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).
