Hoopinion: Hawks Ownership Settles Lawsuit

[Hawksquawk]

The various factions which comprised the Atlanta Spirit Group which owns the Atlanta Hawks, the Atlanta Thrashers and Philips Arena, settled their internal dispute with the groups led by Bruce Levenson and Michael Gearon buying out Steve Belkin.

The official press release, in full:

The lawsuit among the owners of the Atlanta Hawks and the Atlanta Thrashers has been settled. Terms of the settlement are confidential. Going forward, Michael Gearon and Bruce Levenson will serve as managing partners of the Atlanta Hawks, Atlanta Thrashers, and Philips Arena.

In the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Kristi E. Stewart reports:

[T]he settlement includes seven of the group's co-owners buying out former partner Steve Belkin's 30 percent stake in the group. There are no new investors in line to replace Belkin.

Stewart goes on to report that at halftime of the Hawks/Cavaliers game, Levenson reiterated that he and and Gearon are actively searching for additional investors:

"We're still trying to find investors to come in here and help us. That hasn’t changed at all."

For reasons unpersuasive to me, Jeff Schultz considers the settlement good news:

The Spirit owners could never understand — or at least would never admit publicly — why they’ve been subjected to so much criticism over the past six and a half years. The reason is simple: Fans want their sports teams’ owners who are passionate and want to win as much as they do, and who give the impression that they know what they’re doing.

When owners are suing each other, it obviously sends a different message.

Now that they're out of the courtroom, the remaining members of the Atlanta Spirit need to go about trying to repair some of the damage they've inflicted during their tenure. But if they don't succeed right away, maybe it's because there are more than a few bridges that need repairing.

The owners who have secured control of the Hawks are those most passionate about investing $200 million in salary, two first-round draft picks, and Boris Diaw in order to secure Joe Johnson's prime and decline which has thus far produced two winning seasons, an 11-18 post-season record, and no cap space until the Summer of 2013.

Passion is to good ownership and effort is to effective defense.

View the full article