"
Jeremy Jacobs , owner Boston Bruins July 2nd
Sorry folks but I can't stay quiet on this issue.
Jeremy JACOBS owner of one of the Original Six ,& not so long ago a proud franchise. Today...well lets just say recent history/management hasn't been too kind to the team that had The Greatest (according to HANSON not HANSARD) hockey player ever.(#4)
Jeremy obviously didn't comment on the fact that several of his League's owners are in court on Criminal matters,not civil litigation. To answer his question the obvious answer is "Because your to damn stupid not to get into business with someone , "like that"."
I spent my Canada Day doing something I haven't done previously. I wrote a letter to my MP. You know great job yer doin' and all that, & the Biker lady was a nice touch while she lasted.
But I did explain that the main purpose was that at least one person in the riding will be following whatever Competition Bureau hearings take place regarding any future plans by Mr. BALSILLE or any other Canadian to bring an NHL team to Canada. Aside from what the NHL dictates to us ,independant demographic studies have already been concluded which indicate the local market can sustain another team. They even stated there could be two teams in the GTA - say it ain't so. I also reminded the MP that since the Buffalo Bills are coming here with 8 other NFL teams , with State , Provincial & Federal approval I would hope that due diligence will be undertaken to ensure that none of the teams has a player with a conviction for a Criminal Offence that would deem that player ineligible for entry under our new NO FLY rules. Try finding 8 NFL teams which meet that criteria.
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You know, Bob McCowan on Prime Time Sports refers often to a quote from one prospective NHL owner he interviewed a year or two ago who said that the NHL's screening process for prospectie franchise owners is the equivalent of a "fiscal proctological exam".
Well, my question is, if the criteria are so stringent and the process is so thorough, if the NHL is truly doing their due diligence, then why are so many fraudsters slipping through the cracks, and why does Bettman always throw his arms up in the air and go "Beats me, I didn't know anything about that."
Eventually, doesn't somebody have to wise up and investigate Mr. Bettman? He talks the talk extremely well, being a very good lawyer by all accounts. But when held to a standard, how would he hold up? Does anybody actually believe he had no knowlege of any of these dealings? Come on.
I guarantee you that there was some cocktail party or something, Anschutz and company were standing there with Bettman, and between sips of brandy somebody said "Look, this is what we're thinking...we need a team in KC, to keep the concessions on that arena, so we want to do this. It'll also get Balsillie out of your hair." And Bettman said something like, "Okay, I'll approve Boots as an owner, but I don't know anything about this, and this conversation never happened. And if anyone ever finds out about it, keep my name out of it or I'll send those pictures I took in Vegas to your wife."
Well, maybe not that extreme, but I think you get the point.
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Sorry to keep bringing this up but more details are seeping out as court dates for some former NHL "owners" get closer. From todays GLOBE & MAIL is the following article. It will never happen but I'd like to see BETTMAN have to testify. As well as Leipold , Bettman's number one supporter through the strike - why MR. Leipole did you accept $38 million US less than you were offered by BALSILLE? How were you compensated for accepting this offer? I feel a bit sorry for Jim Daly who keeps speaking on behalf of Bettman. Everytime Daly responds to the new evidance he looses credibility. :
Predators Fiasco Puts Spotlight on Bettman - again
STEPHEN BRUNT
July 18, 2008
Canadian hockey fans see Gary Bettman differently than the folks who pay his salary, which should come as no surprise.
Not that they have always seen him the same way themselves.
His arrival in the job as NHL commissioner was greeted as another chapter in the mythic them-versus-us struggle that pits the authentic, hockey-loving Canadian against the U.S. Philistines who can never really understand.
Bettman was viewed as one of "them," a basketball guy who couldn't possibly fully love or appreciate the national pastime.
The Globe and Mail
Truth is, minus the basketball part, they said much the same about his predecessor (we'll just skip past the Gil Stein era) John Ziegler, so to be fair it wasn't just him.
Then for a while, Bettman won over the locals, playing the champion of endangered small-market Canadian franchises. He pitched for government handouts, fought a labour war allegedly at their behest, and when he spoke in Canadian towns during those troubling times, more often than not was rewarded with a standing ovation.
Now, he has reverted to the villain's role, having blocked Canadian billionaire Jim Balsillie's attempts to buy first the Pittsburgh Penguins, then the Nashville Predators, and move them north to the hockey-loving heartland.
