Adding an NHL team to a portfolio that already includes the Denver Nuggets and various entertainment entities, COMSAT Entertainment Group on Thursday agreed to purchase the Quebec Nordiques for $75 million and move the franchise to the Mile High City.
The Nordiques, whose name will be changed, will play in McNichols Sports Arena, along with the Nuggets, for two seasons starting in October.Both franchises are scheduled to move into the proposed $130 million Pepsi Center that COMSAT plans to build in partnership with The Anschutz Corp. and complete in time for the 1997-98 season.
"We're bringing winners into Denver," Charlie Lyons, president of COMSAT Entertainment Group, said Thursday during a telephone news conference from company headquarters at Bethesda, Md.
"Let's face it: This is a great young team. They lost in the first round of the playoffs to the defending Stanley Cup champions (New York Rangers), but they're young and they have a lot of heart. We think the NHL is going to be great in Denver. The Rocky Mountain region is really becoming sort of the center of the universe, and we think our fan base will be considerable."
The deal must be approved by NHL owners, who meet next on June 21.
"We understand that every alternative was explored to keep the Nordiques in Quebec City but that the club had no choice" NHL commisioner Gary Bettman said. "We thank the fans of the Quebec Nordiques for their loyalty to the club and share their disappointment. We are very gratified about the interest in Denver and optimistic about the club's future."
Negotiations for the Nordiques were concluded at COMSAT headquarters Wednesday and approved by the company's board of directors Thursday. The team won't remain the Nordiques for long; COMSAT will change the name, probably in the next month. Lyons wouldn't say what names were under consideration.
Lyons expects the team to lose "a small amount of money" during the two seasons it plays in 17,000-seat McNichols Arena, but it should become profitable in the more upscale, 19,000-seat Pepsi Center.
Claude Blanchet, a Quebec shareholder, said the team stood to lose an average of $26 million annually over the next 10 years if it continued to operate out of the aging, 15,399-seat Colisee.
The sale marks the return of an NHL franchise to Denver, which lost the Colorado Rockies to New Jersey in 1982.
"Denver is a very different place today (than when the Rockies left) - a very vibrant city," Lyons said. "There was some question whether baseball would work in Denver, and look what has happened (record attendance). And the (IHL) Grizzlies and collegiate hockey in the area have done well."
Lyons said the $75 million purchase price will give COMSAT the Nordiques, its development squad, its minor league club at Cornwall and player contracts. He said COMSAT has no plans to move the Cornwall farm team, but some Nordiques executives also will accompany the club to Denver.
"We intend to make Denver the sports and entertainment hub for the 10-state Rocky Mountain region," Lyons said. "With a revitalized Nuggets organization, the Pepsi Center, our interests in television production and a theme park, we're well on our way to achieving our goal. And now we have NHL hockey."
COMSAT Entertainment Group, formerly COMSAT Video Enterprises, is a business unit of COMSAT Corp.
Lyons and Bruce Crockett, president and chief executive officer of COMSAT Corp., said the NHL wants to see the franchise move out of McNichols Arena after two years, but that the purchase of the team was not contingent upon building the new arena.
"We've purchased the hockey team, and it's playing in McNichols next year," Lyons said. "The deal on the new arena is not done, but we intend to get it done."
The Pepsi Center deal now is on ice while the courts and the government wrangle over a property tax issue. COMSAT, however, hopes to break ground on the arena in July.
The sale culminates three months of negotiations between Nordiques president Marcel Aubut and COMSAT. COMSAT first offered to purchase the Nordiques in February, mainly to give Aubut more leverage in his negotiations to win a new arena and financial assistance from Quebec's provincial government.
Quebec Premier Jacques Parizeau rejected Aubut's request for full funding of a $125 million hockey arena this month.
Despite their success on the ice - the Nordiques had the NHL's second-best regular-season record - there was little outcry from fans in Quebec over the proposed sale of the Nordiques, which joined the NHL in Quebec in 1979. A fan club rally at the legislature drew only 300 people last week.