The St. Pete Times found it more relevant to update the fans about the Lightning suitor situation this morning — putting it on the non-Bucs cover of the Sports section. Within the article, you’re reminded of the fallout between Jeff Sherrin and Oren Koules, re-introduced to the fact Koules has formed OK Hockey (sidenote: It honestly took me a while to realize what OK stood for. True story) and not we learn that Sherrin as well as another potential group are ramping up bids for the Lightning.

This doesn’t ease my mind.

Damian goes on to write a post on his blog about local ownership — and plays down the local-versus-non-local ownership situation. In fact, I was going to take a jab at the print article — seemingly writing off Koules as an out-of-towner businessman and forgot the tidbit from this summer where Koules, MacLean and Sherrin all said they planned to move to Tampa.

Yet here’s the thing that Absolutely (pun intended) worries me about any and all potential ownership groups: Only one is involved in the entertainment industry and the rest are in real estate or lawyers. Sure, you need to start somewhere to get into this business but it bothers me that any new owner won’t have professional experience running an arena and running a pro sports team (for those of you who will argue about Jeff Sherrin having Doug MacLean — I submit to you the Columbus Blue Jackets as evidence on the contrary).

This falls squarely under the “WTF” category…

The sale of the Tampa Bay Lightning from Palace Sports and Entertainment to Absolute Hockey LTD. has fallen through

Palace Sports nixed the purchase agreement when Absolute Hockey did not come up with a required $5-million payment. Now the investment group has splintered as Coral Springs real estate developer Jeff Sherrin is suing Hollywood producer Oren Koules for allegedly failing on Nov. 13 to make a capital contribution of $4.16-million.
Sherrin is asking $50-million in damages.

…

While the deal as originally announced with much fanfare on Aug. 7 is no longer valid, don’t be surprised if a deal is resurrected at a later date with Koules or a group led by him.

Well, looking at the above alone, one can be thankful things fell apart (long term) because if they can’t get their act together to make a money payment - how are they supposed to cover player paychecks and other franchise bills?

This also paves the way for a group of owners minus Sherrin to purchase any other NHL franchise for sale. So the team being sold from Palace Sports to another group with Koules as part of it may or may not happen. Though a team sale would be likely if the right group came along (per Tom Wilson’s quotes from that faithful August 7th morning).