Column

From The Daily News of Monday, Aug. 20, 2007 . . .

Those people who hold shares in the Kamloops Blazers Sports Society are
going to have an opportunity Thursday to sell their WHL franchise.
With a simple but resounding vote of ‘YES’ they will sell their franchise to
River City Hockey Inc., the group that is led by Vancouver businessman Tom
Gaglardi and includes ex-Blazers players Shane Doan, Jarome Iginla, Mark
Recchi and Darryl Sydor.
RCH, which has been chasing the Blazers like a starving dog after a pork
chop, was rebuffed in an attempt to purchase the franchise last summer. It
came back with another offer July 18.
Through a special requisition, as required under the B.C. Society Act (Part
6-58), RCH and its supporters, at least those who are members of the
society, have requested a vote on its offer.
Unless RCH withdraws its requisition, that vote almost certainly will take
place.
Which would be a shame because, while the time appears to have come to
privatize the Blazers, this is something that shouldn’t take place without
members voting to open the process to offers.
The franchise has never been officially put up for sale and already there
have been two unsolicited offers received, the one from RCH and the other
from the Edmonton-based Mike Priestner Automotive Group.
And now the Jim Pattison Group has let it be known that it would be
interested should the team be for sale and should an official process be
established.
Hopefully, the interest shown by Pattison has made some shareholders sit up,
say “Whoa, Nellie,” and take a closer look at things.
Because this is no laughing matter.
However, the Pattison people aren’t going to get involved if there is any
chance whatsoever that the process could degenerate into anything resembling
what we have witnessed in this community over the last month.
Sheesh, has it been ugly, or what? An opportunity to have a good,
old-fashioned debate — to sell, or not to sell, that should have been the
question — has degenerated into something akin to mud-wrestling. Instead of
taking someone to task for this theory or that idea, attacks of a personal
nature have been launched. No, it hasn’t been pretty. Someone would give an
opinion and the response would be: You’re an idiot.
And then there was that news conference held last week by five shareholders
who double as RCH supporters.
One, two, three, four . . .
The only thing missing . . .
Who are we for . . .
Were the cheerleaders . . .
Five, six, seven, eight . . .
And their pom-poms . . .
Who do we appreciate?
RCH, RCH . . . rah-rah-rah!
Assuming Gaglardi didn’t have anything to do with this performance, he must
have been blushing from embarrassment.
The River City Quintet was beating its drum for immediate acceptance of the
RCH offer. One can only wonder how people in the business community could
advocate such a move while knowing full well that there are other offers out
there.
If one of the River City Quintet was to sell his/her home, would he/she sell
it to the first Tom, Mark or Darryl who came along?
And, really, that is what this is all about, isn’t it?
And, really, this shouldn’t be that difficult, should it?
It should almost be as easy as a paint-by-number:
1. The society owns a WHL franchise that has drawn interest;
2. Members decide if it is for sale;
3. If it isn’t for sale, end of story;
4. If it is for sale, establish a value and draw up a prospectus;
5. Establish a window during which offers will be accepted;
6. Examine the offers;
7. Perform due diligence;
8. Accept one offer, or deem all of them unacceptable and take the franchise
off the market.
Instead, we have somehow gotten to a point where the society’s members may
vote to accept or reject one offer without even considering another that is
on the table, and without finding out what the level of interest would be
were the franchise put on the market.
Priestner, who made his first offer Aug. 3 and came back with a revamped one
a week later, has said he would welcome the opportunity to have his offer
joined by others.
If Gaglardi and the ex-Blazers feel their offer is solid, they shouldn’t be
at all leery of having it measured against others.
Which is why RCH should withdraw its requisition and prepare to take part in
a fair and open market-driven process.
And may the best offer win.