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Thread: Are The Winterhawks For Sale

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
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    Default Are The Winterhawks For Sale

    Audit of Winter Hawks scheduled to be complete by Thursday
    Buyers said to be interested in case hockey team is for sale
    By Jason Vondersmith

    The Portland Tribune, May 14, 2008, Updated 9.2 hours ago

    Are the Portland Winter Hawks for sale?

    Is the Western Hockey League going to facilitate a sale in the wake of a couple disastrous seasons under current ownership?

    Will the WHL force Portland's ownership to sell?

    Do the Winter Hawk owners want to cut their losses and get out, hoping to make some bucks on the way out of town?

    Those four very important questions remain unanswered as the WHL finishes its review and audit of the team’s operations and finances. Originally, the league wanted to be done with the audit by the first of May, but it extended the completion date to Thursday, May 15.

    WHL Commissioner Ron Robison, Portland principal owner Jim Goldsmith and Hawk President Jack Donovan have not returned phone calls to the Tribune in recent days. Everything has been hush-hush lately as the parties talk things over behind closed doors.

    At least two groups are showing strong interest in purchasing the team, the Tribune has learned. The names of former Hawks Marian Hossa and Brenden Morrow keep popping up as possible owners, although both are still involved in the NHL playoffs; it is not known whether the players or representative(s) are involved in discussions to purchase the Portland team.

    The Winter Hawks have cried foul for years about their lease with the Trail Blazers not being conducive to them making money, and Goldsmith says the team has lost money each year since 1998-99.

    But Robison has said repeatedly that he does not want the Winter Hawks to leave the city, even with the current ownership exploring Salem as an option because it’s within the team’s Portland territory. One thing very disturbing to the WHL has been the management’s negligence in paying some bills and the front office's overall operations, like the decision that had General Manager (and former co-owner) Ken Hodge twisting in the wind about his job.

    So, either ownership sells or the Jim-Jack-John (Bryant) show continues to try to make things work – with a better team expected on the ice in the coming years.
    # 8-9-11-22 ALWAYS REMEMBERED

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Apr 2007
    Location
    Spokane Valley, WA
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    Default

    Interesting. I sure hope they stay in Portland.

  3. #3

    Default

    Me too, but sell them to some one who will love them. Honestly they are dragging the rest of us down!

  4. #4
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    Default No Promise Made To Sell

    Winter Hawks: No promise made to sell team

    Team President Jack Donovan says club has not received an offer, although at least two groups are interested in the club
    By Jason Vondersmith

    The Portland Tribune, May 14, 2008

    Several questions are swirling around the Portland Winter Hawks these days, as the Western Hockey League wraps up its review and audit of the struggling organization.

    Commissioner Ron Robison has said the league’s review would be complete by Thursday, after being extended a couple weeks. Robison has been unavailable for comment.

    Portland President Jack Donovan, the team’s point man with principal owner Jim Goldsmith living in New York, says he doesn’t expect the review to include anything about a change in ownership. Goldsmith has not returned calls from the Portland Tribune.

    Donovan says a big software switch will help the Hawks keep better tabs on their money. But, ownership questions remain, which Donovan addressed Wednesday.

    Has Goldsmith told the WHL that he has agreed to sell the team?

    “No, he did not,” says Donovan, who adds that neither he nor Goldsmith have been presented with a letter of agreement to sign that would confirm an impending sale.

    Can the WHL force the Portland owners into selling the team, or facilitate a sale, either back to the league or to another group?

    “It’s our call,” Donovan says. “The WHL is an office that works for the owners, and they cannot say you have to sell.”

    Do the owners want to sell the Winter Hawks?

    “There’s been no offer,” Donovan says. “You can’t agree to sell if you don’t have an offer or a purchase price. We had an offer on the team last year by a group from Vancouver (British Columbia), and we told them no.

    “There is no one we’re looking at, no one saying, ‘We’ll give you this for the team, will you sell it?’ Right now, there is nothing going on.”

    Donovan says the Hawks’ staff, which has been downsized, continues to make sponsorship and ticket sales calls for next year — “it’s business as usual,” he says. And he says the Winter Hawks have some solid players and two solid drafts behind them, and hope to be a winning team for years to come.

    But the Tribune has learned that at least two groups have lined up to make bids on the Winter Hawks, one involving several former team personnel and players that includes Brenden Morrow and another group involving former Hawk Marian Hossa.

    “We hear that all the time. Haven’t heard it from them,” Donovan says. “Names pop up, but it’s just chit-chat.”

    He adds: “The way it’s supposed to work is, if there is someone out there who wants to buy the team, if it gets to the point where there’s a written offer, you’re supposed to alert the league and say we have a written offer.”

    The Winter Hawks, including current owners, have cried foul for years about their lease with the Trail Blazers not being conducive to them making money. Goldsmith says the team has lost money each year since 1998-99, a trend not made any better after the Winter Hawks recorded the WHL’s worst record the past two seasons.

    Two things very disturbing to the WHL: the Portland management’s negligence in paying bills and the front office’s overall operations.

    Robison has said repeatedly that he does not want the Winter Hawks to leave the city, even with the current ownership exploring Salem as an option because it’s within the team’s Portland territory.
    # 8-9-11-22 ALWAYS REMEMBERED

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