NHL Senior VP/Legal Affairs Bill Daly spoke to Frank
Brown of the N.Y. DAILY NEWS on the league's "credibility"
guidelines for prospective NHL owners in the aftermath of
the John Spano incident. Daly said the league spent three
months formulating new ownership criteria: "We're obtaining
more information, and we're clearly verifying -- spreading
the net wider in all areas." Daly said the league "looked
at where the (credibility checking) system went awry in the
summer. It wasn't really a product of our being negligent
in the application of our procedures, it was really a
situation where our procedures just weren't detailed enough
to catch the kind of fraud we were hit with." Brown wrote
the "most significant" upgrade in the new criteria is in
background checks. Daly: "We're going to have in-person
interviews with all references the prospective owner
provides, and we're going to have in-person interviews with
persons who aren't referenced but who we think would have
material information." The league will also hire an outside
firm to conduct a background/security check. Brown wrote
the firm "probably will be" Kroll and Associates, a "heavy
hitter in the investigative industry" (DAILY NEWS, 10/19).
SEASONS CHANGE: Senators President Roy Mlakar told the
OTTAWA SUN that Penguins Owner Howard Baldwin is "preparing
a motion" for the NHL Board of Governors "to start the
season in the third week of October in an attempt to help
raise attendance." Baldwin feels U.S. attendance is down
since the NHL is competing with the World Series, NFL,
college and high school football (OTTAWA SUN, 10/20).
