It is D-day for Len Barrie.
Divorce or deliver.
The co-owner of the Tampa Bay Lightning has been told by NHL commissioner Gary Bettman to come up with $10 million US by tomorrow to help operate the club. Or else.
So far, nobody has actually explained what the “or else” will be but, presumably, it has all been explained to Barrie. Of course, this is the Tampa Lightning, so that’s a rather large presumption. The Lightning is the most dysfunctional family not named Jackson and the workings of this franchise are as mysterious as anything that ever happened at Neverland Ranch.
Oren Koules and Barrie became the club’s new owners about a year ago under the hopeful banner of OK Hockey, and they have done anything but live up to its name. These two guys co-exist like Jon and Kate, the average Hollywood marriage, or Bettman and Balsillie.
Today, Barrie has to prove whether he actually does want to be an NHL owner or whether the Lightning is just a rich man’s toy that he is not really interested in anymore. While his hockey team might be in the financial doghouse, Barrie on the other hand would appear to have resources.
Recently, Barrie announced a commitment from investment firm Siraj Capital of Dubai, United Arab Emirates, to pour $350 million into his 1,300-acre Bear Mountain Golf Resort near Victoria, B.C. Plus, the former NHLer — and the project’s majority shareholder — has sold more than half a billion dollars worth of real estate.
So, you’d think he’d have a few bucks stashed away when Bettman comes calling to explain that, if he wants to be an NHL owner, it would be nice if he actually came up with some ... you know, money. So far, it is believed Koules — who acts as CEO and governor with Barrie’s input required for all major player decisions — has been paying the bills.
The $10 million would cover Barrie’s share of the team’s projected losses for the fiscal year that began July 1 and provide an additional cushion for a franchise that has gone from Stanley Cup champion to NHL minnow.
Meantime, Koules and Barrie, don’t talk. At least, not to each other.
The Hockey News reported recently that Barrie was seeking investors, asking them to accept a confidentiality agreement that seems to leave Koules out of the loop. Put these two guys in the same executive washroom and they’d argue whether to go with the towels or the air blower. Koules wants the boardroom blinds down, Barrie wants ... well, you get the idea. For instance, reports indicate Koules wants to cut payroll by getting out of the team’s 11-year, $85-million commitment to Vincent Lecavalier. Barrie, looking at plummeting attendance and a lousy record, wants to add talent, and thus boost payroll.
Last month, Bettman, in a move reminiscent of adolescents being summoned to the principal’s office, called them to New York to explain themselves. That’s because none of this reflects well on Bettman and the governors who, desperate to find anyone to hang their shingle on this floundering franchise, approved their ownership.
It’s been a Keystone Cops routine ever since with Barrie contributing little more than controversy. But then, he specializes in controversy. It seems to be the one constant in his business dealings.
That $2.4-billion residential complex near Victoria has paid off handsomely for Barrie’s investors, but it has created dismay among conservationists and Canada’s First Nations. None of it seems to faze Barrie.
When the entire Canadian aboriginal community is threatening to block the road to your house and you’ve survived — perhaps even benefited —despite angering an entire city and many of its municipal councillors, maybe Barrie is not all that concerned about Bettman or getting him madder than a hen-pecked rooster.
As for that $10 million? Chump change. Question is, who in all of this is the real chump? Barrie, who can’t find his own pocket? Koules, for getting involved with a partner whose modus operandi is to call all the shots and do stuff his way — no questions allowed?
Or, perhaps it all comes back to Bettman for approving this partnership in the first place because, as they used to say on the shinny ponds in China: A fish rots from the head down.
bill.lankhof@sunmedia.ca
