Ownership Saga: Tom Gaglardi purchases the Dallas Stars
Quote:
A group headed by Pittsburgh attorney Chuck Greenberg, called Rangers Baseball Express, has a deal in place to purchase the Texas Rangers from owner Tom Hicks, Hicks Sports Group announced Saturday night.
A source said the sale amount was around $570 million, which includes the team, the lease at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington and approximately 153 acres of real estate around the park.
Tom Hicks has agreed to sell the Texas Rangers to a group that includes Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan.
The sides announced Saturday night that they had finally reached an agreement, eight days after a 30-day exclusive negotiating window expired. The group is headed by Pittsburgh sports attorney Chuck Greenberg.
“Together, we have worked exhaustively since last month to attain this agreement,” Hicks said in a statement. “It's a complex business deal that positions the franchise positively for the future.”
He hasn't sold it yet. That won't happen for a couple more months. The announcement is just that the agreement to purchase the club from Hicks has been completed. Now the BOG, banks Hicks has loans from and, apparently, the NHL have to O.K. the deal.
That will take a while, with probably the longest step being the BOG meeting and the NHL's equivalent doing the same. They won't just decide to meet up to vote on this one issue.
Absolutely, Piqued. The MLB BOG usually meet during Spring Training (March), and the banks should have the information pretty quickly to see if the payments work for them, but I don't know when the NHL would meet (or if they really have to for that matter, but it has been written the NHL has to agree with the sale).
I'd personally ballpark the final sale just before Opening Day, which is the first week of April. That will give the Stars more financial flexibility, at least in theory, come NHL free agency as well as the ability to add payroll for the Stars during the Draft.
Beat writer heika says today that basically the sale means nothing for the stars-still no money-worse yet they are talking like this team can seek in the playoffs-all I can say is wow if that is what they believe -have they not seen the product
Beat writer heika says today that basically the sale means nothing for the stars-still no money-worse yet they are talking like this team can seek in the playoffs-all I can say is wow if that is what they believe -have they not seen the product
I saw the same thing and laughed, then cried a little. I know Tom Hicks owned the last championship team in DFW, so good on him for that....but the guy really bothers me with how up front he is with money coming first, then quality of product. Jeff Cogen's comments make the business model pretty clear; they will spend more money if more money comes in. The problem with that concerning this particular Stars team, is that status quo will not put more butts in seats, in fact Dallas fans have proven time and again that they will back a winner, but are reluctant to pay to see a loser consistently, especially when talking about the city's hockey team. This team needs an investment in keeping quality home-grown players here, as well as shelling out some money to pay for upgrade at both defense and in goal. Given likely trade targets for goaltending, money for that position is likely not an immediate issue, but quality defense will definitely cost more than they are spending in that area right now.
My gut says Hicks will actually need to sell the Stars when everything is all said and done. My gut also tells me that he will drag his feet, holding onto the team until he simply can't afford it any longer, which will probably have this issue going on for the next few years. His phrase "business as usual" in the DMN story does not bode well for the Stars.
Agree 100%. Cogen's comments, while not the same, remind me of Hicks' ******** spiel regarding the Rangers that he'd spend more on payroll once the fans started showing up.... getting the entire causal relationship wrong.
My gut says Hicks will actually need to sell the Stars when everything is all said and done. My gut also tells me that he will drag his feet, holding onto the team until he simply can't afford it any longer, which will probably have this issue going on for the next few years. His phrase "business as usual" in the DMN story does not bode well for the Stars.
I don't follow this story much, but I did read that Hicks owed 525 mil on loans for both Stars and Rangers. It appears that 570 mil gets Hicks more equity in the Stars as well as 45 mil in the bank.
"Business as usual" is a lot like saying "no comment", but it leaves room for the reporter to build a story to fill space and sell papers...
I don't follow this story much, but I did read that Hicks owed 525 mil on loans for both Stars and Rangers. It appears that 570 mil gets Hicks more equity in the Stars as well as 45 mil in the bank.
"Business as usual" is a lot like saying "no comment", but it leaves room for the reporter to build a story to fill space and sell papers...
I'm going more off of Hicks' history as an owner of both the Rangers and the Stars. He wasn't a very good owner of the Rangers. He won the Cup with the Stars by opening his wallet in the early days after a solid foundation had already been built. He doesn't really know much about fans, and the business. Just my opinion. And you can say he's the millionaire and not me, which is true. But he's also made some really bad decisions throughout his organizations, including Liverpool. I'd be all on board for a new owner.
