That last poll? About the #1 draft pick? It’s irrelevant. Brant James article in the St. Petersburg Times this morning shows why. Steve Stamkos will indeed be the top pick for the Lightning.

Why so sure? Because when a sports franchise employs a Hollywood marketing blitz comparable to what has been used the last year for The Dark Knight (in theaters later this summer) hyping a prospect, you know they are big on them.

Seen Stamkos?

(hats off to the guys who thought up the flash mob viral marketing, if it was Koules people or an ad agency somewhere in the Bay area)

It was announced yesterday that Oren Koules and Co. at OK Hockey have entered into exclusivity with Palace Sports and Entertainment to purchase the Tampa Bay Lightning, the lease to the St. Pete Times Forum and 5 and 1/2 acres of land:

“I am excited we were able to take such a positive first step today,” Koules said in his statement. “Most importantly, we established a clear and direct path so we can work together towards a definitive agreement as quickly as possible.”

I could get into other little factoids from the sale article (hoping for a January finalization of a deal, etc) but it was Tampa Lawyer (and representative of another interested group) Tom Scarritt’s quote that irked me:

“We’re disappointed,” Scarritt said. “But we wish them luck, the city of Tampa luck, and we’ll stand by.”

Seems pretty innocent, right? Disappointment, wishing luck all around… yet the City of Tampa being wished luck? Why would the city need luck on things?

It’s a continuing seed of doubt being laid - consciously or subconsciously (and seeing he’s a lawyer, you bet your ass he’s consciously doing it) - about OK Hockey and the “risks” involved (and when I say risks, I mean relocation) in having an out-of-town group buy a local sports team. You may recall that I touched on this being inserted in the Times story about the Lightning’s suitors. What I didn’t bring up, or print, was local lawyer Steve Burton pulling out the fear-monger card:

“The way I see it,” Burton said, “this is a bulldozer moving under its own inertia with a number of local people interested in stepping up and stopping some of this foolishness.”

Burton was referring to Koules’ attempt to buy the team.

lifted from Saturday’s St. Pete Times article about the competing ownership groups)

Even if, four months later, local would-be suitors would like you to believe that’s what’s being negotiated.

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).