St. Louis Blues officially for sale (1/12 NHL "very involved" in finances)

[Guy Legend]

Just announced by Dave Checketts. The search for additional investors has ended and now the team and arena is now up for sale.

Click to read more...

 

[thenextone]

Anyone remotely interested in the PHX coyotes should just buy the Blues. A much better franchise in a proven market. Obviously this team wont be given away for free, but this is a good investment opportunity for someone out there.

 

[cbcwpg]

So what are the odds that this team and building get signed, sealed, and delivered to someone who wants them in St. Louis, before the Coyote's fiasco is finally closed ( including all the courtroom time ).

 

[Jesus Christ Horburn]

Matthew Hulsizer, come on down!

 

[cbcwpg]

Matthew Hulsizer, come on down!

Hulsizer "might" have to open his wallet, clean out the moths, and spend a tad more on this than $70M.

 

[LeftCoast]

This may open the door for Tom Stillman (a minority partner who owns a beer distribution company). He made an earlier offer for the whole team, but at that time, Checketts wanted to retain his interest (and possibly control with only 30%).

 

[danishh]

my guess is that the interest for a minority investor was unacceptable, so they realize the best option is to just sell the whole thing.

stillman is an option, but they have to see what the market price is first.

 

[y2kcanucks]

Hmmm...I'll buy them if the city of St. Louis gives me money to.

Jokes aside...what's with all of these NHL teams being sold all of a sudden? Is it me, or does there seem to be an unusually high number of team sales the past year or two?

 

[PhillyWings]

Hmmm...I'll buy them if the city of St. Louis gives me money to.

Jokes aside...what's with all of these NHL teams being sold all of a sudden? Is it me, or does there seem to be an unusually high number of team sales the past year or two?

Just a few guesses on my part

1.Economy
2. Is owning an NHL a smart business investment? I never met anyone who likes to lose money.

 

[leoleo3535]

This may open the door for Tom Stillman (a minority partner who owns a beer distribution company). He made an earlier offer for the whole team, but at that time, Checketts wanted to retain his interest (and possibly control with only 30%).

Stillman's offer was just over $100 million......not enough.

 

[Grumpz]

Hulsizer "might" have to open his wallet, clean out the moths, and spend a tad more on this than $70M.

He was spending $70 million? You mean after he's given a bogus $97 million over 5 yrs, right?

 

[sh724]

Stillman owns over 10% of the team already and actually lives and works in STL so it would be nice for an STL team to actually have an owner that has interest in the city.

Scottrade center is not for sale it is owned by the city the blues lease is for sale though

its about 80% that is for sale unless some of the people who own tiny portions want to sell too. A few months ago Towerbrook who owns 70% said they dont want to sell all of what they own and they wanted to keep 25% of their 70. If that is still the case only 62.5% of the team is for sale

If Checketts would control his ego Stillman would be finalizing the ownership documents by now, but since Checketts wanted to control the team no matter what he wouldnt sell. Now that Towerbrook is forcing Checketts to sell Stillman can make an offer to towerbrook and take control of the team without Checketts in the way.

I doubt anybody will step in that has not been in the discussion for the last year. Maybe somebody else who Checketts black balled will step up and offer more than Stillman, but at this point Stillman has to be the leading candidate and the only one the league has already approved

 

[Major4Boarding]

Said this on another board a few days ago but wonder if Anthony Sansone's name will emerge again in pursuit of a franchise (kicked the tires of the Lightning previously), especially now it's one in his back yard.

 

[LadyStanley]

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/hockey/professional/article_bea184c0-502d-11e0-bca5-00127992bc8b.html

Transcript of Checketts' presser

 

[darthvader]

Just to clear this up.

That's one thing Checketts and TowerBrook agree on: it's time to sell. Checketts said all 100 percent of the team/lease is available.

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/hockey/professional/article_c3fc5198-501e-11e0-b1b6-0017a4a78c22.html

 

[sh724]

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/hockey/professional/article_bea184c0-502d-11e0-bca5-00127992bc8b.html

Transcript of Checketts' presser

From that article and other things ive read today it Checketts sounds like a little kid. It looks like he wanted to buy the team and everything was about him, he could not get enough investors for him to buy the team. The other owners get tired of him Stillman created his own group with local money and other owners and Checketts got mad bc they did not need him so he shot them down. Towerbrook finally had enough and is forcing him to sell. Unless Stillman is selling which i highly doubt since he wants the team then 90% of the team is not for sale like Checkets claims. Without Checketts involved Towerbrook might go back to wanting to keep 25%. Checketts attitude of 'Im not going to do anything unless i can have all the power' sounds like a 5 year old saying 'Im not going to play blocks with you unless I get to decide what we build' even when the other kids have 90% of the blocks. His having 95% of investors lined up was a group that he got together and couldn't come up with enough money to buy out Towerbrook. He keeps saying "I couldnt make a deal" not that a deal couldnt be made bc the team could have been sold a long time ago if his ego wasnt in the way

Ive liked Checketts and defended him until recently but his holding the team hostage unless he gets what he wants has pissed me off. Im glad Towerbrook is forcing him out

 

[Brodie]

What about that guy from southern Illinois who tried to buy the Rams?

 

[sh724]

What about that guy from southern Illinois who tried to buy the Rams?

Ha i didnt think of this but you bringing up the rams made me think of something interesting

Since Kroenke has to give up ownership of the Avs in order to own the Rams maybe he buys the Blues, although i doubt the league will allow his son to own the avs and him to own the blues.

