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

[Golden_Jet]

Sure but that kind of vetting doesn’t take that long. You just need to know the folks are real and actually have the ability to play in the space. The in-depth stuff can come later.

Also I’m assuming they were getting their ducks in a row before they publicly launched their marketing period like any normal corporate seller would.

Billion dollar sales don’t move fast, never have, and when there is vetting involved, it takes longer.
And no tire kickers need to be vetted out.

 

[Mingus Dew]

Don't all teams have to have their books audited yearly under the CBA anyways? Idk, I don't think the books can be so inaccurate/incomplete/messy that it would cause major delays with the scrutiny they are required to be under already.

With respect to the financials definitely. If the league/CBA doesn't require it then the team's lenders certainly do.

But that's just one piece of what you'd find in a data room.

Edit: Billion dollar deals move fast all the time. If an investment bank took this long to get a data room up for a multi-billionaire dollar deal they'd never work again.

How long does it take to vet tire kickers lol? You can give a college kid a couple of days with Google and he can figure out if a company/individual is a real player or not.

 

[Micklebot]

With respect to the financials definitely. If the league/CBA doesn't require it then the team's lenders certainly do.

But that's just one piece of what you'd find in a data room.

Edit: Billion dollar deals move fast all the time. If an investment bank took this long to get a data room up for a multi-billionaire dollar deal they'd never work again.

How long does it take to vet tire kickers lol? You can give a college kid a couple of days with Google and he can figure out if a company/individual is a real player or not.

The initial excuse was holiday season causing delays, they'd intended to have the data room open mid to late December if I recall.

With respect to the financials definitely. If the league/CBA doesn't require it then the team's lenders certainly do.

But that's just one piece of what you'd find in a data room.

Edit: Billion dollar deals move fast all the time. If an investment bank took this long to get a data room up for a multi-billionaire dollar deal they'd never work again.

How long does it take to vet tire kickers lol? You can give a college kid a couple of days with Google and he can figure out if a company/individual is a real player or not.

Athletic had an article that included info about what would be in the data room and for the most part it seemed like the stuff that would be included in league audits, but there was some stuff that wouldn't need to be. Anyways, it just seems odd to me that things would be that big of mess but who knows...

 

[Silencio]

Maybe all the buyers were just pretending to be interested as an excuse to get out of doing something else, like that Seinfeld episode where George says he's going to buy a house in The Hamptons.

 

[Mingus Dew]

Maybe all the buyers were just pretending to be interested as an excuse to get out of doing something else, like that Seinfeld episode where George says he's going to buy a house in The Hamptons.

This one wins.

 

[DrSense]

This process is moving at a relatively normal pace. If you're the seller, you don't want to move too quickly, as you want to make sure you have all the interested parties at the table ready to make an offer. That will create an auction of sorts. With 3-4 parties interested at the $750m-$800m range, it could mean the sale price pushes up to $1B.

I suspect they will sign a LOI with the preferred buyer by March, and close by June.

 

[Cosmix]

To be clear, I'm not saying there is anything nefarious going on. It's just an odd situation.

Time kills deals. Especially when it's one of the roughest financing markets in 15 years and things are projected to get worse before they get better.

So if I'm the team I'm expecting the league to "vet" potential buyers as quickly as possible. We're talking about things like running criminal records, checking bankruptcy history and searching active litigation. This isn't a CIA black op.

There are reports that the data room isn't even complete yet, which is bonkers when you publicly announce marketing in November. My guess is that the org's information is inaccurate or incomplete or just downright messy and that's causing a ton of work and backwards investigation for the bankers.

Perhaps there were some "inconsistencies" in the data that required investigation and correction.

 

[Bileur]

The market has internal challenges to having consistent sell outs. If a group has new ideas to make the product more interesting to the next generation and a more inclusive to draw from a larger pool of potential customers that has to be a good thing.

I’m also curious about what an immersive experience outside the rink means.

The traditional game experience from Canadian arenas is nothing special, I don’t need to hear cotton eyed Joe any more than we currently do.

Case in point:



The “official Ottawa senators Pizza” - pepperoni with an extra layer of… pepperoni

 

[Sun God Nika]

Case in point:



The “official Ottawa senators Pizza” - pepperoni with an extra layer of… pepperoni

Great way to alienate the Muslim fans

 

[Silky Johnson]

With respect to the financials definitely. If the league/CBA doesn't require it then the team's lenders certainly do.

But that's just one piece of what you'd find in a data room.

Edit: Billion dollar deals move fast all the time. If an investment bank took this long to get a data room up for a multi-billionaire dollar deal they'd never work again.

How long does it take to vet tire kickers lol? You can give a college kid a couple of days with Google and he can figure out if a company/individual is a real player or not.

Acquisitions of private companies usually take frustratingly long.

I am involved in the M&A activity of the large multinational I work for, albeit from the operations side.

A couple of the deals I worked, of around the same size (1B) took close to a year - and they were up for sale a year before we got involved.

The acquisition of Public companies go WAY faster as changes to share price can drastically effect the landscape. Usually they press ahead with caveats in the contract and both parties sue each other if there are irregularities - see Elon Musk and twitter.

 

[BlueSeal]

Ryan Reynolds for owner please.

 

[Samsquanch]

Great way to alienate the Muslim fans

I hope that's not serious.....

I'm all for giving them and the vegetarians a no pepperoni option to be inclusive. But the pizza itself is fine. Your never going to build a pizza that pleases everyone..... and if this offends them, that's unfortunate, but not something we need to correct in society.

 

[Tuna99]

I hope that's not serious.....

I'm all for giving them and the vegetarians a no pepperoni option to be inclusive. But the pizza itself is fine. Your never going to build a pizza that pleases everyone..... and if this offends them, that's unfortunate, but not something we need to correct in society.

