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Senators reportedly sold to Bryden Posted: Friday February 07, 2003 2:34 AMUpdated: Friday February 07, 2003 2:46 AM
TORONTO (AP) -- Former majority owner Rod Bryden's bid for the Ottawa Senators has been accepted by the NHL club's major creditors, the Globe and Mail reported Friday. Details of the bid are expected to be announced Friday after lawyers sign final documents, sources familiar with the talks told the newspaper Thursday night. Bryden learned that his bid was successful as he watched the Senators tie Philadelphia 2-2 in Ottawa. Last week, Canadian billionaire Eugene Melnyk said he would make an all-cash bid for the team if Bryden's offer failed. "Everybody has kind of been expecting this," Melnyk told the Globe on Thursday when told that Bryden's bid had been accepted. The deal, which also includes the Corel Centre, is reportedly worth more than $85 million and is backed by a New York company run by billionaire Nelson Peltz. It's expected that the sale, if it meets various conditions, would have to be completed by May. Bryden has said that the deal would leave the team with a manageable $33 million in debt -- a fraction of the more than $235 million owed by the club and a separate company of Bryden's that owns the Corel Centre. The deal should allow Bryden to rearrange financial agreements between the Senators and the Corel Centre that would give the team a more affordable lease, a greater share of rink advertising, and more revenues from parking and concessions. Although it's saddled with debt, the Corel Centre made a profit of $11.85 million on operations last year. The Senators had an operating loss of $6.4 million. The Senators have been operating under bankruptcy court protection since Jan. 9, when the team received interim financing from CIBC and FleetBoston Financial Corp. worth $9 million so it could pay current expenses -- including its players. Regardless of any agreement with its banks, the Senators will be back in court Monday to ask for an extension of their court-ordered protection from creditors. |
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