The Sale of the Dallas Stars: A Timeline

When did this all start? How fast is it going? When could it be done? How long has it taken other teams to get sold in the past?

The answers to these questions will be drastically different from situation to situation of course. The Lightning got sold relatively quickly. The Coyotes have been in some kind of financial distress/flux for years now. The Stars themselves have gone from "might get sold" to "things are moving quickly" in relatively short order, but Tom Hicks' problems go back well over a year now, and the Rangers drawn out process has been well documented locally.

When it's all said and done, it would be nice to have a time line, I said to myself. So here is an on-going effort to chronicle the sale of the team as seen on this blog and others. An effort that will no doubt start out incomplete, but fill in as we go along...

After the jump, the timeline (help us fill in the blanks in the comments) and the most recent rumblings from Mike Heika on the situation...

April 14th, 2010: The most recent newsy items on the sale of the team: Mike Heika had a chat yesterday on his blog at the Dallas Morning News and had a couple of interesting tidbits...

The people I have talked to said that the Hicks Sports Group loans are protected by a covenant between the NHL and the lenders that no legal action (regarding the March 2009 default) can be taken for the length of the season or 60 days after, so I believe HSG has until August to get this done before things get really ugly.

But I thought the Texas Rangers deal would be done months ago, and it still isn't done.

I believe there are three groups who have submitted applications and are being vetted by the league, and HSG has to grant one an exclusive negotiating window. So we're still early in the process before we even get there (I think the window is usually 45 days). Mix in the fact that the sale of the Rangers could eventually affect what the lenders want to get out of the Stars, and it could take a while once they eventually decide on a buyer and a price.

If nothing is done before August (or well on it's way to being done) it will be interesting to see what kind of legal action could be/would be taken against him.

It's going to be a very interesting off-season indeed.

• April 12th, 2010: The Dallas Morning News reports that Jim Lites, Mike Modano, and local business man William Quinn (Natural Gas Partners) has been vetted by the league and is one of three groups vying for negotiating rights.
  
• April 8-10th, 2010: Mike Modano's final NHL games (possibly) bring about a flurry of activity in which Mike reaffirms multiple times that he is very interested in being a part of any local investment groups looking to buy the team.
  
• April 4th, 2010: Mike Modano immediately and vehemently denies this report, but confirms interest in other groups. Mike Heika, in the first real news reported on the potential sale of the team in months, speculates that three different groups are seeking approval from the NHL to buy the Stars from Hicks.
  
• April 4th, 2010: Richie Whitt of the Dallas Observer reports that Wayne Gretzky, Brett Hull and Mike Modano are part of an ownership group that is more than just interested in the team...
  
• March 2010: Things quiet down considerably, and the official channels say nothing past the February announcement of Hicks looking into a possible sale of the team.
  
• February 10th, 2010: Mark Cuban tells ESPN Radio he's interested, and has been approached by someone who's interested in, becoming a minority owner of the team to gain control of the AAC.
• February 9th, 2010: Hicks meets with media in his office and suggests that southern hockey teams cannot possibly be competitive financially with those in the north. Also says he's lent money to the team personally to keep them at their downgraded payroll of $45 million.
  
• February 4th, 2010: Stars President Jeff Cogen send a letter to fans assuring everyone that business will continue as usual.
• February 4th, 2010: Finally, word comes down that Tom Hicks is interested in the POSSIBLE sale of the Dallas Stars.
• January 26th, 2010: Hold on a second, the sale of the Rangers is not expected to free up any cash for the Stars. Booooo.
  
• January 23rd, 2010: The Rangers is deal is proclaimed done (or agreed to in principle). Hooray?
  
• December 15th, 2009: Hicks selects Greenberg/Ryan Group for exclusive negotiating rights regarding sale of Texas Rangers.
• December 3rd, 2009: Update on Tom Hicks' Ownership Situation With the Texas Rangers. Hicks will not be able to control any of the Rangers even after the sale. We're still holding out hope for the Stars.
  
• September 3rd, 2009: Stars Fans Hoping to Benefit From Sale or Texas Rangers. There's a lot of interest in the team. As many as 6 different groups. We're still thinking that he's going to sell the baseball team and we're going to get our payroll back.
  
• August 19th, 2009: Tom Hicks and the Texas Rangers: How will the Dallas Stars be affected? And we were still telling everyone how The Rangers and the Stars operate independently.
• Mary 29th, 2009: Hicks is NOT interested in selling the Dallas Stars as previously reported. Too bad.
  
• April 4th, 2009. Brandon Bibb takes a look at Tom Hicks up to that point as owner of three teams: Gravypan's take on Tom Hicks
• April 3rd, 2009.  Hicks Sports Group defaults on $525 million in loans: This may not have been the very first sign of trouble, but it was the eye opener locally that really got things rolling.
• March 25th, 2009. Hicks looking to sell up to 49% of both Dallas teams, citing bad economy. Huh...