Sources: PREDS SOLD

UPDATED 9:50 p.m. with further details
Co-chief of Blackberry purveyor to buy hockey firm

Email | Print By Ken Whitehouse

Jim Balsillie

The Nashville Predators are being sold.

NashvillePost.com has learned that Canadian businessman Jim Balsillie, co-CEO of Research In Motion (makers of the Blackberry electronic communication device) is purchasing the Predators from Wisconsin businessman Craig Leipold. Leipold has owned the club since it first took to the ice in 1998.

According to NashvillePost.com sources, a press conference has been scheduled for Thursday to announce the sale of the team for reportedly $220 million. At the time of publication of this article, officials from Predators could not be reached for comment.

The sale of the Predators, Nashville's first major league sporting franchise, was apparently discussed today in New York at a meeting of the National Hockey League's Board of Governors. It is believed as of now that the team will remain in Nashville for the foreseeable future.

There is a way out, however. Because average game attendance for the season recently ended was below 14,000, the team has 60 days from its final hockey game to exercise an exit clause. That move, which would have to happen by mid-June, would trigger a one-year cure period in which the city must bring ticket sales up to 14,000 per game. Otherwise, after the year, the team could leave.

The NHL still has to sign off on the deal. Balsillie's last effort to buy a team, the Pittsburgh Penguins, ended abruptly last December when he didn't like the terms sought by the NHL -- one of those reportedly being that he was to keep the team in Pittsburgh. That deal, in which he agreed to pay a reported $175 million for the team, ended in mid-December.

A big question to be answered is what would change between the NHL's stipulations in the Penguins deal and one for buying the Predators.

Balsillie, the 46-year-old co-CEO of Research In Motion, is responsible for driving corporate strategy, business development, marketing, sales, and finance at the company, which is based in Waterloo, Ontario. He is a native of Peterborough, Ontario, with a bachelor of commerce from the University of Toronto and an MBA from Harvard University.

According to the RIM website, "Jim is also a noted athlete, passionate fitness advocate and role model for his friends and colleagues. He was Athlete of the Year at Trinity College, University of Toronto, plays hockey and golf at competitive levels, and coaches his son's soccer and basketball teams. He currently trains and competes in men's long course triathlons."

When Balsillie withdrew from the Penguins deal in December, press reports cited sources saying that the Balsillie wasn't pleased with the NHL's insistence on keeping the team in Pittsburgh, regardless of whether a new arena went up. The team's lease for its current arena runs out this year, and a push to build a new one had stumbled. That issue has since been worked out, and the Penguins are getting a new arena paid for by taxpayers.

Hockey legend Mario Lemieux, heading a group that owns the Penguins, was not pleased with Balsillie's sudden departure and had some harsh comments, prompting an apology from Balsillie who stated that he was still interested in buying the team and pursuing a new arena.

While Balsillie had a deal to buy the Penguins, there had been speculation that he wanted to move the team to Hamilton, Ontario, a city of just more than 500,000, or nearby Kitchener, Ontario. Such a move would have put a second team close to the Toronto Maple Leafs. But Balsillie never confirmed the speculation.

He rejected an offer from Kansas City to move the team to a new arena there. Kansas City isn't the only city angling for an NHL franchise. Others include Seattle, Charlotte, Las Vegas, Houston and Oklahoma City.

NashvillePost.com staff writer Richard Lawson contributed to this story