TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

OK Hockey, Lightning Enter Into Agreement

ADVERTISEMENT

By ERIK ERLENDSSON, The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 14, 2008

PHILADELPHIA - The Lightning are finally going Hollywood.

Movie and television producer Oren Koules and his partners with OK Hockey - believed to include as many as eight members - announced Wednesday they have entered into a definitive purchase agreement to buy the team from Detroit-based Palace Sports and Entertainment. The deal includes the team, the lease agreement for the St. Pete Times Forum and 5.5 acres of adjacent land. Although no price tag was part of the announcement, the deal is believed to be worth between $200 million and $210 million. The first purchase attempt by Absolute Hockey in August was believed to be worth $206 million.

Word of the agreement came as a bit of a surprise Wednesday, four days after it was learned that Paris-based bank Societe Generale, which was initially going to provide the financing for Koules' bid, was rocked by a trading scandal that cost the bank $7 billion and led to the demise of its sports financing business.

But a backup plan was in place and Lightning CEO Tom Wilson said Koules hired one of Societe Generale's former employees to combine with one of Koules' believed partners who works in the financial world to help find a new, though unnamed, lender. Although a loan has not been secured, there is enough of a good feeling on both sides to make Wednesday's announcement public.

"It takes two entities to be comfortable with this and Oren was willing and able to go the extra step to get things to this point," Wilson said. "He wouldn't do that if he did not think that things were going to work out."

The deal is expected to be closed in 105 days, according to the release, which gives a deadline near the end of June to complete the purchase. Wilson said he believes Koules could approach the league to begin the process of getting the approval of the NHL board of governors, which can be done in unison with finalizing the loan.

"I believe that the 105 days is the high end of this process," Wilson said. "This is something that could be done in three weeks or five weeks or two months. But I don't think that this will end up getting near the 105-day mark."

Koules continues to remain out of the public eye and steer clear of media requests for the time being - he did not return an e-mail sent by The Tribune on Wednesday - but did make a statement in the release.

"We are happy that we are able to take this next significant step towards ownership of the Lightning," Koules said. "We are very excited about today's announcement and look forward to the day when we can make a difference for the Lightning and its fans."

It has been a rocky road in the past six months which have been filled with optimism, pessimism, hopes and doubts since an original agreement was announced in August to sell the team to Absolute Hockey, which included Koules. In between there was also a lawsuit that had to be settled by league commissioner Gary Bettman and last week's revelation of Societe Generale pulling out, right around the time a deal was to be announced.

"There is still a lot of work to do with the credit situation, but he's obviously very optimistic and good word that it's going to get done," Lightning president Ron Campbell said. "All the approvals are not there, but there's enough, I think, in this journey that where we've been at unless he felt very strongly that it would get done, he wouldn't be where he's at today."

In the short term, Wednesday's announcement should have little to no effect on the team's everyday business. But with the trade deadline Feb. 26 and Lightning general manager Jay Feaster still determining whether the team is going to be a buyer or a seller, Koules' potential involvement in the decision-making process could have a considerable impact.

Although he has never discussed any specific plans, Koules, a former pro minor-league hockey player, said during the August press conference how much he enjoys watching the team play and it is believed he is interested in keeping the core of the team together, namely Vinny Lecavalier, Brad Richards, Marty St. Louis and Dan Boyle. That could have an immediate impact on any negotiations with potential free agent Boyle, whose agent opened talks with Feaster this week, and whatever potential trades might be out there.

"Oren has been relentless in going about getting this team," Wilson said. "Even before all this, he was in contact with Jay Feaster almost every day asking what he thinks this guy or telling Feaster that 'my people are telling me this guy is available' and stuff like that. So he has a burning desire to be successful and that's going to help push everybody on the team and associated with the team to be better. And if I was a fan of Tampa, I would be real excited about this."

Bolts Timeline

The announced sale of the Lightning to Oren Koules and his OK Hockey group hopefully ends six months of ups and downs in the process since a first purchase agreement was revealed in August. A look back at the peaks and valleys of the deal:

Aug. 3, 2007 - News conference is held announcing the team is to be sold to the Absolute Hockey group, which features former Columbus general manager Doug MacLean, real estate developer Jeff Sherrin and Koules.

Nov. 26 - A lawsuit is filed in Hillsborough County Court by Absolute members, led by Sherrin, who want to sue Koules for breach of contract issues and accusing Koules of trying to broker his own deal with Palace Sports.

Dec. 11 - The league office, led by Commissioner Gary Bettman, brokers a deal between the former ownership partners leading to Koules buying out his former partners.

Dec. 18 - A group of local investors along with former Absolute partners Sherrin and MacLean explore the possibility of putting together a new group to make another bid for the team.

Dec. 19 - Palace Sports and Koules enter into a deal granting Koules exclusive negotiating rights to buy the team.

Jan. 31, 2008 - All signs point to a purchase agreement being imminent as the two sides meet in Detroit to finalize an agreement.

Feb. 9 - Reports of Koules' lender, Paris-based bank Société Générale, getting rocked by a scandal pulls the plug on Koules' financing for the team, indicating yet another setback in the process.

Wednesday - A purchase agreement is announced to sell the team, the lease on the St. Pete Times Forum and surrounding land, to Koules and his partners. Although the financing needs to be finalized with a new lender, both sides are confident they are in the final steps of moving the sale to a conclusion.

Reporter Erik Erlendsson can be reached at (813) 259-7835 or eerlendsson@tampatrib.com.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT