I'm a fan of all four teams in Dallas, almost equally. The Stars will also be number one, mainly for my absolute love of hockey and knowledge of the sport. Yet I'm also a diehard Dallas Cowboys, Texas Rangers and Dallas Mavericks fan.
This is why the sale fiasco of the Rangers has taken so much of my time.
Yet Stars fans, as we've been saying, should be paying very close attention to what's been happening. Hicks Sports Group, the ownership group that owns(ed) the Rangers and the Stars, defaulted on $525 million in loans tied between the two franchises. Tom Hicks initially believed that selling just one team would appease the lenders, and because the overall value was higher put the Rangers up for sale.
Almost immediately he made it known he would be selling the Stars as well, since the sale of the Rangers wouldn't be enough.
Last night, Chuck Greenberg and Nolan Ryan won an auction to purchase the Rangers for somewhere around $593 million. This should take care of the debt, and keep these lenders from doing the same thing to the Stars sale that happened to the Rangers, right? Not so fast. Per Angela Brown of the AP:
According to the team’s bankruptcy plan, creditors will only get about $75 million from the team, no matter who ends up buying it. But the judge has said lenders, who are owed about $525 million after team owner Tom Hicks’ financially strapped ownership group defaulted on loans, can go after Hicks’ other companies.
Does this mean that the lenders will get involved in the sale of the Stars? Almost assuredly, but I'm also interested to see if this means they can go after Hicks-owned companies outside of HSG. I doubt it's that simple.
As it is, one sale is complete yet the lenders are only getting a fraction of what is owed to them. Around $200 million (I think) of the Rangers sale is tied up in assumed debt to the lenders (I think) and I'm assuming that the rest of this debt will be taken care of with the sale of the Stars (I think).
[Update - Here's what Dan Kaplan tweeted this morning from the courthouse: "proceeds to lenders rose from $210 mln to $340 mil bec of auction, rangers lenders attorney says"]
All we can hope is that Hicks -- and the slimy Galatioto firm -- has learned his lesson in all this, and will get the Stars sale off without nearly the amount of confusion, collusion and back-room deals that plagued the Rangers sale.
I'm praying someone swoops in and proves me wrong on all this.
Please, Mr. Gallacher or Mr. Gaglardi -- come to our rescue.
[Update]
After doing some digging, and asking around a lot -- here's what I've come up with.
First of all, since this is a private sale, we won't get the exact details of the deal. But essentially this is how it breaks down: after the sale is complete, $75 million will be going directly to the lenders. In total, around $310 million will be given to HSG to pay off the defaulted loans. That leaves over $200 million remaining, which will presumably come from the sale of the Stars.
Learningas I go.
[End Update]