Or if you’re serious about welcoming all your fans and doing a good job for them you could just provide food options for everyone and not have the baseline be a slice of pepperoni pizza

 

[Samsquanch]

Or if you’re serious about welcoming all your fans and doing a good job for them you could just provide food options for everyone and not have the baseline be a slice of pepperoni pizza

What do you suggest they offer?

Sorry I just draw the line in the sand at a free slice of pizza offending people. Just say no thanks and f***ing carry on with your life if you don't like the throwaway gift being offered at the door to you and 10K other people, no hard feelings...

This isn't a case of the team being negligent. This is a sponsor and partner of the team doing promotional shit together....Gabriel's shit happens to be Italian pizza - traditionally served with cheese and pepperoni. Whats happening to the world, Mama mia....

 

[Nac Mac Feegle]

Perhaps the slowdown is with the city side of things and Lebreton? With a new city council and mayor and NCC doing NCC things, potential buyers are stuck wading though a fair bit of red tape and Ottawa-typical bureaucracy a bit longer than intended.

This sale is a bit unusual, because it's more of a double sale - one being the team, and the other being at the starting point of the arena/development project. That's a lot stuff to sort through.

 

[bert]

Oh so you want your proverbial cake and to eat it too.

That's not what he said at all. I agree with the sentiment 100 percent. The sens just had a horrible owner that didn't run the franchise properly. Some experimental group that isn't remotely local with multiple owners has disaster written all over it.

 

[Big Muddy]

I just want an owner with true, deep pockets. Not a middling wealthy owner if that makes any sense.

And then ownership should hire competent staff and let the hockey folks do the hockey stuff without meddling. Give the hockey staff the budget and let them do the work.

 

[Bileur]

I just want an owner with true, deep pockets. Not a middling wealthy owner if that makes any sense.

And then ownership should hire competent staff and let the hockey folks do the hockey stuff without meddling. Give the hockey staff the budget and let them do the work.

100% agree, but I’d also add that hopefully we can add a top notch marketing/promo/content/relations team on the business side with excellent staff.

 

[Tnuoc Alucard]

To be clear, I'm not saying there is anything nefarious going on. It's just an odd situation.

There are reports that the data room isn't even complete yet, which is bonkers when you publicly announce marketing in November. My guess is that the org's information is inaccurate or incomplete or just downright messy and that's causing a ton of work and backwards investigation for the bankers.

Where have you seen/read/heard these “Reports”? I’d be interested in them, if you can supply the links.

 

[PoutineSp00nZ]

Or if you’re serious about welcoming all your fans and doing a good job for them you could just provide food options for everyone and not have the baseline be a slice of pepperoni pizza

Totally agree. We should also have options for lactose intolerant people. We don't want them to be excluded either. And people with a gluten allergy. What about vegans? Its not fair to them that they don't get a free slice of pizza.

Also what about people who just don't like pizza? Did we think about them? The Senators clearly didn't. THe pizza place giving away free pizza should clearly have a non pizza option for the people who just aren't gosh darn in love with pizza.

What an awful organization who clearly do not give a shit about their fans who cant eat or don't like pizza.

 

[Tnuoc Alucard]

Great way to alienate the Muslim fans

Pepperoni is usually made from a mixture of ground pork and beef mixed with spices and flavourings. Salt and sodium nitrate.

so you need to add the Hindus, the Buddhists, the Jains, the Jews and Seventh day Adventists….. not to mention the vegetarians and anyone with high blood pressure, to your list

 

[Mingus Dew]

Acquisitions of private companies usually take frustratingly long.

I am involved in the M&A activity of the large multinational I work for, albeit from the operations side.

A couple of the deals I worked, of around the same size (1B) took close to a year - and they were up for sale a year before we got involved.

The acquisition of Public companies go WAY faster as changes to share price can drastically effect the landscape. Usually they press ahead with caveats in the contract and both parties sue each other if there are irregularities - see Elon Musk and twitter.

Totally agree with you on that. A year is a realistic timeline. But they basically haven’t even kicked off bidding yet.

Where have you seen/read/heard these “Reports”? I’d be interested in them, if you can supply the links.

I believe there is a quote from Bettman that as of mid-December the data room was not ready/open. Thanks.

 

[Cosmix]

Ryan Reynolds for owner please.

He certainly knows a lot about hockey!

 

[thinkwild]

I remember back when Melnyk was buying the team he was mentioning about how he had to sign a stack of papers as tall as him or something.

It sounds like the bidding groups might still be in state of flux too. Are they all well organized with clear roles and financing lines? Sounds like one at least is just coming together now and perhaps there are others still trying to put everything together for one? They buyer side must be as chaotic as the sellers. Come on Ryan, start filming it now

And the idea that it could sell for closer to a billion than $600m must suggest there is a cash cow that can milk us there soon. Maybe Ottawa leads the change to the new era experience incorporating all sorts of 5g and tech stuff or something. That sale price is scary high.

 

[Samsquanch]

Totally agree. We should also have options for lactose intolerant people. We don't want them to be excluded either. And people with a gluten allergy. What about vegans? Its not fair to them that they don't get a free slice of pizza.

Also what about people who just don't like pizza? Did we think about them? The Senators clearly didn't. THe pizza place giving away free pizza should clearly have a non pizza option for the people who just aren't gosh darn in love with pizza.

What an awful organization who clearly do not give a shit about their fans who cant eat or don't like pizza.

Ok this is f***ing hilarious because @Tuna99 is clearly liking your post and not catching that it's dripping with sarcasm

The scary part is there are enough people who believe this is the right take....