Stars beat writer cannot confirm or deny rumors of Dallas Stars sale

Dallas Stars owner Tom Hicks, right, shakes hands with new head coach Marc Crawford after a news conference in Dallas, Thursday, June 11, 2009. The Stars hired Crawford one day after firing Dave Tippett. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

AP

We discussed a Forbes report of the Dallas Stars possibly being sold for $275-$300 million yesterday, but Dallas Stars beat writer Mike Heika was unable to confirm - or deny - these rumors.

I got a hold of four people who could have information on the sale today, and none of them offered anything in regards to the Forbes Report that the Stars could be sold soon with a sale price of between $275 million and $300 million.

Two gave clean no comments, and a couple of others said they were a little blindsided by the report and asked what I knew about it, so there still is an air at least that this could be another false alarm.

When The Hockey News reported earlier that Bill Gallacher had agreed to buy the team for $225 million, there were several immediate comments that this was not true and that the price was too low. On this one, nobody is stepping up right now to shoot it down. That could mean that the rumor has some truth behind it or it could mean that the people who could shoot it down don’t want to. They like having it out there that the Stars are worth that much.

One of the questions with the Rangers was how much property was involved in the sale. When the parking lots were tossed in, that created a different price structure and created problems with the lenders, so they were taken out. The Stars have some ownership in the Dr Pepper StarCenters as part of Hicks Sports Group, but the Hicks family owns the Cedar Park Stars as a separate entity. Are those properties involved? These things are tricky, so price is often confusing.

If the Stars can follow the Texas Rangers’ lead (although maybe improve on the very questionable pace of their baseball brothers) and wiggle their way out of owner Tom Hicks’ green-challenged grasp, it would be a pivotal summer for sports teams in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

As Joe pointed out on Wednesday, the Stars are in a financial holding pattern that places them as a team with the sixth-lowest payroll in the NHL. They still must re-sign restricted free agents James “The Real Deal” Neal and Nicklas Grossman, with Neal’s deal being an especially interesting conversation. The team still badly needs a defenseman or two, so you wonder if GM Joe Nieuwendyk might have pursued a Tomas Kaberle trade (or a free agent D-man) a lot more aggressively without ownership shackles on the Stars’ collective wallet.

Now, keep in mind that Heika didn’t deny the rumors, either. Time will tell if those reports are true - and if the Rangers team sale situation is any indication - time won’t give us answer very quickly. We’ll keep an eye on the situation as it progresses and fill you in when we hear more information.