Islanders owner Charles Wang sank a $420 million deal to sell the money-losing hockey team to a Philly hedge fund honcho after learning about the $2 billion offer for the Clippers by former a Microsoft executive, according to a new lawsuit.
“Wang was having seller’s remorse because he believed he had agreed to sell the Islanders for a price too low after hearing the unrelated news that a $2 billion bid was places to purchase the Los Angeles Clippers,” hedge funder manager Andrew Barroway huffs in his Manhattan civil suit.
In an “about-face” Wang tried to up the agreed upon purchase price to $548 million at a meeting in July.
“Wang pulled Barroway into a separate room and during this conversation, he expressed that he could have obtained a higher price for the Islanders now ‘thanks to Steve Ballmer,'” the suit states.
Then in August Wang said he decided to sell the team to an unnamed investment group.
Ballmer, the former Microsoft CEO, recently got the go ahead from a judge to purchase the Clippers after owner Donald Sterling was pushed out of the league for making racist remarks.
Barroway accuses Wang of going back on a hand shake agreement and “plotting to squeeze a higher purchase price.”
His “greed was further stoked by the Ballmer bid,” the Merion Investment Management partner gripes in court papers.The Philly hedge funder’s lawsuit says Wang thought he could get more for the “Islanders now ‘thanks to Steve Ballmer.'”
Barroway also sniffs that “Ballmer’s Clippers bid, even for a team based in downtown Los Angeles that is part of the globally popular NBA, has since been widely criticized as far outside the bounds of the marketplace for a sports franchise.”
By comparison the Islanders lost $10 million in a single season and has the lowest attendance in the league.
Still Barroway is suing Wang to enforce the sale. Otherwise he wants a $10 million penalty for the botched deal.
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman has said the team’s planned move from Nassau County to Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn for the 2015-2016 season will boost revenue.
Reps for Wang did not immediately comment.