I'm going more off of Hicks' history as an owner of both the Rangers and the Stars. He wasn't a very good owner of the Rangers. He won the Cup with the Stars by opening his wallet in the early days after a solid foundation had already been built. He doesn't really know much about fans, and the business. Just my opinion. And you can say he's the millionaire and not me, which is true. But he's also made some really bad decisions throughout his organizations, including Liverpool. I'd be all on board for a new owner.
his bad decision with Liverpool was buying that club in the first place. Soccer clubs are all notorious money sinks and will not make a profit no matter how well managed. They are basically a thing for rich Europeans / Asians to blow money on. A team like Liverpool spends tens of millions of dollars a year in transfer fees alone - those are just payments to other clubs for the rights of their players. Then you got to pay the team, build a new stadium, and whatever else. I hope Hicks does sell Liverpool asap, because the finances of the Stars will never open up until he does.
his bad decision with Liverpool was buying that club in the first place. Soccer clubs are all notorious money sinks and will not make a profit no matter how well managed. They are basically a thing for rich Europeans / Asians to blow money on. A team like Liverpool spends tens of millions of dollars a year in transfer fees alone - those are just payments to other clubs for the rights of their players. Then you got to pay the team, build a new stadium, and whatever else. I hope Hicks does sell Liverpool asap, because the finances of the Stars will never open up until he does.
I couldn't agree more. It sounded like a bad idea from the get-go and was a big reason for Hicks' current financial mess. The fact that he had to go so far into debt to make the acquisition underscores this. I couldn't care less if he sells Liverpool; I am much more concerned about his tenure with the Stars. If only Mark Cuban had plans on owning both occupants of AAC...
It would appear we are going to be in for years of mediocrity. Not sure if anyone read Heika's write up about rebuilding....but here is part of it. The rest of it essentially says consider selling everyone but Richards. http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcont...r.30b4260.html
Quote:
But in talking to people this week in the wake of the sale of the Rangers, one thing seems clear – Tom Hicks' vision for running this franchise is similar to the vision he had for the Rangers in 2003. He will run the team on a tight budget, and that budget will be set yearly based on the team's revenue.
I believed for a while that the difference between the finances of Major League Baseball and the NHL would entice Hicks to spend money on the Stars for the simple reason that it makes financial sense. You can spend only to the cap ($56.8 million this season) in the NHL, and the Stars are already spending $45 million. So, by spending an extra $10 million, the Stars really could jump up with the rest of the league and possibly make the money back in the playoffs.
However, the NHL has changed since the lockout. The league is participating in a ton of revenue sharing, so a lot of the money that a team makes in the playoffs actually goes to the NHL and is redistributed.
Bottom line, the financial incentive to win isn't as great as it was five years ago.
Heika's 2 points seem incompatible to me. If Hicks no longer cares primarily about winning, but rather mitigating losses and leeching off revenue sharing funds, and a rebuild is thus in order, then shouldn't Brad Richards be a prime candidate to be moved? His value is never going to be higher than now as he's among the league leaders in points, and any team heading into the playoffs would kill for his leadership, versatility, and track record. If Hicks is going to treat the Stars like a small-market team, shouldn't we conclude that small-market teams can't afford players like Brad Richards?
Personally I'm done with Hicks after all that's come out since the sale of the Rangers, including the latest revelation that he's basically to blame for the Purke/draft fiasco. Before you could say, oh, well, he's always been a good owner for the Stars at least, and spent large sums to bring in the Hulls and the Turgeons and the Guerins of the world, no matter what happened over in Arlington. But not anymore. I want him as far away as possible from any professional sports team I care about. **** that ****er.
jeez, I surely hope that is not how Hicks is going to run things
Get used to it. How it is described by Heika comparing this situation to the Rangers of 2003 is exactly how it sounds like things will be run. The situation for the Rangers is that 6-7 years later, they finally are starting to get good. They sucked horribly for most of those years without benefitting from it, trying to essentially be mediocre (not selling all of the big name players, keeping a couple around for a while to draw fans...but not having enough overall talent distributed throughout the team to compete). They finally went with the full scale rebuild and began devoting time and effort to seriously upgrading their scouting and signings department (for those who don't know, it's fairly different in baseball with both a draft for the Norteamericanos, and international signings for most everybody else...mainly Latin America, which accounts for a ton of talent in MLB). They also eventually traded all the big pieces they could and are now reaping the benefits of those with having the best farm system in the league for two years running, with some of that talent having already "graduated" from prospect status.
Trust me. This will not end well for the Stars. At heart, Hicks is a cheapskate. He ran the Rangers like a second-rate franchise and now that he has to sell them, he will run the Stars in exactly the same manner. Out of all the bad things that can happen to a team, poor ownership is fundamentally the worst, and we are in for some serious s*** hockey unless he sells this thing sooner than later. The absolute worst part of all of this is that we are just now fiiinally starting to again develop serious talent from within, and we won't be able to keep it. FML Stars fans. There is no rosy story to read between the lines here.
I guess let's panic because of one year of a lower payroll. Despite all the seasons when the Stars spent more money then 26 other teams (about) or spent to the cap since the lockout.
