Confirmed with Link: Senators are for sale - and it’s a Gong Show

[Knave]

I mean, do we really know much more about Andlauer, Apostolopoulos, and the Kimels than we do about Sparks? I don't see any reporter digging through their books or trying to track down all of their associates or Google-mapping their listed properties - probably because their bids carry an air of legitimacy that absolves that level of scrutiny.

Neko Sparks is the wildcard that everyone wants to know about, yet by getting close and reporting on the bid, Mendes gets crapped on and accused of carrying water, which I think is a bit absurd. It basically shows that people really want details on the Sparks bid solely because they want him to be exposed as a sham. People want his bid to be exposed, but simultaneously deride any reporting on it that doesn't suit that purpose.

Like, what's Mendes supposed to do here? Not report on people attaching themselves to Sparks bid? Not take interviews with those investors as they arise? Would people rather he just took the Garrioch route and stick to "Nothing happening yet; maybe soon?" tweets?

We have learned more from HFBoards posters doing basic searches than we have from Ian Mendes approaching the Sparks bid.

 

[Senscore]

Things I know about Michael Andlauer:

Made his fortune in healthcare. I see trucks with his company name on them on the road sometimes, so I'm confident his business is real.

Owned a significant chunk of the Habs for the past 14 years.

Owned the AHL Hamilton Bulldogs starting in 2004 and sold them back to the Montreal Canadiens in 2015, then acquired the Belleville Bulls of the OHL and moved them to Hamilton to exist as the new Bulldogs. Went to the Memorial Cup in 2018 and 2022.



So basically I'm pretty sure he has a good amount of money, an interest in hockey (and in winning), and his been involved in NHL ownership for a while now with no problems to speak of.

Nor is he soliciting bids from minor celebrities after the deadline has passed.


I managed all this with 10 minutes on Google.

 

[Relapsing]

We have learned more from HFBoards posters doing basic searches than we have from Ian Mendes approaching the Sparks bid.

Ah yes, the super trustworthy hf boards posters who use Google to uncover secret truths - because if you can find it online, it's irrefutable fact - and hide behind the anonymity of a username vs putting any sense of reputation on the line. Surely, no one in this thread has ever once jumped to inane conclusions based on incomplete information about this process or the bids involved. Never have they put forth speculation as fact.

What were we all thinking. Of course those people are more trustworthy than Ian Mendes, who's just some hack reporter who's to stupid to just google a bidders name.

/s

 

[Knave]

You know what. It's not worth arguing with goalpost movers. The facts are the facts. The articles are the articles. There is a reason the "trustworthy" and well respected reporters have been forced into moving closer to those lowly HFBoards posters over the months.

It's almost as if they didn't do a respectable job. Almost.

 

[Ice-Tray]

The reporting, and lack thereof speaks for itself in my opinion.

There is a strange lack of information, and desire to acquire any of said information, about one of the bids.

This much is pretty obvious to me.

 

[Relapsing]

He has been about as trustworthy as a Hollywood tabloid or a drug commercial with its fine print flashing on screen for a second.

And if you think the questions about the Sparks group financing are not accurate and the portrayal in the media up until recently was more accurate feel free to demonstrate it. Wish you luck.

Did I say I have issues with questions being asked? I think I was pretty clear that my issue is with the conclusions being drawn by keyboard warriors too invested in the process, while shitting over people who are doing their jobs.

Its clear you have an issue with Mendes, and the other reporting that's happened surrounding this process. Fine. But the irony of it all is - I can't google shit about you to find out who you (extra irony points for restricting who can see your full profile information, lmao AND rewriting your post that shit on mendes) or anyone else here are, whether or not you have any vested interests in the outcome of this process beyond being a fan, or any other agenda there might be about one or more of the bidders. So forgive me and anyone else if we don't put a lotta stock in anyone here google sleuthing. It's clear some people here have invested themselves waaaay too much in this and are taking things too far.

I trust Mendes more than 99.9% of posters here, and any conclusions they come to from their shallow google searches.

 

[Tap on the Ankle]

Hoping for Andlauer, love that he was a beer league goalie himself. Wealthy guy who loves hockey that much and has lots of experience in executive positions at hockey orgs. He sounds like an ideal owner short of some pipedream billionaire Sens superfan with bottomless pockets.

Posted this article before but the original site deleted it, good summary of his work with Hamilton's AHL/OHL teams.