Through all of that, Bettman was never as evil or heroic as he seemed, and his motivation was always a bit more nuanced than was suggested.
And through all of that - perhaps until now - the NHL commissioner's waxing and waning popularity in northern climes didn't trouble his employers one bit.
On the owners' behalf, Bettman had continued the pattern of greed-driven expansion that was established by his predecessors, bringing in fresh cash for franchises. He successfully put out fires on several fronts.
Most important, he won the great labour war, delivered former National Hockey League Players' Association boss Bob Goodenow's head on a pike, and in the wake of that total victory wrote a new collective agreement that figured to be about as fair-minded as the Treaty of Versailles.
All good if you owned a hockey team. All sound reasons to keep the man on the job.
But the collective agreement has proven to be a disaster from the owners' point of view. The spiking Canadian dollar pushed up overall league revenue (and thus player salaries), with no coincidental spike in the U.S. hockey business, and the revenue-sharing system didn't do enough to protect struggling U.S.-based franchises from the wild inflation.
Bettman said over and over again he was only interested in negotiating a deal that worked for all 30 franchises in their current markets. If that was the goal, he failed miserably, and some of those owners doomed to perpetual operating losses must have noticed.
A flawed contract, problem franchises, spiralling salaries, a tough guy (Paul Kelly) again running the union: So why did they sacrifice that season again?
And now there is the continuing fiasco with the Predators - a franchise that, if the labour agreement was all it was cracked up to be, surely wouldn't have had any trouble attracting stable, deep-pocketed ownership.
According to the most recent story in The Tennessean newspaper, the commissioner played fast and loose with the league's own rules for doing business, allowing his golden boy William (Boots) Del Biaggio to make an end run around the NHL's onerous due diligence process for new owners (which, to cite just one example, took forever to conclude that pharmaceutical billionaire Daryl Katz did indeed have the resources to buy and operate the Edmonton Oilers).
No time for that. Had to get Boots in place and a deal done fast to save the team in Nashville ... so that it could be moved to Kansas City.
One of Del Biaggio's potential co-investors says Bettman boasted during a meeting of being the mastermind behind the partnership agreement that would allow Del Biaggio and his group to snatch control of the Preds from local investors and move the team when it (inevitably) failed.
That "portability" became Del Biaggio's No. 1 marketing plank in trying to attract fresh money.
Unfortunately, the local Nashville ownership and the local politicians who were subsidizing the franchise didn't know a thing about that quiet arrangement.
And just a little bit of due diligence on Boots might have revealed that he was broke, that he may have been securing loans on false premises, that he was a very, very bad risk - before he wound up in bankruptcy protection, being sued from all angles, and under investigation by the FBI.
In any other walk of life, in any other business, bad judgment on that scale would get a chief executive fired.
Not by the masses. Not by public opinion. But by investors, by stakeholders, who had rightly lost faith.
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Well, in light of all recent developoments, it has become apparent that little gary may get his comeuppance once the bankruptcy judge starts to sell off Boots assets.
Who do you think will be at the head of the line, you guessed it. Balsillie!
The primary objective of the judge is to raise as much cash as possible to pay off Boots debtors.
So Balsillie will show up with cheque book in hand and outbid anyone involved.Gary will have no say about it, and voila, the "renegade" will be a member of Gary's club.
Cant wait for the fireworks to start, should be real interesting.
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I'm adding this aricle for interest sake as well as to draw attention to the last comment from Bettman,"...to make young people feel good about what they were doing and let our prospective business partners know how well we understood our demographic.”
Gary BETTMAN understands hockey demographics?
What amazes me is how easy the media has been on this guy. During the strike they praised Bettman - especially how CBC reporters sucked up to him , for being tough with NHLPA to keep salaries in line.
Now lets look at what has happened - this years base , around $38 million was appoximately the pre-strike ceiling in many markets. Several US teams are already in financial trouble for this years' budget. Last week the NHLPA ,now in the driver's seat,asked the league to look at expansion TO.... Canada - they recommended Winnipeg , Quebec City ,"possibly another team in Ontario" , as well as other smaller Canadian venues. This goes totally against Bettman's plans for more US expansion.
