In a year that has been incredibly odd for the National Hockey League, almost nothing would be a surprise. But when a sports advisory company and an investment firm submit a bid to buy the whole damn league, 30 teams strong, it’s time to call Ripley’s.
This season’s NHL cancellation marks the first time a major (WUSA and XFL don’t count) North American professional sports league has cancelled an entire year. Reports state that the NHL franchises have lost as much as $500 million combined in the last two seasons. Prior to the work stoppage, the 30 teams were appraised by Forbes magazine at an aggregate value of $4.9 billion, according to USA Today. The $3.5B bid constitutes 71.4% of that figure. The most valuable franchise, the Detroit Red Wings, was appraised at $266 million. The team of Wayne Gretzky, the Edmonton Oilers, have never recovered from the trade of The Great One and are worth a league-low $86 million.
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman invited the offer from two Boston companies, Bain Capital Partners LLC and Game Plan LLC, which pitched on Tuesday in an owners’ meeting in New York City. Spokesmen of the two companies had no comment as of Thursday. While one would initially suspect that the investors’ plan would result in a sort of ’socializing’ of the league, similar to the NFL model, the plan apparently will leave in place many inherent obstacles to such a move:
The purchase would not depend on the NHL reaching agreement with the players on a collective bargaining deal, the newspaper said, and a sale would not affect the status of the NHL Players’ Association as the bargaining agent for players under U.S. and Canadian labor laws.
According to the newspaper, Bain and Game Plan said the sale would bolster the league’s revenue because all the teams would work together to generate more local television, sponsorship and revenue instead of competing against one another.
Nathan Novak at 1:11 pm