Opinion | Michael Andlauer was 'the best thing to ever happen to hockey in Hamilton'

Sure, the Bulldogs' owner is more a big kid who just loves his toy, but you'd never know it, Scott Radley writes

www.thespec.com

 

[IpsoPostFacto]

I mean, do we really know much more about Andlauer, Apostolopoulos, and the Kimels than we do about Sparks? I don't see any reporter digging through their books or trying to track down all of their associates or Google-mapping their listed properties - probably because their bids carry an air of legitimacy that absolves that level of scrutiny.

Neko Sparks is the wildcard that everyone wants to know about, yet by getting close and reporting on the bid, Mendes gets crapped on and accused of carrying water, which I think is a bit absurd. It basically shows that people really want details on the Sparks bid solely because they want him to be exposed as a sham. People want his bid to be exposed, but simultaneously deride any reporting on it that doesn't suit that purpose.

Like, what's Mendes supposed to do here? Not report on people attaching themselves to Sparks bid? Not take interviews with those investors as they arise? Would people rather he just took the Garrioch route and stick to "Nothing happening yet; maybe soon?" tweets?

I'm leaving Mendes out of this in terms of being 'biased' as I don't believe it. I think i've been really fair to him.

You aren't going to see anyone's books for sure. We know wayyyyy more about all of those other bidders just by going to their websites and can see real companies who use them. And it's not an 'air' of legitimacy, they are actually legitimate.

The first question about Neko was "who" and nobody has attempted a real answer.

I don't know what else to tell you. We questioned the Hockey News dude for various reasons, we dragged the previous owner to his death bed and I'm not sure why. You would think 5 months of WTF from people and a lightbulb would go off over someone's head.

 

[Samsquanch]

Hoping for Andlauer, love that he was a beer league goalie himself. Wealthy guy who loves hockey that much and has lots of experience in executive positions at hockey orgs. He sounds like an ideal owner short of some pipedream billionaire Sens superfan with bottomless pockets.

Posted this article before but the original site deleted it, good summary of his work with Hamilton's AHL/OHL teams.

Opinion | Michael Andlauer was 'the best thing to ever happen to hockey in Hamilton'

Sure, the Bulldogs' owner is more a big kid who just loves his toy, but you'd never know it, Scott Radley writes

www.thespec.com

Damn. Yeah he's got my vote now too to be honest, I had no idea he was such a super fan.

 

[Neil Patrick Harris]

The reporting, and lack thereof speaks for itself in my opinion.

There is a strange lack of information, and desire to acquire any of said information, about one of the bids.

This much is pretty obvious to me.

This is entirely my point. That the Ottawa sports media hasn't uncovered some smoking gun on Sparks isn't indicative of some undue favoritism towards the Sparks bid - it's far more likely that there just isn't anything to uncover. Where you and others see a lack of desire to acquire information, I see a lack of information to be acquired.

You can't pull water from a stone. If all the information being uncovered about Sparks is scraps, it's probably because all that's out there is scraps. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

You aren't going to see anyone's books for sure. We know wayyyyy more about all of those other bidders just by going to their websites and can see real companies who use them. And it's not an 'air' of legitimacy, they are actually legitimate.

The first question about Neko was "who" and nobody has attempted a real answer.

I disagree. We know just as much about Sparks as we do the other bidders. We know he doesn't have the money himself. We know his company is small potatoes. We know he's just the front for whoever is really funding this consortium. The problem isn't that we don't know anything about Neko Sparks - the problem is that what we do know doesn't jive with what's expected of an NHL owner.

And somehow people want sports reporters to dig in uncover this mysterious bid, but also not to report on it too closely, because then you're just biased. Report on Sparks, but only report the bad stuff.

Does anyone here see Garrioch or any of those other hacks doing any serious reporting here? I sure as heck don't.

 

[Nac Mac Feegle]

This sale has to be done right. We can't afford to have another shallow pockets owner. And that means checking out all question marks.

Quite frankly, I don't care what the team sells for. What's important is how much money is left to operate the team and where the money is coming from to build a new arena and entertainment complex downtown.

Last thing we need is for a new owner to immediately cut costs and move a few core players to lower salary costs right when we're poised to be competitive.

 

[PlayersLtd]

I will say this about the Sparks bid, by being relatively silent he hasn't done himself any favours.

He knows his bid is being met with suspicion. Why isn't he out there letting us know more about who he is, or pushing his plans and motives with more substance than what we have heard? All we have is the early CFRA interview and he didn't come off great in it. And then we have these personalities come on and proclaim their involvement only to slide behind the curtain immediately after to almost never surface again. It's weird and doesn't seem well crafted.

