Phil Esposito, Others Interested In Lightning If Team Is For Sale
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Esposito Says He Would Try To Put
Group Together To Buy Lightning |
Lightning Founder Phil Esposito yesterday said he would "try to put a group together" to buy the Lightning if co-Owners Len Barrie and Oren Koules decide to sell the franchise, according to Damian Cristodero of the ST. PETERSBURG TIMES. Tampa attorney Steve Burton, who in '07 failed in his joint bid with attorney Tom Scarritt to buy the club from former Owner Palace Sports & Entertainment, said, "There are a number of people around town who love the team and would try to help any way they can." Scarritt said of making a bid if the team becomes available, "If the clients are interested, yes, and the clients have always been interested." However, Esposito said that his "gut feeling is the ownership issue will be resolved before it gets to that point." Barrie has a "league-mandated 60-day window that closes in September during which he can buy out Koules," but if he "fails, Koules gets a chance to buy out Barrie." If both fail to acquire control, PSE, which "financed much" of the current OK Hockey ownership group's $200M purchase of the club, "could get control" (ST. PETERSBURG TIMES, 8/12).
FIRST IN LINE: SI.com's Allan Muir wrote the "only way to interpret the NHL's decision" to let Barrie have the first opportunity to buy out Koules is that Barrie "has no chance of raising the cash." By allowing Barrie "first wraps in this bitter business divorce, the league is preventing the former fringe player from crying foul over the process." If the "adequately funded Koules had gone first, Barrie could have challenged the result on the grounds that he wasn't given a fair chance." It is Barrie's "time to put up or shut up" (SI.com, 8/10).
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