Hawks Sold!

[jaywalker72]

Dallas businessman David McDavid has agreed in principle to purchase the Hawks, Thrashers, and Philips Arena.

McDavid is the former minority owner of the Dallas Mavericks and made his money in the auto business.

Here's some background on David McDavid, whose name has been popping up as a potential buyer for the Dallas Stars. McDavid was part owner of the Dallas Mavericks at one point and has reportedly tried to buy some other pro sports franchises, including the Colorado Avalanche.

David McDavid

Vital Info

Age: 60

Occupation: President and Chief Executive Officer of Asbury Automotive Texas

Background

His father started the family auto empire in 1936 with an Oldsmobile used-car lot in Houston. David got his start in the auto business by washing cars on his father's lot in the late 1940's.

David McDavid established his first dealership (General Motors) in Weatherford in 1962. He was 19 at the time.He would eventually go on to own more than a dozen dealerships in Texas.

In 1996 he joined Ross Perot, Jr. and other investors in buying the Dallas Mavericks for $125 million. McDavid owned 12 percent of the team, which was sold to Mark Cuban for $280 million in 2000. The value of McDavid's stake went from $15.6 million to $35 million in the deal.

In 1997 he sold 70 % of his interest in the 17-dealership David McDavid Auto Group to Connecticut-based Asbury Automotive Group. Press reports valued the deal at about $400 million.

McDavid has formed a Dallas-based investment company, DMc Group, with his brother-in-law, Stephen Dieb, in order to buy a sports franchise. Among the teams he has reportedly tried to buy in the past were the Charlotte Hornets and Denver Nuggets of the NBA and the Colorado Avalanche of the NHL.

Besides being interested in the Stars, McDavid apparently is looking at another unidentified sports franchise.

Quotable

"Anytime you have teams struggling, and I believe there are as many as nine teams on the market, you had better be concerned." McDavid on the state of the NHL in an interview with the Dallas Morning News.

"We want to be someplace where you can really recruit the players. Guys want that good quality of life." -- McDavid's partner, Stephen Dieb, on why he and McDavid would like to own a team either in the South or on the West Coast.

Press conference will likely not occur until sale is final.

Thanks to Traceman for calling this in as ESPN was reporting it.

[cyman3]

this is huge!

[archie44]

"Everybody is fired," JayWalker said today in a late afternoon staff meeting. "Get the [censored] out of my building."

[thescout]

Although David was a minority owner of the dallas mavericks what worries me is before Mark Cuban the Mavericks were a run of the mill team.Does that mean the Hawks will continue to be mediocre? I sure hope not....however a change needs to be made and just maybe finally the Hawks will have an owner who will clean house and hire scouts that know what they are doing.

[KB21]

.....that he is an avid NBA fan, much in the same sense as Mark Cuban. What this probably means is that the Hawks will have themselves a very vocal and personable owner, but I hope he leaves all the basketball stuff to the people who know what they are doing.

This is very interesting though. I e-mailed Jaywalker yesterday asking him if he'd heard anything about David McDavid looking to buy the team. I didn't know this was going to happen, but I had read earlier in the day that McDavid was VERY INTERESTED in buying an NBA team.

[Guest]

Would he move to Atlanta? I'd prefer to have an owner that lives in the city, but at this point, I'd take someone, anyone, owning the team other than a corporation...however, ownership changes hands very infrequently, we should do it right this time.

If he's going to own two teams in Atlanta, I want him living there...

[jaywalker72]

"There was no discussion at all about anything, EXCEPT the possible sale of the team. That is a topic that continues to get a surprising amount of run at the Arena…So, we’ll see…"

That is funny that you sent me the name McDavid last night. I went down to the arena today for practice, but they were packing up for New York and I just did the DerMarr story.

There was nobody around from management, which is strange indeed for practice, but I passed it off as the odd practice time (12:30 instead of 10:30) and because they were catching an early flight out to NYC.

There was no official notification (and still hasn't been) from the Hawks, but Director of Media Relations Arthur Triche was with the team on their way to New York.

[KB21]

You know, I was wondering about the timing of the Pete Babcock firing. Now, I think I realize why it was done with 9 games left in the season. Negotiations for the sale of the team were going on, and it looks like they wanted to go ahead an make that move.

I'm just really interested to see how this all shakes out. I'd really like to see the Hawks pursue Doc Rivers to be the team president.

[Admin]

Man this guy must have some of the most annoying [censored] commercials I have ever seen. They play them all the time on TV and on the radio here in Houston. Hopefully he will move to Atlanta and sell his dealership here as its pretty [censored] annoying. Anyways, this guy is a huge sports fan as he is always doing some kind of sports time promotion at his dealerships so hopefully this will be good for us, but [censored] I would much rather have a Mark Cuban or Arthur Blank owning this organization, but I will keep my hopes up and he certainly cannot be any worse of an owner than AOL/TW right?

[Diesel]

That was the same team that sported Jason Kidd, Jamal Mashburn, and Jim Jackson as Draft picks right?

[KB21]

Makes his money via auto dealerships and buys a sports franchise. Of course, Huizenga also owned Blockbuster, so I imagine his net worth is quite a bit higher than McDavid's.

The key is going to be if he has the financial backing to put the money needed to build a championship team, because it looks like he is going to be very fan-like in his ownership.

[KB21]

Let's remember that he was not the majority owner of the Mavericks at that time. Ross Perot Jr. was the majority owner.