The well-publicized sale of the Ottawa Senators took another dramatic turn on Thursday, as Ryan Reynolds and the Remington Group decided to withdraw their names from the bidding process for the NHL club.
The Athletic spoke to multiple sources familiar with the Senators sale process who confirmed the Hollywood star was not proceeding with his bid to purchase the Senators with the Markham-based real estate firm. ESPN’s Emily Kaplan was the first to report the news on Thursday, which sent shockwaves through the NHL community.
Since publicly stating his interest in purchasing the team back in November, Reynolds has catapulted into the headlines on a regular basis because of his interest in the Senators. However, sources say his bid with the Remington Group hit a snag earlier this month when they opted for a bold and aggressive strategy to try and seize control of the hockey club. One source says it started to become evident within the last 48 hours that Reynolds and Chris Bratty were ready to withdraw from the bidding process, with their decision finalized late Wednesday night or early Thursday morning.
That’s a stark contrast from where things stood just a couple of weeks ago. The Reynolds-Remington group was prepared to put a firm offer of $900 million (U.S.) on the Ottawa Senators with one key caveat: They wanted an exclusive 30-day window to hammer out a new downtown arena deal for the Senators. In essence, all other bids for the hockey team would have been put on hold to allow the Reynolds and Remington Group to close on the deal themselves.
However, sources indicated that Galatioto Sports Partners — who are in charge of running the sales process — were not willing to grant that exclusivity to Reynolds and Remington Group. In particular, the feeling was that Michael Andlauer and Jeffrey Kimel — who are running competing bids — would have vehemently opposed such a provision for Reynolds and the Remington Group. Both Andlauer and Kimel have previous ownership ties with the NHL and their intimate knowledge of how these sales processes work meant they never would have stood idly by while another group received preferential treatment.
Reynolds and the Remington Group opted for this route because they were leery of getting into a pricey bidding war for the hockey club without some assurance of an amenable downtown arena deal. They did not want to get into a situation in which they spent over $1 billion (U.S.) for the hockey team, only to have the future of the downtown arena in jeopardy. They wanted assurance and clarity on the arena issue before proceeding with the purchase of the team and felt like asking for an exclusive negotiating window was the best route to achieve that goal.
In particular, they were hoping to receive a significant parcel of land at LeBreton Flats — much larger than the current six-and-a-half acres that is currently being set aside by the National Capital Commission (NCC) for a new NHL arena. But they were also willing to study the site near Bayview Yards, which would have also given them a coveted downtown location while working with the city of Ottawa instead of the NCC. In an ideal world, the Reynolds and Remington Group would have been able to play the city and the NCC against each other, leveraging the best possible arena deal for themselves. But trying to accomplish that goal in just 30 days would have almost certainly been an insurmountable task.
One source says Gary Bettman was not blindsided by this aggressive move, as Reynolds and the Remington Group kept the NHL commissioner apprised of their plans over the past few weeks.
With Reynolds suddenly out of the mix, the pressing question is: What happens next?
The next round of bids are due to be submitted on Monday and one source suggested the news of Reynolds and Remington’s departure from the process could drive the price down. One source suggested the sale price for the team may not eclipse $1 billion (U.S.) — although there remains an excellent chance the price tag passes the $900 million paid for the Pittsburgh Penguins when they were sold to the Fenway Sports Group in 2021. If the Reynolds and Remington Group had reservations about securing the hockey team without an arena deal, it stands to reason the other potential ownership groups share similar concerns.
There is a chance Reynolds could re-appear with another group, but up until this point, he was fairly adamant that he wanted to work exclusively with the Remington Group.
A source close to the Neko Sparks ownership group told The Athletic on Thursday evening their bid would gladly accept Reynolds into their fold if the actor wanted to join forces. Earlier this month, Snoop Dogg aligned with the Sparks group, stating that he was very interested in purchasing the Senators. Given the entertainment background of that group, perhaps there is a natural opportunity for a collaboration. Reynolds’ vision was to help secure a streaming rights deal around a behind-the-scenes documentary around the Senators, similar to what he accomplished with the “Welcome To Wrexham” series.
Another source suggested there is a path toward trying to marry Reynolds with Andlauer’s group. The feeling is once these bids are submitted on Monday, there will be an opportunity for GSP and Bettman to evaluate the final proposals and see if there are any opportunities to forge any last-minute partnerships.
One source said he was holding out hope that Reynolds would consider joining forces with another group, but it would likely take some time for him to recover from the disappointment of not securing this bid on his own.
Required reading
(Photo: Richard A. Whittaker / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiTWh0dHBzOi8vdGhlYXRobGV0aWMuY29tLzQ1MTE2MDcvMjAyMy8wNS8xMS9vdHRhd2Etc2VuYXRvcnMtcnlhbi1yZXlub2xkcy1iaWQv0gFTaHR0cHM6Ly90aGVhdGhsZXRpYy5jb20vNDUxMTYwNy8yMDIzLzA1LzExL290dGF3YS1zZW5hdG9ycy1yeWFuLXJleW5vbGRzLWJpZC8_YW1wPTE?oc=5
2023-05-12 14:58:42Z
2022467916
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar