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Friday, October 29, 1999
Tax talk tied to team investors
Potential partners await fiscal break
That's the message from a broker hired by Ottawa Senators owner Rod Bryden to find partners who would keep the team in the nation's capital.
"The issue really has been: What is ultimately going to be done to make sure the National Hockey League teams in Canada are going to be on an equal playing field and are going to be stable over the long term?" said Robert Caporale, chairman of Game Plan LLC of Boston.
Game Plan was hired by Bryden to find investors in the Senators, which Bryden has warned will be sold and moved to the U.S. unless governments ease taxes on the team.
Caporale has been approached by two groups interested in keeping the team in Ottawa, but only if the tax issue is settled.
"The economics would not, I don't think, be acceptable," said Caporale. "They're not acceptable to the current ownership. You can't solve that by finding somebody who would find it acceptable."
Caporale wouldn't say who's interested in helping Bryden keep the Senators in Ottawa, but he said both groups are fronted by one person.
Caporale said the groups he's talking with aren't the same ones which have contacted the NHL about buying the Senators and moving the franchise to the U.S.
"These are substantial people," he said, adding that "in at least one instance, they've expressed an interest in Rod Bryden staying involved."
Both groups include Canadian investors, some from Ottawa. Jeff Hunt, owner of the junior hockey Ottawa 67's, said he's never been approached.
"I'm not even in that league," said Hunt. "It's one thing if you've got $1 million, but it's a whole other thing if you've got a couple hundred million."
Caporale said his job is to find people who will keep the team here.
"We're not talking to anybody about anything other than the team staying in Ottawa," Caporale said.
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