The sale of the Dallas Stars took a giant leap forward this week when “Dallas Stars L.P.” filed a prepackaged bankruptcy plan with a U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware. The mantra coming out of all camps has been “within 60-75” days and the court documents spell that out pretty specifically. There are, however, two ways the sale can proceed from here…
One or more parties will submit an NHL approved bid for the team that tops Tom Gagalrdi’s by at least ten million dollars. This scenario initiates the auction timeline in the court papers that specifies a bid deadline on or near October 22nd, with an auction to be held approximately 30 days after that, wrapping the whole thing up by late November.
Should there be no further bids submitted, there’s a chance (if we’re reading these things right) that the additional 30 days will be rendered unnecessary and the sale can wrap up by Halloween in principle, with approval from the NHL governors coming sometime later as an expected technicality.
So the next logical question is: Will someone else indeed bid?
Seeking to answer that I reached out first, via email, to Chuck Greenebrg, American sports attorney, CEO and founder of Greenberg Sports Group (GSG), and former CEO of Rangers Baseball Express LLC. Mr. Greenberg confirmed his interest in the team a few weeks back to D Magazine and he maintained his interest yesterday in an email exchange.
We mentioned it on twitter yesterday but for those of you not following along there, here’s what he had to say, reprinted with Mr. Greenberg’s permission…
“I have been working hard on evaluating the Stars for a little over two months now. Of course, that represents a very late start compared to everyone else who has expressed an interest in purchasing the Stars, including Mr. Gaglardi. We have been trying to do in a matter of a couple months what others have been doing for over a year. Now that the bankruptcy has finally been initiated, we will be able to make a final assessment to determine whether to bid. As I know from personal experience in the Rangers bankruptcy, it can be quite an advantage to be the stalking horse bidder. We will try to make a final decision quickly.”
The pool of other potential bidders is murky at this point. The camp of Allen American’s owner Doug Miller has not been heard from in some time, nor has the Billy Quinn group.
The Dallas Stars took the ice this morning in PEI, 2,500 miles away, and we await coverage from the Stars themselves and ESPN Dallas in the mean time. There will be a scrimmage at 4:00pm Central tomorrow, followed by another day of practice on Monday and the first preseason game on Tuesday night.