Quote:
Originally Posted by GioforPM
It's a shame Meruelo is making out so well out of all of this.
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Agree. But there is 0% chance he got a $1b cash inflow from this. Headline price to him is $1b and he and everyone would want that advertised that way, but it's not how cash in a transaction like this would work. Looking at some older NHL sale and purchase agreements i have seen (ottawa, nashville, older pheonix deals), there is a lot of offsets. It looks like Meruelo never paid a dime for the team. He just assumed debt of $425mm. And Barroway before him bought for $300mm i think, and he didn't pay much for the team either beyond assuming debt. After Jerry Moyes, i think the purchase price was basically the assumption of player contracts.
There will be loans from banks, loans from the league from prior years which I have heard have been attached to this team for some time (owners are not going to be chumps that fund losses for years and don't get some recoupment), assumption of player contracts and adjustment for working capital (that owner will have some bills to pay). These will all need to be deducted from that "$1b" number.
He probably made more than he should have on this to avoid a legal fight.