THE $7M loan last December from AEG, the parent company of the L.A. Kings, to Boots Del Baggio, then part of the group petitioning the NHL to purchase the troubled Nashville Predators franchise – a loan that was not disclosed to Gary Bettman or anyone else within the league – was not what it seems, Tim Leiweke told The Post in an exclusive interview on Thursday.
Leiweke – the COO of AEG, the Kings’ representative on the NHL Board of Governors and a member of the league’s 10-person executive committee that screens potential franchise owners – told The Post the loan was made so AEG might ultimately get management rights to the arena in Nashville, and not as a means to influence the Predators to relocate to AEG-operated arena in Kansas City.
“Our interest was in the facility, not in the team,” Leiweke said. “The loan did not come from AEG Sports, but through AEG Facilities.
“We analyzed the situation and concluded that the Predators would be locked into Nashville for a long time. Our interest had nothing to do with Kansas City, but rather in getting the long-term management rights to [Sommet Center].”
Del Baggio, who previously had attempted to purchase the Penguins in order to move them to Kansas City if the team did not receive funding for a new arena in Pittsburgh, is under federal investigation for fraud as well as the subject of several lawsuits after having filed for bankruptcy.
“I take responsibility for making an error in judgment regarding Del Baggio’s character. It was a mistake and it was my fault,” Leiweke said. “But we certainly were not trying to do anything detrimental to the future of the Predators in Nashville or anything detrimental to the NHL.”
In addition to the Staples Center in L.A., AEG owns management rights to the Devils’ arena in Newark and the Coyotes’ arena in Phoenix. As such, getting the management rights to the Predators’ building in Nashville would have represented no more or less than business as usual, not only for AEG and the NHL, but regarding similar entangled alliances across pro sports.
Still, if the loan itself didn’t create the appearance of a conflict of interest, keeping it a secret most certainly gave it that impression. Bettman last week told The Tennessean that the burden had been on Del Baggio, not AEG, to report the loan. As reported last Sunday by The Post, the NHL is investigating the circumstances surrounding the transaction.
“I’d been assured by Boots that [the loan] had been fully vetted with Gary, but believing that is just one of the mistakes I made that I regret,” Leiweke said. “I should have disclosed the information myself.
“The loan was through AEG Facilities and not the corporate ownership of the Los Angeles Kings. We had nothing to hide. The commissioner not knowing about it makes it looks worse than it is, but we have nobody to blame for that but ourselves.”
No one, least of all Glen Sather, knows what the Rangers would do if Mats Sundin unexpectedly declares his interest in playing this season on Broadway rather than in Vancouver, where the Canucks have a two-year, $20M offer on the table; or in Toronto, where the Maple Leafs unfathomably have a one-year, $7M offer out; or in Montreal, where the Canadiens have been holding a uniform for No. 13 since February.
It would be as difficult to reject Sundin as it would be to conjure the strategy to fit him under the team cap, and no, there is not a shred of truth to reports of the Blueshirts working on a massive salary-dump in order to clear space for him.
Alexander Radulov left Russia at age 18 to play junior hockey in Quebec, and now the 22-year-old winger is breaking a contract with the Predators in order to go back? There’s something very, very fishy about all this, to steal a phrase from John Davidson.
We know why the NHL contends that individually negotiated transfer fees with European clubs would violate the CBA, but we can’t fathom why the NHLPA gave its assent to that position.
We sure hope the union isn’t acting to protect jobs for North American players at the expense of jobs for more talented players from overseas.
Finally, there was Sean Avery, in Dallas for an introductory press conference, throwing the ceremonial first pitch before the Yankees-Rangers ballgame on Wednesday.
He bounced it.
“It was my [Tim] Wakefield knuckleball,” Avery told Slap Shots.
We – and the Rangers, and Martin Brodeur – will see Avery in October.
And we’ll see you next month.