 

[kaiser matias]

Ha i didnt think of this but you bringing up the rams made me think of something interesting

Since Kroenke has to give up ownership of the Avs in order to own the Rams maybe he buys the Blues, although i doubt the league will allow his son to own the avs and him to own the blues.

I was under the impression that he only gave up the Avs and Nuggets in name only, and is still financing both of them. If that's the case, its highly doubtful the NHL would let him buy the Blues.

 

[Fugu]

Not surprising. I didn't think they'd find someone who would put up 70% of the money but let a minority stakeholder call all the shots.

It's also interesting that Checketts and Towerbrook couldn't agree on the team's value so that Checketts could buy them out. I imagine he might have tried to get a good price for himself.

 

[Space Herpe]

A few questions

• How stuck to St. Louis are the Blues? Could this be a buy and relocate?
  I can imagine True North getting sick of waiting for the 'Yotes and sweeping in and getting the Blues.
  
• Balsille?
  
• A few teams are for sale. I don't know much about Dallas, heard the Leafs are up sfor sale, heard something about the Devils...There's a mess in Phoenix, Atlanta can't or couldn't find a buyer for the past fear years, and now the Blues. If Bettman is still holding onto his "30 healthy franchises", what does the fact that these teams are for sale, and a few can't find buyers? If they are healthy investments and/or franchises, shouldn't there be people willing to step up? (Yes, I know the "30 healthy franchises" could be a work in progress. I also understand the difference between buying a team and being an investor and/or puchasing a chucnk of the team.)

 

[edog37]

A few questions

• How stuck to St. Louis are the Blues? Could this be a buy and relocate?
  I can imagine True North getting sick of waiting for the 'Yotes and sweeping in and getting the Blues.
  
• Balsille?
  
• A few teams are for sale. I don't know much about Dallas, heard the Leafs are up sfor sale, heard something about the Devils...There's a mess in Phoenix, Atlanta can't or couldn't find a buyer for the past fear years, and now the Blues. If Bettman is still holding onto his "30 healthy franchises", what does the fact that these teams are for sale, and a few can't find buyers? If they are healthy investments and/or franchises, shouldn't there be people willing to step up? (Yes, I know the "30 healthy franchises" could be a work in progress. I also understand the difference between buying a team and being an investor and/or puchasing a chucnk of the team.)

not a chance the Blues will leave. Nor should they....

 

[sh724]

A few questions

• How stuck to St. Louis are the Blues? Could this be a buy and relocate?
  I can imagine True North getting sick of waiting for the 'Yotes and sweeping in and getting the Blues.
  
• Balsille?
  
• A few teams are for sale. I don't know much about Dallas, heard the Leafs are up sfor sale, heard something about the Devils...There's a mess in Phoenix, Atlanta can't or couldn't find a buyer for the past fear years, and now the Blues. If Bettman is still holding onto his "30 healthy franchises", what does the fact that these teams are for sale, and a few can't find buyers? If they are healthy investments and/or franchises, shouldn't there be people willing to step up? (Yes, I know the "30 healthy franchises" could be a work in progress. I also understand the difference between buying a team and being an investor and/or puchasing a chucnk of the team.)

The team is not going anywhere if the NHL does not want PHX to move there is no way in hell they would let the Blues move.
True North can try to buy the team but the BOG wont allow them to move the team.

Balsille will not own a NHL team unless the entire league is about to go bankrupt. The owners already voted against him owning a team.

The Blues are healthy, they are not being sold because they are losing money. They have sold out every game this season and have set ratings records.

Just because a team is for sale does not mean it is losing money, it is about making money. The group that owns 70% of the blues is happy with the amount of money they will make if they sell now and want to invest their money in other projects. Now that the Blues rebuild is over and the are ready to be competitive every year the rate of value growth will slow and for investment companies like Towerbrook they want to invest their money in projects with high rates of growth.

Dallas is for sale because the owner made some bad business decision that were not related to the team but now he cannot afford to keep them, it wasn't an issue with the Stars.

The leafs are extremely profitable

Devils are profitable as well.

Out of the 6 teams you mentioned only 2 have issues making money and neither of them has had good stable intelligent leadership in the past 10 years so obviously they are going to have issues

 

[Gump Hasek]

I've heard differently than some of the glowing reports portrayed in this thread. I'll preface my comments by saying that I most certainly doubt they'll ever be up for relocation. That said, it is my understanding that a number of their season tickets this year were sold at only 50% down, balance due if they made the playoffs, a sort of a guaranteed win promo. Well, they aren't making the playoffs and from what I've heard the Blues are taking a bath in part due this promotion.

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/hockey/professional/article_979cfdb6-a954-5bff-aa8b-c16f393652dc.html

 

[Celtic Note]

I've heard differently than some of the glowing reports portrayed in this thread. I'll preface my comments by saying that I most certainly doubt they'll ever be up for relocation. That said, it is my understanding that a number of their season tickets this year were sold at only 50% down, balance due if they made the playoffs, a sort of a guaranteed win promo. Well, they aren't making the playoffs and from what I've heard the Blues are taking a bath in part due this promotion.

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/hockey/professional/article_979cfdb6-a954-5bff-aa8b-c16f393652dc.html

That was only for 600 seats. Not exactly a lot, especially considering those seats were hardly ever sold out.

Checketts said they are break even at this point.