Penguins reject Cuban group

st5801

Registered User
Jan 31, 2005
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it bothers me slightly that they wouldn't sell to the group that guaranteed to keep the team in pitt over $5 mill. $170 mill instead of $175 mill doesn't seem like a big deal. especially when you consider lemieux group bought the team for about $80-90 mill in 1999. they would be making out huge either way.
I really think that if there was only a $5 million gap they would have given it to Murstein. That leads me to believe that there was some problem with his bid. We don't know all the details and the news reporting of the whole thing has been sketchy at best (just look at all the contradictory reports about the 5th group), so there could be a lot going on behind the scenes.

Sure, Murstein may offered $170 million, but its possible that he didn't have the cash up front or at all, and Fingold did. There may have been other similar problems with his bid that we are unaware of. His original bid of $150 million may have included the maximum Cuban was willing to put in, so Murstein may have been scraping together nonexistant funds to get the bid up to $170 million.
 

Unholy Diver

Registered User
Oct 13, 2002
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it bothers me slightly that they wouldn't sell to the group that guaranteed to keep the team in pitt over $5 mill. $170 mill instead of $175 mill doesn't seem like a big deal. especially when you consider lemieux group bought the team for about $80-90 mill in 1999. they would be making out huge either way.


not when you consider all the money they had lost since buying the team, they are probably just breaking even
 

clefty

Retrovertigo
Dec 24, 2003
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They don't get to decide which offer the Penguins like, but they do get to decide whether to approve an ownership change or not.
They'll approve the sale. Now whether they'll approve a move is a different story.

That notwithstanding, the poster I referred to made it out as though the Pens not going for Andrew Murstein's bid was somehow the doing of the NHL. Which of course isn't so.

Sure, Murstein may offered $170 million, but its possible that he didn't have the cash up front or at all, and Fingold did.

Yeah, thats what I thought. I think Murstein said a couple of weeks ago that up front money wuldn't be a problem, but that was before the bidding got up to 170 million plus.
 

Hawker14

Registered User
Oct 27, 2004
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the pens get $ 11 million in local broadcast revenues. not too shabby.

fans have paid some of the highest ticket prices in the last 20 years, and attendance has generally been great.

a new arena will be built, no matter who owns the team or even if it moved. for concerts alone, a new arena is needed. and there's too much value in having a tenant fill a building 41 times a year to not get something done.

politicians in winnipeg screwed us in the early 90's, but i can't see it happening in pittsburgh. pittsburgh has already proven itself by building nfl and mlb stadiums, and the economic value alone in building another $200m + project is well worth it.

the pens won't be moving, even if it takes a year for the first shovel to reach the ground.
 

Fugu

Guest
I really think that if there was only a $5 million gap they would have given it to Murstein. That leads me to believe that there was some problem with his bid. We don't know all the details and the news reporting of the whole thing has been sketchy at best (just look at all the contradictory reports about the 5th group), so there could be a lot going on behind the scenes.

Sure, Murstein may offered $170 million, but its possible that he didn't have the cash up front or at all, and Fingold did. There may have been other similar problems with his bid that we are unaware of. His original bid of $150 million may have included the maximum Cuban was willing to put in, so Murstein may have been scraping together nonexistant funds to get the bid up to $170 million.


You have to consider how unnecessarily complex this deal could be from a risk management assessment. A lot of the potential buyers are partners, not an individual billionaire putting up his own money. Each partner has his own bank/portfolio to deal with, and perhaps different needs on rates of returns, taxes, risk his bank wil assume. The Pens current ownership wants the new buyers to accept contingencies that involve both an outside partner (Isle of Capri) and two govt agencies (local and state govt). There are least two contingencies that we know of, the slots deal and that failing, govt requirements for what the team will commit to for payments over an extremely long period of time....

If it were me, I'd rather have the freedom to make my own bed if I had to pony up $175 million. The banks might feel that way too.:dunno:
 

Buffaloed

webmaster
Feb 27, 2002
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They don't get to decide which offer the Penguins like, but they do get to decide whether to approve an ownership change or not.

As long as the new ownership has solid financing and is of good moral character, they'll just rubber stamp it. If they reject an ownership change on any other grounds it'll end up in court and be ruled a violation of antitrust law. It'll also result in the NHL having to pay millions of dollars in damages to the rejected purchaser and to the seller. The owners know that and they care more about their own wallets than the city of Pittsburgh. They can huff and puff all they want about their veto power, but in the final analysis they won't produce any wind.
 

Fugu

Guest
Buy the Hawks!


Yeah, you may be joking but I think we'd all fall over if they were put on the market. I'm not sure which would be more shocking... Wirtz selling them or the price they'd fetch (high, imo).
 

HandshakeLine

A real jerk thing
Nov 9, 2005
47,761
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You have to consider how unnecessarily complex this deal could be from a risk management assessment. A lot of the potential buyers are partners, not an individual billionaire putting up his own money. Each partner has his own bank/portfolio to deal with, and perhaps different needs on rates of returns, taxes, risk his bank wil assume. The Pens current ownership wants the new buyers to accept contingencies that involve both an outside partner (Isle of Capri) and two govt agencies (local and state govt). There are least two contingencies that we know of, the slots deal and that failing, govt requirements for what the team will commit to for payments over an extremely long period of time....

If it were me, I'd rather have the freedom to make my own bed if I had to pony up $175 million. The banks might feel that way too.:dunno:

This is probably one of the best posts on this subject I've seen in the last few days.
 

Ted Hoffman

The other Rick Zombo
Dec 15, 2002
28,859
8,113
Here's the other thing to be considered when evaluating the bids: the Board of Governors still has to approve the deal before the sale is final. If they don't, the offer could be for $1 billion and the team won't change hands. So it would be very wise for the current ownership to evaluate the bids and decide on the one that (A) is in the best interests of the team, (B) would be approved by the BoG, and (C) keeps the team in Pittsburgh.

If they just take the highest bidder and run and the BoG subsequently doesn't approve the sale, then Lemieux & Co. will have to start all over - and that takes time, costs money, etc.
 

HandshakeLine

A real jerk thing
Nov 9, 2005
47,761
31,604
Praha, CZ
If they just take the highest bidder and run and the BoG subsequently doesn't approve the sale, then Lemieux & Co. will have to start all over - and that takes time, costs money, etc.

Right, and see as how the current lease is losing money for the owners, I don't see that as a viable option for them. They pretty much have to get it right the first time.
 

Timmy

Registered User
Feb 2, 2005
10,691
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Here's the other thing to be considered when evaluating the bids: the Board of Governors still has to approve the deal before the sale is final. If they don't, the offer could be for $1 billion and the team won't change hands.

Hold the phone!

Belfour's looking to buy a team?:eek:
 

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