In Palm Beach, Charles Elmore reported that Booth Creek
Chair George Gillett "has not followed up a visit" to the
NHL Panthers with "any immediate offers to buy" the team.
Boca Resorts spokesperson Ron Castell: "He hasn't liked
hockey enough, or at least Florida Panthers hockey, to sit
down and negotiate." Panthers execs said that one or two
other possible buyers may be interested (P.B. POST, 12/16).
LOAN FOR ISLES OWNERS: The SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL's
Daniel Kaplan cites sources saying that Bank of America has
agreed to lend the Islanders around $100M, which will help
Owners Charles Wang and Sanjay Kumar finance their $185M
acquisition of the club (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 12/18).
NOTES: In St. Paul, Greg Johnson reports that the "pain
and anguish of losing the North Stars" after the '92-93
season were "eased when the Wild exacted a measure of
revenge" last night by beating the Stars 6-0 before a crowd
of 18,834, the "largest at the Xcel Energy Center" (ST. PAUL
PIONEER PRESS, 12/18)....BLOOMBERG's Curtis Eichelberger
reported on the expansion Texans and noted that team Owner
Bob McNair said he "budgeted about" $125M preparing for his
franchise's inaugural season two years ago from now," in
addition to the team's $700M expansion fee (BLOOMBERG NEWS,
12/15)....After Wizards President of Basketball Operations
Michael Jordan criticized the play of his team, players
responded "by saying finger-pointing is not what the
struggling team needs and that since Jordan is part of the
team, he should be supportive" (WASHINGTON POST, 12/17).
...FSN's Chris Myers, on Redskins Owner Daniel Snyder:
"Snyder has become very unpopular. I get the impression if
he went one-on-one with Sadaam Hussein, you'd root for
Sadaam Hussein" ("NFL This Morning," FSN, 12/17).
