NHL Kings

Tim Leiweke Says There Is "Nothing To" Rumors That AEG Is Looking To Sell Kings

Published May 30, 2012

NHL Kings Owner AEG and company President & CEO Tim Leiweke “have started marketing the team by directly calling suitors,” according to a source cited by Kosman & Atkinson of the N.Y. POST. The source said that “a few years ago, the Kings first put themselves up for sale seeking more than” $200M, but now “likely will accept less.” While offers “have come in, Leiweke denied he was peddling the franchise.” Leiweke said of the sales rumors, “Nothing to it.” However, the source maintains that “Leiweke was the approacher -- and not the approached -- recently and that the CEO came forward with a sales book on the Kings.” An NHL spokesperson “called the report of a Kings sale ‘categorically untrue.’” The Kings are “expected to make ‘a major announcement’ next week, according to a person familiar with the team, but the subject could not be learned” (N.Y. POST, 5/30). In L.A., Lisa Dillman noted the Kings “reached the Stanley Cup Final for the first time in 19 years, and the first time under the stewardship” of AEG. The spot in the Final “does represent a career-defining moment” for Leiweke, who joined the Kings in ’96. Leiweke said, “You have no idea how frustrating it is to have success in every other aspect of our company and yet that first piece, the foundation, always had cracks.” He added, “What I always told everyone: We are going to be judged on the first asset, not the last asset. … We’ve had great success. To me, if we don’t achieve with the Kings, we’ve never been successful” (L.A. TIMES, 5/29). Meanwhile, the N.Y. POST’s Kosman & Atkinson note despite the Devils run to the Stanley Cup Final there has “been no significant improvement in its long-term financial picture.” The Devils owe lenders an $80M principal payment July 1. Devils Chair & Managing Partner Jeffrey Vanderbeek is “in talks with an investor to pump money into the team to refinance the debt” (N.Y. POST, 5/30).