Report: Tom Gagliardi Agrees To Terms To Purchase Dallas Stars

Seems like Gagliardi is pulling out front, but it wouldn’t surprise me at all if someone comes out of the woodwork in bankruptcy (a la Texas Rangers sale.) Some feel he may be the “dark horse” to get the sale moving.

Should be interesting to see it play out.

Going to bankruptcy court, in a controlled and planned way, is far from a bad thing.

The Texas Rangers went to bankrupcty court because of a very significant disagreement between Hicks Sports Group and the lenders over who was chosen to ultimately bid on the team. The lenders felt that the highest bid was not chosen and they deserved the right to fight for the most money they’d try and receive in a sale. They also knew that opening up the sale to an auction — exactly what Nolan Ryan and Chuck Greenberg didn’t want — would likely get them even more money.

and…

Greenberg and Nolan Ryan had an exclusive period to bid on the team
Even though their intial bid was lower than the other buyers. What happened was that the other ownership group had already screwed with the MLB and they never would have been accepted as potential owners. So HSG agreed to go with Greenberg, because they were already accepted by the league.

Then the lenders got their panties all in a wad because they learned just how much Green’s bid was over Greenberg’s and cried foul that they were going to lose money because of it. So now it became this court battle over whether the Rangers had the legal right to turn down more money for the team when HSG owed so much for the lenders.

It was also revealed that it was the Galitioto group, working for Hicks, convinced the other lenders to fight this fight to get more money ….. knowing that going to bankruptcy would open the team up for bidding — potentially — and bring a higher price for the team.

Mark Cuban signed on with Green, got MLB approval, and then proceeded to go to the auction against the Greenberg group. Greenberg won, the lenders were ecstatic and Tom Hicks walked away a richer man.

Basically, the Rangers sale got ugly because there was a gigantic disagreement over who had the right to bid on the team — especially considering that the MLB would only back Greenberg and Ryan and not Greene, at least not initially. The big fight in the courts was over the financials of the team, who had the right to bid, did the bid that was in place meet all legal requirements and then there was the drawn out fight against an auction.

If everyone is in agreement about the steps needed to sell the team, including going to court, then that’s not a bad thing. If Gagliardi is going to receive compensation if he loses in a auction, I don’t see what there would be to fight about.

Will probably be getting Jamie Benn locked up long-term.

It all depends on who is going to be the coach and how quickly this sale is completed. Because right now things are a mess.