Gaglardi confirms interest in NHL's Stars

By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
Tom Gaglardi, the majority owner of the WHL’s Kamloops Blazers, has confirmed that he is attempting to purchase the NHL’s Dallas Stars.
“For several years I’ve been interested in the NHL,” Gaglardi said Friday night while watching his Blazers open the WHL regular season with a 5-2 victory over the visiting Prince George Cougars.
There has been speculation over the last few months that Gaglardi and Calgary businessman Bill Gallacher, who owns the WHL’S Portland Winterhawks, both are in negotiations to purchase the Stars from Tom Hicks.
Prior to last night, neither Gaglardi nor Gallacher has admitted publicly that he is interested in purchasing the Stars.
Gaglardi is president of Northland Properties, a Vancouver-based company that owns such properties as Sandman Hotels, Inns & Suites, Denny’s, Moxie’s and the Shark Club.
Hicks already has sold baseball’s Texas Rangers. Hicks and co-owner George Gillett Jr. also are working at selling the English soccer club Liverpool.
Gaglardi was involved in an attempt to purchase the Vancouver Canucks a few years ago. But he said his interest in owning an NHL franchise goes back further than that.
The Stars, he said, are in a “market that I’ve always had interest in.”
Gaglardi said his mother is from the Dallas/Fort Worth area and added that he has relatives there.
“I’ve been going to Texas since I was born,” Gaglardi said. “I have a love of the area. I’m a big Dallas Cowboys fan.”
There was speculation earlier this week that Gallacher had pulled out of negotiations but there hasn’t been any confirmation. Gaglardi said he had heard the speculation but didn’t know anything other than that.
Asked how far along negotiations involving the Stars are, Gaglardi replied: “I can’t say.”
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca
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