The stunningly secretive sale of the Tampa Bay Lightning was consummated so quickly, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman didn't have time to put the kibosh on it.
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| Martin St. Louis won the Hart Trophy in 2004. (Getty Images) |
Unlike the situation with Blackberry mogul Jim Balsillie, whose separate attempts to buy teams ostensibly to relocate them to Canada were stymied twice by the commissioner in the last year, there is nothing to fear about this group as far as the league is concerned. And similarly, there seems to be little reason for Tampa Bay fans to worry in that regard.
That said, no one should be doing cartwheels on Florida's left coast either, at least not until it becomes clear what type of ownership group this turns out to be.
The franchise appears to be among the most stable of any in a non-traditional market, but the lease it has with the county-owned St. Pete Times-Forum is not considered ironclad. But it is losing a respected and deep-pocketed, albeit absentee owner in William Davidson, while the new group will ultimately have up to 10 principals, none of whom outside of MacLean have any NHL experience.
Yet, MacLean's upside, given his pitiful track record running the Blue Jackets since they joined the league in 2000 and his potential for imposing decisions on returning GM Jay Feaster and coach John Tortorella as a part-owner, is debatable.
Davidson is a Detroit-based billionaire whose management company owns the NBA Pistons, the WNBA Shock and the Auburn Hills Palace, so he obviously knows a thing or two about running a sports enterprise. The company spent between $100 million and $115 million to buy the Lightning in 1999, taking over one of the laughing stocks of professional sports and turning it into a Stanley Cup champion in just five years.
Yet, Tampa Bay still lost more than $70 million during Davidson's tenure, despite making the playoffs for the last four seasons and owning the third-best attendance mark among U.S.-based teams last year.
According to Davidson's right-hand man Tom Wilson, the Lightning turned a slight profit only once under the outgoing ownership -- during its 2004 Stanley Cup run -- even though the city and county picked up millions over those years for the team in ancillary charges such as property taxes and parking revenue shortfalls.
Wilson insisted the cumulative losses were not the driving factor behind the sale, but the unexpected ownership transfer, which still has to be approved by the league's board of governors, begs the question of how the new group can do better while keeping the team competitive.
"We have a lot to prove," admitted MacLean, who along with Sherrin will become residents of the area.
No doubt. MacLean's group paid an undisclosed price for the franchise, although Wilson said it was consistent with the values of current NHL franchises. Given the price tag in last week's sale of the Nashville Predators and the unsuccessful bid this week for the Edmonton Oilers, that suggests a deal in the neighborhood of $180 million to $200 million. So the money presumably is there, at least to buy the team, the leasing rights to the building and nearly six acres of valuable adjacent land.
But being able to pay the piper is only part of the equation. The Lightning's new owners say they plan to begin the new season about $6 million below the $50.3 million salary cap and expect to lose money at that level.