Could another strike be looming? The way salaries have increased and the Candian franchises solidified, US owners are now the ones in financial trouble-as long as the CDN dollar stays close. The PA now appears to have its act & leadership in order,thanks to players like Chris Chelios. Perhaps expansion to...Sweden, Russia... now there's a demographic for ya'Gary. Enjoy the new digs Gary, & keep you eye on that Nashville demographic.(14,000 to meet the contract)
And all you Cage folk , be sure to drop by the new office next time you're in New York. Also note,in the glorifying description of the vast office's theme, there's not a mention of where the game was first played.
Oh,and one other thing - when they stop you at the border on your trip to see Gary's new office , you'll be asked if you have a criminal record.Be sure to tell them you're Canadian and didn't realize it was a prerequisite.
NEW YORK TIMES REAL ESTATE ARICLE:
LOCKING out the players and canceling the 2004-5 season gave executives of the National Hockey League plenty of time to think about the league’s image. By the time the dispute was resolved in July 2005, the league had decided to make a fresh start in new headquarters, where it could embrace the digital age with a panache that 18- to 34-year-old fans expect, according to Gary Bettman, the league commissioner.
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Three years later, the N.H.L.’s new space is near completion: 133,000 square feet at 1185 Avenue of the Americas in Midtown Manhattan. The interior is a montage of materials and wintry colors that reflect the game of hockey, including the stainless steel of skate blades and the white of ice, said Frederic M. Strauss, principal in TPG Architecture of New York, the designers of the new offices.
Patterned glass evokes the bumpy pond ice that many players learn on; smooth transparent partitions suggest sleek professional rinks; hockey sticks decorate another partition; and frost generated from moisture in the air runs along the center of a brushed-steel beverage bar.
Mr. Bettman said that in part the new design had to be witty and youthful to appeal to players and the young employees on the New York staff, which has doubled in size to more than 375 people since the lockout. The design also had to include efficient business spaces, a hub for high-tech media and Web broadcasts and a shrine of sorts to the game whose modern rules were formalized in Canada in the 19th century.
“I wanted the 15th floor to be a high-tech N.H.L. theme park that enveloped you in the N.H.L. and new technology,” Mr. Bettman said. “Floors 11 to 14 were designed to be where the organization could interact and do the work.”
The 15th floor is the reception area for the five levels that the N.H.L. leased after 14 years in 80,000 square feet at 1251 Avenue of the Americas, just down the avenue.
A 6,700-square-foot N.H.L. retail store at street level was created in partnership with Reebok and designed by Gensler, an architecture firm.
Visitors to the N.H.L. offices will experience the theme-park atmosphere as soon as they step off the elevator on the 15th floor. Blurred black-and-white action shots line the walls, and a white-and-black terrazzo floor shimmers, leading to a large illuminated N.H.L. medallion of polished stainless steel.
A palette of grays and icy whites serves as a backdrop for the theme-park elements. Film footage is projected on the reception area wall, and nine monitors line the corridor. Three video games are available in a separate seating area, just beyond the frosted beverage bar, which is used for receptions.
At the end of the boomerang-shaped corridor is a crystal slab etched with an image of the league’s championship trophy, the Stanley Cup. Behind it, a curved wall is hung with plaques engraved with the names of winning players and teams from the late 1800s through today.
The same neutral palette dominates the nine conference rooms around the periphery. This is where the league meets with its board of governors, as well as with representatives of the league’s 18 major sponsors and 200 product licensees. Team colors are absent on the floor. “Other than what is delivered digitally, the conference center had to be team-neutral,” said Mr. Strauss, who also designed the previous N.H.L. offices. “It had to be league-oriented rather than team-oriented.”
The other floors have colorful graphics in the entranceways, but the scheme reverts to neutral elsewhere. Workstations are open-plan cubicles designed by Herman Miller Inc. and configured by TPG to leave the windows unobstructed, maximizing natural light. There are enclosed offices around the center of the space, but only about half as many as in the previous office, according to Craig Harnett, chief financial officer for the N.H.L.
All the office enclosures are clear glass. “Transparency is deliberate to keep the feeling of churning, interaction and activity at all times,” Mr. Strauss said. “Gary wanted it so he could also walk through, keep in touch and otherwise interact,” he added, referring to Mr. Bettman.
New media projects have a major place in the new offices, where live programming and commentary are broadcast on nhl.com.
IN addition to a regular online program called “The Hockey Show,” about 20 writers create Web content from a broadcast center that operates 24 hours a day during the season. From opening day in October to the end of the regular season in April, followed by weeks of playoffs, about 1,300 games are played by the 30 teams in the league.
