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After 15 months of delays, disputes and despair, the Texas Rangers emerged from bankruptcy.
The goal now is to keep the Dallas Stars from going down the same pot-holed path.
While he further dissolves his once-mighty sports empire by selling Liverpool Football Club in England, Tom Hicks is also getting down to the business of unloading your Dallas Stars.
Not that anyone will much care with Mike Modano in Detroit, Marty Turco in Chicago and relevance and interest at an all-time low, but the Stars will open the National Hockey League season October 8. By then, Hicks hopes to have a new owner for the team.
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Hopes, I said.
This won’t be a public, out-in-the-open auction like the Rangers. Most of the transaction will take place behind closed doors since it’s a private sale.
This much we do know: So far there are three legit bidders including Rubert Murdoch’s News Corp. and Canadian businessmen Bill Gallacher and Tom Gaglardi. NHL commish Gary Bettman is on record saying the Stars will not move from Dallas but, as the Rangers taught us, these things are extremely fluid.
Not to get too financial, but the broker in the deal is also a lender, and if they can all agree on the sale it could be a painless, quick transaction. If not, the lenders could – gulp – force the Stars into bankruptcy and here we go again. The team’s bankruptcy protection runs out around September 1, so time is a factor.
The Phoenix Coyotes were recently forced into bankruptcy, and bought by the NHL. The league is still looking for a buyer/permanent owner.
Stay tuned.
