Leiweke Adamant NHL Kings Not For Sale; Team Will Lose Money
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Leiweke Reinforces Notion
Kings Are Not For Sale |
AEG President & CEO Tim Leiweke participated in a two-part Q&A with the L.A. TIMES' Helene Elliott and said of the NHL Kings, "We're not out looking to sell the club. It's not for sale." Leiweke: "We had somebody call us who wanted to buy in. They've gone away. Others have now kind of jumped in saying, 'Can we talk to you?' and we've said no." Leiweke said AEG has "never had an issue financially with this club," and while he admits past mistakes on the management side of the team, he said the "one thing we have always done is bring financial stability back to the club." Leiweke: "Good times, bad times. Losses -- we haven't had profits, despite what Forbes says." When asked if the Kings will lose money this year, he said, "Yes. Not even close. We're much better this year. And I'm not crying, I'm not bitching, I'm not moaning. I'm not complaining. I'm not renegotiating, spinning. I'm not doing any of this. I'm just acknowledging the fact we are going to lose money." Leiweke: "We're OK with that because quite frankly we're going to lose a lot less money this year than we did last year. We're headed in the right direction and most of all we have a team that you say, 'These guys are fun to watch and we're headed in the right direction.' There's optimism here. I think we're OK with that. [AEG Chair Phil Anschutz] is probably the most pleased I've seen him in about three or four years" (L.A. TIMES, 11/6).
AWARE OF FANS' OPINIONS: In part two of the Q&A, Leiweke admits it "hurts" when he hears criticism of AEG's teams, which also include the MLS Galaxy. Leiweke: "I always tell people, 'Oh, they wrap dead fish in [newspapers] the next day and I try to move on.' But that's not true. My daughter reads the newspaper. And so believe me, the fans' opinion matters to me. I bought season tickets. I sit there with them every night. I hear it." He added, "I went and did the Galaxy open house the other night with (Galaxy) season-ticket holders and some people booed. And then I announced we were freezing season-ticket prices and we were rolling back the price increase and they cheered me." Leiweke said fans should judge AEG's teams "on how much money we just spent, not on what our current payroll is." Leiweke: "I'm not saying they don't have a right to be angry. I'm not saying that. I get it. They should be angry with us. We have not performed well." Meanwhile, Leiweke said of Forbes' team valuations, "You know 100 times more than anything they know. We're a private company, so where do they get our revenue? How do they know what our deals are? How do they know what our expenses are? How do they know what our arena rent is? How do they know what suite revenue we share with the team? They know none of this. They are dead wrong" (L.A. TIMES, 11/6).
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