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scamperdog
06-20-2006, 05:21 PM
Gaglardi looks to buy Blazers
by Gregg Drinnan www.kamloopsnews.ca

Tom Gaglardi, a Vancouver-based businessman who attempted to purchase a piece of the NHL’s Vancouver Canucks two years ago, is interested in buying the WHL’s Kamloops Blazers.

“Sure there’s interest,” Gaglardi said Monday from his office in Vancouver, “and we’re looking at it.”

Gaglardi, who remained close-mouthed on any potential offer, is heading a group that is thought to include as many as four former Blazers players. However, the group doesn’t include Ryan Beedie, another Lower Mainland businessman.

Gaglardi, 38, is a grandson of the late Phil Gaglardi, who was a prominent politician in the Kamloops area. Tom is the CEO of Northland Properties Corp., which owns Sandman Hotels, Inns and Suites, along with various Moxie’s and Denny’s restaurants and other properties.

Beedie, 37, is president of The Beedie Group, which is based in Burnaby and is involved in real estate development, industrial building and construction.

In 2003 and early 2004, Gaglardi and Beedie partnered with Francesco Aquilini in an attempt to purchase 50 per cent of the Canucks from Seattle billionaire John McCaw. At one point, various media outlets reported that the deal was done, to the tune of $250 million, with Gaglardi and Beedie in for $125 million.

However, Aquilini ended up cutting a deal himself; Gaglardi and Beedie filed a statement of claim in B.C. Supreme Court in January 2005 accusing Aquilini of acting in bad faith. That claim is still before the courts.

The Blazers are a non-profit society. The franchise is owned by a group of shareholders, numbering 194, and controlled by a nine-man board of directors.

Off the ice, the board has been working to help the franchise recover from what it has said is an embezzlement, uncovered in September 2003, that resulted in the loss of more than $1 million. On the ice, the team didn’t make the playoffs in 2005-06, something that interrupted a run of six consecutive first-round playoff eliminations.

As a result of all the uncertainty, the franchise has found itself surrounded by rumours pertaining to a potential sale. For sometime now, there has been talk that a group including a handful of former Blazers players has had thoughts of making an offer.

Originally, Gaglardi made contact with the Blazers through Dennis Coates, a lawyer with Mair Jensen Blair and a member of the Blazers’ board.

“They kept saying to me that they would be interested,” said Coates, who has done legal work for Northland Properties. “I said, ‘Nobody said it’s for sale’ … although I guess the theory is that anything is for sale.”

When Gaglardi expressed some degree of seriousness, Coates said he referred Gaglardi to another lawyer.

“I told (Gaglardi) I was on the board and can’t be involved …,” Coates said. “I have to stay neutral and out of the loop … I just pass on to the board any time I hear this, that it may happen. I don’t think the board has seen anything come back.”

During the Blazers’ 2005 annual meeting, Coates, who is the board’s treasurer, estimated the franchise’s value to be between $4.5 million and $6 million. It is one of five community-owned franchises in the WHL, the others being the Lethbridge Hurricanes, Moose Jaw Warriors, Prince Albert Raiders and Swift Current Broncos.

The NHL’s Edmonton Oilers, who purchased the last expansion franchise to be sold by the WHL, are believed to have paid $4 million.

Coates said he also heard “some months ago” from Troy Gamble, a former WHL and pro goaltender, who appeared to be fronting a group out of Calgary. However, Coates said he only heard from Gamble once and that “he never did get back to me.”