His bid should have a strong media / PR component to it considering who is involved and his background in production etc... yet he is losing the PR battle. You would expect some charisma behind his bid, yet there is none.

It all just doesn't seem very business savvy to me. It seems hollow.

Also, we know he doesn't have much skin in the game, he's just the front man. Without skin in the game he could be gone tomorrow, so who then are we left with? With this group we know next to nothing about the true future owners and being as important as it is to the community I think we deserve to know.

The mystery is sowing discord and that to me is a misstep by Sparks. And sorry, but if he/they can't do that properly it doesn't inspire a ton of confidence that they can run a pro sports franchise properly.

 

[Micklebot]

I will say this about the Sparks bid, by being relatively silent he hasn't done himself any favours.

He knows his bid is being met with suspicion. Why isn't he out there letting us know more about who he is, or pushing his plans and motives with more substance than what we have heard? All we have is the early CFRA interview and he didn't come off great in it. And then we have these personalities come on and proclaim their involvement only to slide behind the curtain immediately after to almost never surface again. It's weird and doesn't seem well crafted.

His bid should have a strong media / PR component to it considering who is involved and his background in production etc... yet he is losing the PR battle. You would expect some charisma behind his bid, yet there is none.

It all just doesn't seem very business savvy to me. It seems hollow.

Also, we know he doesn't have much skin in the game, he's just the front man. Without skin in the game he could be gone tomorrow, so who then are we left with? With this group we know next to nothing about the true future owners and being as important as it is to the community I think we deserve to know.

The mystery is sowing discord and that to me is a misstep by Sparks. And sorry, but if he/they can't do that properly it doesn't inspire a ton of confidence that they can run a pro sports franchise properly.

A couple things, there is a NDA between all the bidders and the league, so how much he can say is limited, and second, he doesn't need to win a pr battle, he needs to show the Melnyks and league why they should chose him.

 

[Mingus Dew]

It wouldn't be unusual for work on a deal like this to continue through a holiday weekend when it's at a critical stage. The lawyers and bankers certainly aren't pens down on Friday at 5pm.

I doubt there will be an official announcements on a US holiday Monday, but news of major developments could definitely leak out.

Painfully correct. The poor souls working on this deal probably haven’t had a full weekend off in months.

 

[Golden_Jet]

This sale has to be done right. We can't afford to have another shallow pockets owner. And that means checking out all question marks.

Quite frankly, I don't care what the team sells for. What's important is how much money is left to operate the team and where the money is coming from to build a new arena and entertainment complex downtown.

Last thing we need is for a new owner to immediately cut costs and move a few core players to lower salary costs right when we're poised to be competitive.

The money to build a new arena and complex wil come from a bank loan.

It wouldn't be unusual for work on a deal like this to continue through a holiday weekend when it's at a critical stage. The lawyers and bankers certainly aren't pens down on Friday at 5pm.

I doubt there will be an official announcements on a US holiday Monday, but news of major developments could definitely leak out.

Not to mention, Gary won’t have the announcement on a playoff game day, it will be on an off day.

 

[Flamingo]

Frank Seravalli on the Sens sale and the "odd Neko Sparks bid that's floating out there." Starts at the 15 minute mark. (Some Dubas-to-Ottawa chatter just prior.)

-- Other three bidders say the league is using the Sparks bid to boost the price.
-- Sparks group is reaching out to the other bidders to tell them the Sparks group has won, and they'd better join.
-- "In all my years reporting on this business, I've never seen anything like this." Who is Neko Sparks, he's the next Spano.

 

[BondraTime]

Serevalli also said that Dubas is waiting on the Sens sale to make decision on his future, I guess at least one of the perspective buyers may have plans to bring Dubas in as GM/Pres

Serevalli really giving Neko the gears, thinks it's beyond bizarre

 

[Silencio]

-- Sparks group is reaching out to the other bidders to tell them the Sparks group has won, and they'd better join.

"STOP THE COUNT!"

 

[bert]

I'm not in favour of hiring Dubas for us, but he's pretty highly respected across the league, so maybe he's a better option than you're giving credit rather than people wanting him because he's "relatable" since he never played hockey...

