What's Up With The New Preds Partner...???

((HT: Tennessean/Glennon via Howard Bloom))

It's been almost five months since Calgary investor Brett Wilson was reported within several weeks of joining the Predators' ownership group.

He's still not a member of the club, but both Wilson and Predators majority owner David Freeman say the delay is not cause for concern, and that Wilson should be approved by the end of the summer.

Wilson's prospective share would be less than five percent of the team and no current owners would be displaced. The matter has nothing to do with Boots Del Biaggio's approximate 26 percent share in the team, which is still being contested in bankruptcy court.

"The Wilson deal is all but done — we just need to dot a few I's and cross a few T's," Freeman said. "But it's a done deal outside of a few formalities."

Freeman said the NHL has been dealing with higher priority events for months, such as the financial difficulties of the Phoenix Coyotes and the sale of the Montreal Canadiens.

"All the league's lawyers … have been a little preoccupied in Phoenix," Freeman said. "And I'm sure the Montreal situation — because that's a majority-ownership change — jumps ahead of us in terms of a priority. But everyone feels very comfortable we'll get it done sometime this summer."

Freeman said he's confident Wilson will get league approval.

"I think it's fair to say we wouldn't be here if we didn't feel confident in that process," Freeman said. "His background check has already been completed and everything came out perfectly fine."

Wilson, too, is confident of eventual approval.

"Is it a foregone conclusion? Never," Wilson said. "Is there anything that's likely to get in the way? I'd be surprised.

"We're financially solvent and have enough money to do what we're going to do. I think we've proven that to the league."

Wilson and Freeman are already involved as co-owners in two sports franchises — the Double-A West Tennessee Diamond Jaxx baseball team and the First Division English soccer team Derby County.

NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly, asked about the length of time in adding Wilson to the ownership group, deferred to the Predators, saying it wasn't the kind of matter on which the league typically comments.

Preds Owners Have To Ante Up

((HT: Tennessean/Schrade))

This is, probably, the last thing the owners of the Nashville Predators needed to have happen while the NHL playoffs were going on without them...

Brad Schrade tells us that the owners get to pay the city after the 2008-2009 season.

Not making the NHL playoffs cost the Predators local owners, who recently had to kick in more money to Nashville's hockey enterprise because of a cash flow shortage.

While being characterized as a minor matter, it underscores the fragility of professional hockey operating in smaller and Southern markets. Former Predators owner Craig Leipold said he lost millions in Nashville before selling the team to the local ownership group in December 2007. During his tenure, Leipold had to make capital calls to generate additional cash flow.

A lawyer representing local owner Herb Fritch said the recent call for additional money among the owners resulted because of a "slight revenue shortfall" when the team didn't make the playoffs at the end of the season. Attorney Bob Tuke said the amount called was not significant, although he did not have specific figures.


"It's a cyclical thing," Tuke said. "This is not a big deal."

Tuke, a Nashville lawyer and a 2008 U.S. senatorial candidate, started representing Fritch a few months ago as financial relationships among the owners grew more complicated in the wake of the William "Boots" Del Biaggio scandal.

Del Biaggio was brought into the ownership group in late 2007 because the local owners wanted an outside partner with financial wherewithal to help with the purchase.

That mirage of a deep-pocketed California financier disappeared last June when Del Biaggio filed for bankruptcy. He now faces prison time for a scheme involving his 27 percent stake in the team, which he defrauded investors out of millions to acquire.

Tuke said there's no rancor among the local owners.

"Everybody seems to get along really well in the local ownership group," Tuke said. "Generally, the financial condition is good. It will be a lot better when we get the issue of Del Biaggio resolved."

The local owners have made an offer to buy Del Biaggio's shares out of bankruptcy.

The managing partner of the local group, David Freeman, declined an interview request to talk about the capital call. Team spokesman Gerry Helper said he wouldn't "confirm or deny" if there was a call for additional money.

"These are issues that are ownership-related issues that are not for public discussion," Helper said. "Those are handled amongst the owners and that's where they should stay."

