Judge tosses Spirit's deal to buy out

[Admin]

The translation is that everything is exactly the same as it was 4 years ago, except several lawyers have become very wealthy. Very wealthy using money which could have been used to improve the basketball and hockey products the owners are supposed to care about.

That's an unnecessary cheap shot. The active owners (the ones paying the bills) are losing millions annually with the Hawks and Trashers and instead of being cheap they have spent over the cap and kept us (the Hawks at least I don't follow the Trashers) improving and they're doing this without a large chunk of money from Belkin that they would typically be counting on under their original agreement.

[DrReality]

That's an unnecessary cheap shot. The active owners (the ones paying the bills) are losing millions annually with the Hawks and Trashers and instead of being cheap they have spent over the cap and kept us (the Hawks at least I don't follow the Trashers) improving and they're doing this without a large chunk of money from Belkin that they would typically be counting on under their original agreement.

Agreed. They have done their due diligence in spite of it all.

I hope the hockey team gets sold.

[lunar]

i think mark bradley said that the thrashers are not contractually obligated to phillips arena so they would be easier to move.

also i don't think belkin is governor of the hawks (the stripping of his governorship was separate from the buyout).

either way this is great news if you are a hawks fan. it was evident from the get-go that belkin wasn't being a team player during his tenure with the ASG. i haven't heard anything about the Gearons and Levenson being at odds with the day-to-day running of the team. hopefully the ASG can really get to running the teams (or at least the hawks) like a real ownership group.

[ShooterMcGavin]

The active owners (the ones paying the bills) are losing millions annually with the Hawks and Trashers

Whether they are suffering real cash losses or simply "book" losses is the mystery here. Many teams in many sports find ways to show a "loss" under their CBAs, but I'd not go crying for any of these owners yet.

[chico1]

The translation is that everything is exactly the same as it was 4 years ago, except several lawyers have become very wealthy. Very wealthy using money which could have been used to improve the basketball and hockey products the owners are supposed to care about.

Do you seriously think they are using company money or even their own money. Have you ever heard of liability insurance?

[AHF]

The thing that concerns me is that Belkin is "entitled to be reinstated" as the governor for the Hawks.

Two items to be noted with that:

(a) Schultz updated his blog to say:

(UPDATE: For the record, Belkin’s term of governorship expired in March. But I figure the judge’s comments are just the basis of another lawsuit.)

So it is likely that Belkin's term as governor is over anyway making this moot.

(b) Even if Belkin was governor, he would have zero independent power anyway. The first time he tried to do something contrary to what was approved by the other owners, they would give him notice and he would either back down (like he did with JJ) or he would be removed. Hence, the threat of him being governor is much less now that precedent makes it clear that the role of governor is to do what the owner's say and not to make independent judgment calls.

[DrReality]

I bet that Belkin does not have the smirk on his face that he does in your pic AHF.