Smart money, big money says Seattle’s NHL-bound
SEATTLE This week marks the start of a new National Hockey League season and very likely a new era for the circuit in Seattle.
While nothing official will come out of today ’s meeting between the NHL Seattle group and the league’s executive committee, any positive nod makes the deal as good as done. Sure, there would still be a vote required by the 31-member NHL board of governors, likely in Florida come early December, to award Seattle an expansion franchise to play at a remodelled KeyArena starting in October 2020.
But the board of governors has never nixed an expansion recommendation by the all-powerful, 10-member executive committee. And if you’re weighing the odds of a positive recommendation out of that committee today, well, that particular deck comes about as stacked as the Washington Capitals lineup that will open defence of its Stanley Cup championship the following night against the Boston Bruins.
First off, the executive committee chairman is none other than Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs, also known as the 50-year patriarch of family business Delaware North, which happens to have a deal as lead concessionaire of the soon-tobe-revamped KeyArena. Next, you have Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik, who worked tightly with NHL Seattle president and CEO Tod Leiweke for years when he was Lightning CEO, and helped Vinik with his Channelside real-estate development project.
Leiweke’s brother, Tim, who will co-present alongside NHL Seattle at today’s meeting, is chairman of the Oak View Group company handling the planned $700-million (all figures in U.S. dollars) KeyArena renovation. Four of the eight remaining members of the NHL executive committee — Ted Leonsis of the Capitals, Craig Leipold of the Minnesota Wild, Rocky Wirtz of the Chicago Blackhawks and Larry Tanenbaum of the Toronto Maple Leafs — represent teams playing in arenas now partnered with OVG’s “arena alliance’’ event marketing and promotions initiative.
Others making Seattle’s presentation today will include Mayor Jenny Durkan and future team owners David Bonderman and Jerry Bruckheimer. It should be noted Bruckheimer has a long-standing personal relationship with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, who, along with executive committee chairman Jacobs, arguably holds the most sway over the board of governors.
And let’s get right down to it: Money talks. A league that once allowed convicted swindler John Spano into its ownership ranks knows it could do far worse than adding a bona fide multibillionaire.
Bonderman has a net worth estimated by Forbes at $3.3 billion. Only 14 out of 31 NHL clubs are owned by multibillionaires, and Bonderman would rank tied for 12th with Canucks owner Francesco Aquilini. Throw in Bruckheimer’s reported $850-million net worth, and you’d have a Seattle ownership duo ranking well among the league’s top 10.
That alone doesn’t make Seattle’s the perfect ownership group. But the more billions you have, the less likely you’ll be threatened financially by every sudden market downturn.