When Metro renegotiated its agreement with the team to play at the city-owned Sommet Center, provisions were included in the lease that called for millions in additional tax dollars directed to the team to help make it viable in Nashville.

That agreement also allows the local ownership group to break its lease with Metro under certain provisions tied to attendance and the financial success of the team. Metro Sports Authority vice chairman Steve North said there's interest in the financial success of the team, but no official action for the authority to take. He said the team has been living up to its financial obligations.

"I certainly want our major tenant in which we have invested and promised to invest substantial sums of money, I want them to be solvent, to be successful and be able to fulfill our expectations when we made that kind of investment," North said.

Despite the tough economic times, ticket sales are on track with where they were a year ago with renewals well over 70 percent, Helper said. New sales are slightly ahead of last year, he said. The team sold about 8,700 season tickets last year, which include full and partial season packages. For information about purchasing tickets go to predators.nhl.com.

Check out their new spokesperson...

Preds Get Billionaire Buy-in...?

((HT: CP))

Calgary billionaire Brett Wilson has made a lot of money over the years by hedging his bets so it shouldn't be a surprise that he's not willing to say he has a firm deal in place to buy shares of the Nashville Predators ((pictured, thanks The Tennessean)).

But he did confirm Wednesday that progress has been made in his plans to invest in the NHL team.

"We have a handshake agreement but nothing in writing," Wilson told The Canadian Press. "Normally a handshake agreement would be fine with me but in this case we still have to get NHL approval, cross-border deals done and the paperwork signed," he added.

Wilson, a co-founder of Calgary's FirstEnergy Capital Corp., originally expressed interest in investing in the Calgary Flames. He began to look elsewhere when informed that members of the current ownership group weren't willing to sell any of their interests.

Wilson has had discussions with Predators majority owner David Freeman with an eye to investing in their third professional sports franchise together. Freeman is attempting to recoup the 27 per cent share that belonged to minority shareholder William J. (Boots) Del Biaggio III, who pleaded guilty to charges of securities fraud after using doctored financial statements to bilk a succession of investors out of US$65 million in order to sustain his lavish lifestyle and acquire a chunk of the Predators.

"David and I have done a lot of business together," said Wilson. "We have an understanding but that news has been out there for some time. It won't be news until everything is signed and sealed. We have to get agreement first."

Wilson has had discussions with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and his offer is being reviewed by the league. Wilson has previously said his eventual share in the Predators would be "nominal."

Wilson and Freeman also own a minor-league baseball team in Jackson, Tennessee.

John Glennon and Michael Cass of the Tennessean disclose that the Wilson share may be only in the neighborhood of 5-percent.

Preds Project Slight Profit

John Glennon's article from The Tennessean lets us know that the Nashville Predators ((pictured, thanks Sanford Myers/The Tennessean)) will actually, if projections hold, come out ahead by about US$145,000 after the season comes to a close.




From the article and lead owner-type David Freeman:


"We're healthy," Freeman said. "Even this year, with all the questions about economy and attendance and sponsorships, and our (team's) slide, we're encouraged by our estimates on where we'll end up at the end of the year."



The owners also don't think, at the present, that they'll need to make up the 246 ticket shortfall to get their full-share of National Hockey League revenue sharing by dipping into their own pockets. That's a big relief...


"We have the plans in place for the remainder of the year to exceed (the 14,000 average)," Ed Lang said. "I feel good about us getting there.


"Traditionally, February and March are very strong for us. If you take just what we did last year in that time period, if we equal it, then we'll exceed the 14,000. So I'm not planning on the owners being involved in (buying tickets)."



Lang, for those of you not steeped in memorizing every member of the Predators hierarchy, is their President of Business Operations...

Here's the financial run-down from the Preds point-of-view:

Season/NHL Player Salaries/Profit (Loss)


2005-06- US$31.261 million ((-12.224 million))
2006-07- US$39.439 million ((-17.008 million))
2007-08- US$32.319 million/ 1.826 million
2008-09*- US$43.7 million/ $145,000

Attendance averages- 12,513/13,589/13,429/Projected: More than 14,000

*Projected
**Salary numbers shown include disability insurance reimbursements received by team.

