According to a recent report on The Hockey News, the Dallas Stars are on the verge of being sold to billionaire oilman Bill Gallacher. After years of cash strapped payrolls, the Stars and their fans might welcome being owned by some one other than Tom Hicks. That's not to say HIcks has always been a penurious owner. Far from it in fact. The Stars used to have competitive payrolls and Dallas sports fans responded by supporting the team and lining Hicks' pockets with impressive revenues. Recent financial troubles though have seemingly crippled Hicks' ability to invest in the team like he once did and the lump sum he'd receive for the sale obviously has to be enticing.
The potential sale to Gallacher, which is estimated to be around $225 million dollars, could be finalized in the upcoming days or weeks. However, there are plenty of ways that the deal could come undone. Here's one scenario, courtesy of Ken Cambell at THN:The deal has yet to be signed and either side could back out of it, but it appears the deal will get done soon.
One possible scenario has Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban jumping back into the fray. Cuban was reportedly turned off by the $350 million price being asked by Hicks, but might be enticed by a much lower price. Owning the Stars would effectively give Cuban 100 percent of the revenues generated at the American Airlines Center, one of the busiest venues in North America. Currently co-tenants in the arena, the Mavericks and Stars split arena revenues 50-50, including non-sports events such as concerts.
With new general manager Joe Nieuwendyk in town and seemingly the right man for the job to rebuild the Stars into contenders, here's to hoping that the franchise ends up in the hands of the right owner - be it Gallacher, Cuban or anybody else that we've yet to hear about.
Stay tuned and check in at Defending Big D for more analysis and discussion.
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