Tampa’s two headed ownership monster

Let’s go ahead and file this one under “how not to run a NHL franchise.” Oren Koules and Leo Barrie bought the Tampa Bay Lightning club in 2008 for 204 million dollars. Since then the two have argued over the finances of the team, and the philosophy the organization should employ to rebuild it.

This fight has gotten so nasty, sp personal that the two had to hold a meting with NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, and ultimately let the league arbitrate over who should have control off the team.

As it stands now, both partners must be consulted and come to some kind of consensus over player and contract decisions. Sports teams cannot be run by committee ultimately one person must be in control of where the franchise is headed, and what the philosophy of the team should be. In a perfect world Millionaire egomaniacs will come to the conclusion that they are not the ones to be making those decisions, and hire a strong President or General Manager to do this for them.

Now Co-Owner Barrie has until Friday, July 17th, 2009 to come up with 10 million dollars, his share of the forecasted losses for the Lightning for it's current fiscal year which began July 1st. He must come up with the cash, or secure credit, payable to the NHL in order to even be considered as a candidate to lead the team.

While it is unclear what will happen if he fails to produce the 10 million dollars, it is clear that if he does the Status Quo will continue until Bettman and the NHL can come to a decision on how should be running the team.

It is sad to say that this is not the first ownership mess that Lightning have faced since entering the NHL in 1992. The original ownership group included Phil Esposito, New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, and Japanese businessman Kokusia Green. Green was a reported front to the Japanese Yakuza, and as early as its second season the team found itself on the brink of bankruptcy. This team was even investigated by the IRS, and was almost slapped with a lien by the government.

In 1998 Green, after demanding 230 million for the team and its new lease on the Ice Palace, found a buyer in motivational Speaker Art Williams. At this point the team was 102 million dollars in debt, but Williams was able to pump six million dollars into the payroll, and worked to erase the debt of the previous ownership group. One year later he sold the team to William Davidson, owner of the NBA’s Detroit Pistons and the IHL’s Detroit Vipers. While Davidson remained in Detroit he appointed Tom Wilson to run the day to day operations of the Lightning.

Essentially the roster and coaching staff of the Detroit Vipers, who were a premier minor league hockey club having won a Turner Cup, were gutted to improve the roster of the Lightning. The only players of note left over from the years of awful hockey were Vincent Lecavalier, and Brad Richards.

The new management group was able to build a contender and won a Stanley Cup in 2004. After a short playoff run in the 2006-07, the team finished dead last and is was announced that Palace Sports and Entertainment would sell the team to an ownership group led by Koules who was the producer of the Saw Horror movies.

This group hired ESPN hockey analyst Barry Melrose to be their head coach, but Melrose only lasted 16 games into the 2008-09 season. This may have been the beginning of the feud between the two owners as they clearly did not have a plan on how to rebuild the team to its previous glory.

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DeutscherRed-Shirting

136 days ago

Score 2

And on and on it goes with Tampa, where it stops...Winnipeg!

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