A partition featuring 470 hockey sticks, their blades removed, decorates the hockey newsroom, one of only two places in the offices where specific teams are recognized. The second is the office cafeteria, the Ice Cafe, whose entrance has a colorful patchwork wall-hanging of numbers and team logos from players’ jerseys.
The juxtaposition of the bright jersey patches and the sleek materials of the eating area, and other mixes of design elements, is striking.
“It was an attempt,” said Mr. Bettman, “to make young people feel good about what they were doing and let our prospective business partners know how well we understood our demographic.”
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(Point to remember if you choose to read this one is L.A. KINGS management, who were fronting the"secret" loan to Del Biaggio (Bragego),are now also before the courts on other Securities Commission charges. Gary still maintains he knew nothing. Hope the court askes for his phone/e-mail records.)
NHL owners' loans helped buy Predators
By BRAD SCHRADE • Gannett Tennessee • July 30, 2008
Two NHL owners who stood to gain if William J. "Boots" Del Biaggio III bought a stake in the Nashville Predators lent the California financier and the team a total of $27 million to help close the deal in December, according to court records, interviews and confidential internal documents obtained by The Tennessean.
The two lenders — sports and entertainment giant AEG, which owns the NHL's Los Angeles Kings, and then-Predators owner Craig Leipold — were in the inner circle of NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman. However, Bettman says he knew nothing about the loans to Del Biaggio at the time the Predators' sale was finalized in December.
With Del Biaggio in bankruptcy and accused of fraud in several lawsuits, the loans from the NHL owners raise potentially embarrassing questions about how well the National Hockey League screens potential owners, and the integrity of that screening process.
It also raises the question of whether Bettman or the NHL would have been alerted to Del Biaggio's cash problems had the commissioner been aware two of the league's owners were lending Del Biaggio millions of dollars.
"If you're involved with somebody who, on a broad scale, is involved in fraudulent conduct, the ability to pick that up in advance is something that's difficult for anybody, including law enforcement," Bettman said in a telephone interview Friday, emphasizing he was speaking hypothetically.
Leipold, the Wisconsin businessman who bought and founded an NHL expansion franchise in Nashville a decade ago, lent a total of $20 million in selling the Preds, $10 million to Del Biaggio and another $10 million to the team. Both loans were crucial steps in sealing Leipold's deal to sell the team to Del Biaggio and a group of local Nashville businesspeople.
The sale allowed Leipold to break with the Preds and with Nashville, and opened the door for him to buy the NHL's Minnesota Wild franchise earlier this year.
The announcement of that purchase came Jan. 10, a little more than a month after the Preds deal was finalized.
Meanwhile, AEG lent Del Biaggio $7 million late last October to be used specifically toward the Predators' purchase.
AEG also stood to benefit. It has made no secret of its desire to have an NHL team as an anchor tenant at Kansas City's gleaming new Sprint Center, which AEG manages and in which it owns a stake. The firm had previously had a contract with Del Biaggio to try to get an NHL team there.
The loans from Leipold and AEG total approximately 15 percent of the $176 million in cash and financing in the Predators' purchase.
Del Biaggio is a minority owner in the team, but he is the second-largest single investor in the ownership group.
Leipold has declined requests for interviews, and did again last week through a spokesman.
A company spokesman for AEG declined an interview request to speak with AEG CEO Tim Leiweke.
Unaware Of Loans
With his 27 percent stake in the Predators, Del Biaggio's recent financial and legal troubles have made headlines across the nation and in hockey-loving Canada.
The San Jose, Calif., businessman filed for bankruptcy last month and faces a federal investigation, along with a handful of lawsuits claiming he defrauded lenders. Leipold and AEG are listed as creditors in the bankruptcy. AEG also is suing him for damages related to the $7 million loan.
Bettman told The Tennessean that he learned of the two NHL owners' loans to Del Biaggio only within the past two months, as Del Biaggio's financial and legal troubles started to become public.
Del Biaggio didn't disclose the two loans on the ownership application papers he filed last year with the league, the commissioner said, and neither Leipold nor AEG disclosed the loans to Bettman.
Bettman said it was Del Biaggio's responsibility to disclose the loans to the league.
"To the extent somebody has loans, they should be disclosed in their application," the commissioner said.
Asked whether Leipold and AEG should have disclosed that they were lending Del Biaggio money to help with the purchase, Bettman said: "Not necessarily."
Asked to elaborate, the commissioner declined.
