News broke Thursday that an offer to buy Carolina Hurricanes has been made and the offer to keep the team in Raleigh was included.
We know that team owner Peter Karmanos Jr has been exploring his options regarding a sale of the team for quite some time now. And it appears that an ownership group headed by former Texas Rangers CEO Chuck Greenberg has offered $500 million to buy the team. This isn’t Greenberg’s first stint in ownership of an NHL team. In 1999, the Pittsburgh native was a previous business associate of Mario Lemieux and helped him buy the Penguins and stayed on as team counsel.
That figure appears to be a very high number, considering that Forbes valued the team last in the NHL at $230 million in their 2016 Valuation Rankings. Forbes Staff Writer Mike Ozanian is also calling the $500M amount “bogus” and “fake news”. Oznian went on to write that he believes that Greenberg isn’t close to coming up with $400 million, let alone $500 million.
“Since an offer has been made to purchase the team, Mr. Karmanos intends to evaluate that offer and also will continue to evaluate his other options, including retaining his ownership of the team.”
-Carolina Hurricanes statement according to NHL.com,
For those hockey fans hoping for a return of NHL hockey to Hartford or Quebec City, don’t hold your breath. Gary Bettman shot down any chance for that when he said in January “There’s no imperative for the franchise to be sold on any immediate basis, and the franchise is not moving,” Bettman.
Stay tuned for updates regarding this situation. This could be a process that could take place on the course of several months to happen, as any sale of an NHL team must be approved by the NHL Board of Governors.