Preds To Buy Their Own Tickets To Assure League $$$$....????

Apparently so...

The Nashville Predators are looking to buy unused tickets in an attempt to secure a game attendance average of 14,000. If they hit that number, then they get the maximum allowed share of the NHL's revenue-sharing plan.

Owner David Freeman told Michael Cass in an article in The Tennessean newspaper that they haven't done that yet, but they're really thinking about it.

From the Cass article:

"We've consistently said that we're here to give everything we've got to make this work," Freeman said.

Through 22 home games, the Predators' average paid attendance stands at 13,744, said Ed Lang, president of business operations. That's 256 tickets short of the 14,000 average required for a full share of the NHL revenue-sharing pool.

The team also must increase its revenue at the same rate as the rest of the league to qualify. That means the owners can't just buy up tickets on the cheap to get to the attendance requirement, Freeman said, adding that they would buy them at market rates.

Teams that don't fully meet the criteria can receive partial revenue shares, Lang said. For example, falling just short of one target might mean a 75 percent share. The revenue-sharing plan was worth a full share of about $12 million to the Predators after the 2007-08 season. The plan exists for small-market clubs like Nashville, which receive money from a pool the NHL collects from the 10 highest-earning teams.

Lang declined to discuss the Predators' expected earnings from the revenue-sharing plan, but he and Freeman said the money is key to the organization's business plan.

"It's absolutely critical to us," Freeman said. "We're doing everything we can to grab as many dollars as we can so we can build the best hockey team we can build."

City officials said they weren't concerned about the possibility of the Predators' owners boosting the attendance numbers without actually putting more people in the seats.

"If it's fair to do and it's OK with the league, I don't know why anybody would question it," said Arnett Bodenhamer, who was elected last week as chairman of the Metro Sports Authority, the Predators' landlord at city-owned Sommet Center.

Other than calling frozen shenanigans in order to save your own ass, those of us here at OSG HQ would like to suggest that Mister Freeman either put up or shut up where the franchise is concerned.

If it means selling the other 73-percent share to Jim Balsillie to make the team profitable- and movable- then, so be it. If Balsillie is awarded the 27-percent share from US Bankruptcy court over the "Boots" Del Biaggio fiasco, it should only be a matter of time anyway.

We have always thought that hockey in Nashville is a cool idea- pardon the pun. Barry Trotz has been forced to work financial miracles in trying to turn ice water in to wine. It should serve as a small-market model of success.

And Trotz should be awarded an official order of the Volunteer for all he's done...

But there's only so much bailing of the bath water before you reach the baby...

Nashville City Attorney Not Surprised By Balsillie Interest

Brad Schrade of the Tennessean caught up with Metro Attorney Larry Thrailkill and asked him about Jim Balsillie's ((pictured, thanks globeandmail.com)) current re-interest in the Nashville Predators franchise with William "Boots" Del Biaggio's 27-percent stake held up in Bankruptcy Court.

Thrailkill maintains that if any owner, regardless of who ends up with the winning bid, assumed the Del Biaggio shares he or she would have no impact on the city of Nashville's guidelines for keeping the Preds at their downtown arena home.

The Preds still have a lease with Metro ((that what they call themselves in a collective-governmental sense)) that is for two more seasons. The lease can only be re-examined if the team doesn't average 14,000 per game in attendance and loses US$20-million.

Thrailkill also recalls an attempt by the ownership group over the summer to restructure the deal-in-place for an adjustment in veto power over possible future owners. He doesn't recall if the measure was approved, but you'll recall yesterday's words from local ownership head David Freeman that alluded to an "approval process" for anyone that would assume those duties.

"As I have said for months, if the trustee accepts our bid, we will write him a check. If the trustee wishes to accept the bid of another, we anticipate he will adhere to the terms of our governing legal documents and seek our approval. If such a request for approval is made, we will consider the request at the appropriate time."

Last time we checked, a bankruptcy court just cares about recouping losses toward the eradication of a debt, not where the money comes from under any circumstance...

That's just us...