Sale of team is a process where we will eventally know everything

Forbes' Michael Ozanian had a recent online column where he said his sources tell him the signed purchase agreement Vancouver businessman Tom Gaglardi will put forth for the Stars might be for only $115 million. Here is an excerpt from the story, that can be found online here: http://blogs.forbes.com/mikeozanian/2011/06/07/inside-the-latest-offer-to-buy-the-dallas-stars/  ``A person familiar with the negotiations tells me Gaglardi’s offer is just about $115 million. That’s it. The $115 million enterprise value is all debt assumption, no equity, and includes control of half of the arena (Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban owns the other half).'' I'm not 100 percent sure this is right or wrong, because we can only go with what people inside tell us, but the people I talk to say this isn't correct and that Gaglardi's offer includes at least $50 million in cash. Again, the people I talk to say one thing. The people others talk to say another. It's confusing for me too. Having talked to a lot of different people over the past year or so, I will say that the eventual sale price of the team will be a moving target. Because of assumed dept and potential combined responsibility on some money (the new owner might make an offer to share future profits of the team with the lenders), there are numerous ways to reach a ``sale price.'' That's one of the reasons this is taking so long _ because the creativity of the purchase agreement will force other bidders to do some fancy accounting themselves when this goes into a pre-packaged bankrupcty hearing. The thought is the Gaglardi offer will come very soon, possibly by the end of the week. And that is maybe the most important thing for fans right now. If Gaglardi puts forth a signed purchase agreement, then the sale can move forward. Because there are so many lenders and the chance that some lower level lenders could be unhappy with the sale price (because they would get no money) and could sue the potential new owner, this course has to be sent through a pre-packaged bankruptcy hearing. There, the NHL, the lenders, the Stars, Hicks Sports Group and the potential buyer will put forth the purchase agreement and ask a bankruptcy court to approve it so that the team can move forward with a clean slate and a new owner. Part of the job of the bankuptcy court is to protect the lenders and get as much value as they can for the team, so they will then open up the bidding and allow others to come in and bid more than the signed purchase agreement. Everyone involved knows this, so if Tom Gaglardi puts forth a purchase agreement like the one described, the guess here is that several people will bid over that. Our sources say local businessmen Doug Miller and Billy Quinn are still interested in buying the team, as is Detroit businessman Christopher T. Charlton. And others could appear if the cost really is that low. Still, the bottom line is that once this moves into a bankruptcy court, someone will get the team. And because the court documents are public, we will see exactly what kind of money will be spent. All of this speculation is a nice way to kill time, I guess, but the bottom line is the team should get sold this summer (unless the lenders turn down any offer sheet and decide to keep paying the bills, which seems unlikely) and we should know all of the details eventually. And that's all you can really say for sure right now.