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Wall Street firm makes pitch to buy NHL Friday, August 31, 2007 A Wall Street firm and a sports advisory board have made a pitch to buy all 30 teams in the National Hockey League for $3.5 billion according to a report in Thursday's Toronto Star. Bain Capital Partners LLC and Game Plan International, which are both based in Boston, made a 30 minute proposal to the owners during Tuesday's Board of Governors meeting in New York. One owner sounded skeptical about the proposal. "They told us they had a formula to compensate each owner based on the revenue and assets and size of market of each team," one owner who attended the meeting told the Star. "I'm not sure how serious you can take the offer because it's an all-or-nothing deal. You need all 30 owners on board to make it work." One sticking point could be the value of the offer, which works out to just under an average franchise value of $117 million for the league's 30 teams. Forbes had the average value at $163 million in its latest report. During the proposal owners were shown how the league would work under a unified ownership model. It would be similar to a corporation where each team would be a division within the corporation. The teams would have a set budget at the beginning of the year and would have the freedom to make their own personnel decisions. The unified ownership would reduce operating costs and help boost revenues because the 30 teams would work together to generate broadcast and sponsorship revenues instead of competing against each other. Whether the league has settled its dispute would not be a factor in the deal being completed. The NHLPA would remain the bargaining agent for the players. The managing partner of Bain, which manages $48 billion in assets, is Steven Pagliuca, who is co-owner of the NBA's Boston Celtics. Bain also indicated that a Canadian-based financier is ready to join the effort.
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