He is highly respected? What has he done to earn that respect? I look at his actual body of work and its terrible. That's why I don't think he's any good. I assume most people are doing that as well. But considering so many sens online personalities are clamoring to get him i am trying to wrap my head around why. The results and decisions he made don't add up to me. They have underachieved and he failed to address any of the teams deficiencies while having multiple super stars. They won one series in his tenure. He has 1 player on the team he drafted and developed. He has walked Matthews to UFA status well before he should have. He overpaid Marner, he chose Tavares at an inflated 11 million dollar contract over Kadri who was making half and is a better playoff style player. Signed Mrazek over Andersen then paid a 1st to get rid of him. He traded for Matt Murray..... After all the drama in Ottawa. I've heard from multiple players that played with him that said he is a bad teammate. So I guess I am just looking for reasons why anyone would want this guy.

 

[Flamingo]

He is highly respected? What has he done to earn that respect? I look at his actual body of work and its terrible. That's why I don't think he's any good. I assume most people are doing that as well. But considering so many sens online personalities are clamoring to get him i am trying to wrap my head around why. The results and decisions he made don't add up to me. They have underachieved and he failed to address any if the teams deficiencies while having multiple super stars.

Yeah, I don't understand the Dubas cred. The Leafs have really under-performed. And those saying Dubas has assembled a great pro scouting team in Toronto really need to explain the Tavares over-payment and the really bad goalie situation there.

I've seen nothing encouraging out of the Neko bid at all. An intriguing mystery bid with ex-NHLers onboard should have a bit more promise. This one is giving me nightmares. Like, from Melnyk to this group is getting out of the frying pan straight into the fire.

 

[DueDiligence]

The reporting, and lack thereof speaks for itself in my opinion.

There is a strange lack of information, and desire to acquire any of said information, about one of the bids.

This much is pretty obvious to me.

Does it matter what the general populace knows or doesn't know about the bids? All I really care is that the NHL, GSP and the Melnyk "team" do their due diligence and select the best bidder.

 

[Ice-Tray]

Does it matter what the general populace knows or doesn't know about the bids? All I really care is that the NHL, GSP and the Melnyk "team" do their due diligence and select the best bidder.

I suppose an argument could be made that some people care to know more, or want pundits to ask more questions.

I mean this idea has been a hammer to bash BG, while also being something IM has been lauded for in the past. I think some folks just find it not only strange that all of a sudden IM is not doing his usual deeper dive, but that he played the victim and passive aggressively dropped the race card on Twitter.

Seems like strange and out of character behaviour, but whatever, it’s just banter on HFSens in the end.

Of course you are correct, none of this matters at all in the end.

 

[bert]

Does it matter what the general populace knows or doesn't know about the bids? All I really care is that the NHL, GSP and the Melnyk "team" do their due diligence and select the best bidder.

I think we are all on the same page. What people are worried about is the Melnyks choosing the highest bid over the best bidder for the city and organization. We have endured some terrible ownership, and I think people just want stability. I know that's what I am hoping for with ownership. I personally want some canadian ties, and someone that can afford the team and build an arena. Which when you look at the Sparks bid it doesnt appear to have any of that. Which is scary.

 

[IpsoPostFacto]

Serevalli also said that Dubas is waiting on the Sens sale to make decision on his future, I guess at least one of the perspective buyers may have plans to bring Dubas in as GM/Pres

Serevalli really giving Neko the gears, thinks it's beyond bizarre

even though you have to consider the source (not Serevalli per se, but he's hearing from or about other bidder's comments), but that little section on Neko wasn't pulling punches.

 

[Micklebot]

He is highly respected? What has he done to earn that respect? I look at his actual body of work and its terrible. That's why I don't think he's any good. I assume most people are doing that as well. But considering so many sens online personalities are clamoring to get him i am trying to wrap my head around why. The results and decisions he made don't add up to me. They have underachieved and he failed to address any of the teams deficiencies while having multiple super stars. They won one series in his tenure. He has 1 player on the team he drafted and developed. He has walked Matthews to UFA status well before he should have. He overpaid Marner, he chose Tavares at an inflated 11 million dollar contract over Kadri who was making half and is a better playoff style player. Signed Mrazek over Andersen then paid a 1st to get rid of him. He traded for Matt Murray..... After all the drama in Ottawa. I've heard from multiple players that played with him that said he is a bad teammate. So I guess I am just looking for reasons why anyone would want this guy.

What people on HF think and what teams actually do often doesn't align, the Pens slammed the breaks on their search for a new GM when Dubas became available because they respect his body of work, so while you're looking for reasons, their actions show they either know something you don't, or just came to different conclusions based on the same info.