Leipold signs pact to sell Predators to Nashville group
A group of Nashville investors announced Wednesday they have signed a letter of intent to buy the National Hockey League's Nashville Predators from owner and Racine businessman Craig Leipold.
The announcement was made at the Sommet Center. A letter of intent ensures exclusive negotiations and is a first step toward a binding agreement.
Also contending to buy the team is William "Boots" Del Biaggio, who has an agreement with the Sprint Center in Kansas City to move an NHL team there.
David Freeman, the Nashville venture capitalist and former CEO of Commodore Medical Services, would not comment on the process before the news conference, saying he was too busy with the deal.
But insiders say the letter of intent could merely be the first step. Another goal is to put a cash payment down before September to enable a binding purchase agreement. The NHL owners could then formally evaluate the bid before the regular season.
The Nashville group of buyers is said to be offering a sale in the $180 million range.
The Predators are the parent club of the Milwaukee Admirals of the American Hockey League.
The local group, led by Freeman, began pursuing a Predators deal when Canadian billionaire Jim Balsillie struck an agreement to buy the team for $220 million. The Balsillie deal went sour shortly after the co-CEO of BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion began taking steps to move the team to Hamilton, Ontario -- including the sale of prospective tickets through the Canadian arm of Ticketmaster.
The prospect of the team leaving Nashville spurred a hard push by local business leaders to boost season ticket sales.
Our Team, a Nashville group which hopes to boost ticket sales above the 14,000 mark, was a major part of a July 19 rally at the Sommet Center aiming to sell season tickets. By the end of that rally and ticket-a-thon, 726 full-season tickets were sold, 226 more than the goal. Our Team officials now say the Predators may be in record ticket-sale territory.
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