At a press conference this afternoon, the Nashville Predators officially announced that the local group would buy the team.The price: $193 million. Owner Craig Leipold said the group gave a deposit of $10 million. The goal is to close the deal by the end of next month and obtain approval from the NHL’s board of governors. Chase Cole, one of the attorney’s representing the group, said the letter of intent that has been signed has binding elements but will reach a definitive agreement in the next couple of weeks.As previously reported by NashvillePost.com, Silicon Valley venture capitalist William "Boots" Del Biaggio has joined with the local bidders. In addition to merely joining the group, sources said Del Biaggio’s ownership stake in the deal stands at over 40 percent. That is significantly more than his 5 percent stake in the San Jose Sharks. Del Biaggio had been a competing bidder for the team but was brought together with the local group. There has been some concern among Predators fans that Del Biaggio could buy out the local group if the team didn’t reach average paid attendance of 14,000 nightly and move the team to Kansas City. David Freeman, ostensibly the local group’s chief spokesman, said there are no circumstances where Del Biaggio can become majority owner. “Boots is not a threat to Nashville,” Freeman said. He added that both sides have the same goal and that is to “show that hockey can succeed in the heartland of America.”The addition of Del Biaggio clearly helped make the local bid work. Freeman said during the conference the group needed less than 25 percent debt to fund the deal.In all, the ownership group will have eight investors, seven of which are local. Herb Fritch, chief executive officer of HealthSpring, is one of the publicly known investors. Freeman said the other local owners have been reluctant to come forward and likely will do so in the next two weeks. “They want a little breathing room before all the cameras start flashing,” he said.
