EIG Agrees To Sell 100% Of Its Oilers Shares To Daryl Katz

EIG To Sell 100% Of Oilers Shares To Katz

The 34-member Edmonton Investors Group (EIG) "agreed yesterday to sell 100% of its shares" in the Oilers to Katz Group Chair Daryl Katz, according to Peter Maher of the CALGARY SUN. Katz’ offer for the team works out to C$22,000 a share for the 7,492 shares -- an offer that “represents a doubling of the original purchase price.” Katz said that he “plans to create an advisory board composed of community leaders and former members of [EIG] to help steer the team.” Katz has previously promised to pay C$100M towards a new arena, build a new practice facility and "spend to the cap on player salaries" (CALGARY SUN, 2/6). The deal is pending league approval and NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said, “I would suspect approval.” He added, “If everything ran smoothly, [a six- to eight-week] time frame is not unrealistic” (EDMONTON JOURNAL, 2/6). Oilers GM Kevin Lowe appeared on Edmonton's CHED-AM yesterday and said that there has been “no impact on the day-to-day hockey operations.” Lowe: “Everybody in the organization, I’m sure, is impacted in some psychological way, wondering what the new set of priorities will be or the marching order for lack of a better word … but we have to operate like we have a budget and a goal and that’s the plan we’re on at this point” (EDMONTON JOURNAL, 2/6).

Writer Feels It Might Be Perfect Time For Katz To Be Buying Oilers

BUYER'S MARKET: The NATIONAL POST’s Mark Spector writes there “might not be a better time to purchase” the Oilers, with a “climate change in the [NHL] -- where the Canadian teams are among the most stable -- and a rebuilding process that has the Oilers poised to contend again in the next couple of years.” The Oilers are also “in the top ten in the NHL in revenues this season,” and a new arena “could put Edmonton in the top five.” Although the Oilers possess the NHL’s fifth-highest payroll, a “hip, younger owner in Katz would be more likely to make the team more attractive to today’s player.” He might also be “more apt to buy out a bad contract … than the EIG, a group of ageing, cost-conscious businessmen” (NATIONAL POST, 2/6). 

TURNING OVER THE PUCK: In Edmonton, Robert Tychkowski writes EIG, which bought the Oilers in ’98, "turned the team from a money-loser playing to 5,000 empty seats a night to one of the strongest franchises in the NHL.” Oilers coach Craig MacTavish said, “They came in at a pretty crucial time and did the right thing keeping the team here in Edmonton.” MacTavish added, “They’ve been great to work with. The fact that I can only name three or four of the owners is maybe the best tribute I can give them for taking a back seat in all this” (EDMONTON SUN, 2/6).