thrashers sold

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=1758126


ATLANTA -- The NBA approved the $250 million sale of the Atlanta Hawks and Thrashers on Friday, but the NHL must still sign off on the deal before the new ownership group can take over.

Halelujah

Is anyone else worried about this ownership group? Why did this take so long? I'm worried these guys can barely afford to own a team. If they were in tip-top financial shape, the deal would've been approved months and months ago. I'm afraid they'll run the team just as tightfistedly as AOL.

Is anyone else worried about this ownership group? Why did this take so long? I'm worried these guys can barely afford to own a team. If they were in tip-top financial shape, the deal would've been approved months and months ago. I'm afraid they'll run the team just as tightfistedly as AOL.

I haven't heard any real details, so I can't say for certain. But this doesn't send too many shivers up my spine.

The process of acquiring a large company, in this case three of them, is no small task, and from all accounts very complicated. The process of due diligence alone could take months even if the purchasing entity has good finances. Not to mention the dozens of smaller but equally important details that go into such a deal, any one of which could slow the process down. That it took all these months to complete is not really a surprise. Heck for all I know, the NBA or NHL could have been the one dragging this on, that's not out of the realm of possibility.

I'm not worried. Unless of course the NHL doesn't sign off on this deal, then we could have problems. But anything short of that, I think these owners will be ok. I know they have money to spend, I'm just wondering how much they will.

Is anyone else worried about this ownership group? Why did this take so long? I'm worried these guys can barely afford to own a team. If they were in tip-top financial shape, the deal would've been approved months and months ago. I'm afraid they'll run the team just as tightfistedly as AOL.

Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, was in Atlanta a few weeks ago and said it took him over 4 months to get NBA approval for his purchase of the Mavericks. He was just one buyer with a ton of money and it still took 4 months. The Atlanta Spirit has 9 owners and is buying 2 teams in different leagues and an arena and Time Warner is still going to keep 15% stake in the teams. From what I have been hearing over the last few months is that the legal documents have are taking huge and the leagues are taking there time. The NBA was first, the NHL will approve soon.