Bettman, who has been NHL commissioner since 1993, said the league plans to review its procedures to see whether a "higher level" of disclosure among its owners should be required. Up until now, it hadn't been an issue, he said.
Leipold and AEG CEO Tim Leiweke have been on the NHL's executive committee, which helps evaluate applications for franchise ownership.
Leipold, though, was not involved in the evaluation process for the Predators sale because it involved his team, the commissioner said.
"Mr. Leipold had no role since it was his transaction and he was leaving," Bettman said. "Mr. Leiweke was one of the 10 members who considered it. His input in voice and vote was no more or less than anybody else on the committee."
Leiweke Promotes Center
With its 18,500 seats and 72 luxury suites, the $276 million Sprint Center opened in October as the cornerstone of Kansas City's downtown revitalization efforts.
Los Angeles-based AEG invested $54 million in the public/private deal, giving it management rights at the building for 35 years.
Leiweke promotes the building with a passion that has helped make him one of the most powerful men in professional sports.
He was listed No. 42 in last September's Business Week "Power 100" list detailing the most influential people in sports.
AEG is a sports and entertainment management giant, owning teams and managing facilities across the world. His boss, AEG owner Phil Anschutz, is No. 21 on the list, six places ahead of Bettman.
In addition to owning the Kings, AEG runs the Staples Center, where the Kings and the NBA's Los Angeles Lakers play.
Likewise, Leiweke has expressed confidence from the beginning about landing a major-league tenant for the Sprint Center. In fact, part of AEG's responsibility and exclusive rights until 2010 is to land a major tenant for the building, according to its management agreement.
"I'm fairly optimistic you're going to have one or the other, the NHL or the NBA, playing here the day you open your doors," Leiweke was quoted in a May 2004 article in the Kansas City Star.
It hasn't worked out that way. And it's not because Leiweke hasn't been trying.
The company signed a contract with Del Biaggio in November 2006 to own and operate an NHL franchise in the building, according to an article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Del Biaggio made a play for the NHL's Pittsburgh Penguins in 2005, and in early 2007, Kansas City had offered the Penguins free rent and other inducements to move there.
When news of Leipold's interest in selling the Predators broke last year, Del Biaggio made an offer to buy a majority stake and Kansas City saw Nashville's club as the next likely tenant for its building.
Even after Del Biaggio had agreed to become a minority partner in the Predators, he owns a 27 percent share, Leiweke viewed his role in the Nashville venture with optimism.
"Either they'll stay in Nashville or not," Leiweke was quoted in The Star on Aug. 2. "The fact that Boots is on the inside with the NHL will help us with relocation or expansion, going forward. To us it's not a bad thing at all."
Loan Was To Be A Secret
No one was ever supposed to know about AEG's $7 million loan to Del Biaggio. It only became public knowledge through the unraveling of the Del Biaggio financial enterprise in recent months.
The initial lawsuit AEG filed against Del Biaggio does not outline the details of why the company made the loan, only that it was to help Del Biaggio purchase the Predators.
The loan was arranged in late October at the AEG-run Los Angeles Staples Center during a Predators game with the Kings, according to testimony given earlier this month in California in a lawsuit involving another company suing Del Biaggio.
Like Bettman, David Freeman, the Nashville businessman who is managing partner for the Predators, said he didn't know about AEG's loan to Del Biaggio until recently.
Freeman said the same is true regarding Leipold's loan to Del Biaggio.
Freeman said he doesn't think the local owners would have cared about the loan from AEG if it had been disclosed and explained by Del Biaggio.
"If the explanation made sense then, I'm sure we would have said, 'OK, if the league's fine with it, I'm sure we'll be fine with it,'" Freeman said. "The league never knew, and we never had that opportunity."
Del Biaggio, however, had told his Nashville partners that he had broken off his previous business ties with AEG last year before the Predators purchase, according Freeman.
Meanwhile, Del Biaggio was marketing shares of his Predators holding firm, Forecheck Holdings, to potential investors. A confidential document he used in his sales pitch, reported on by The Tennessean earlier this month, said Del Biaggio expected the Predators to fail financially in Nashville, and it touted a scenario in which Del Biaggio and his investors could seize control of the team and move it.
That digital presentation also mentions Kansas City as having already made "a very compelling offer" to lure an NHL franchise to town.
The document, characterized as "strictly confidential," also mentions several other cities as possible places that "will bid hard to attract an NHL team."
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