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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 26, 1995)
Nordiques take skates to Denver Dr.NVr.K (APJ — Adding an NMI- loam to a portfolio that already irn hides thi* Denver Nuggets and various entertain ment entities. COMSAT i nter tatnnient Group on Thursday purchased the Qusbw Nordiques for $75 million and will move the franchise to the Mile High City The Nordiques. whose name will he changed, will play in Mi Nichols Sports Arena, along with the Nuggets, for two sea sons, starting in October. Both franchises are scheduled to move into the proposed Srtu million Pepsi Center, which COMSAT plans to build in part net-ship with The Anschutz (k>rp and complete in time for the 1997 08 season, ' We re bringing winners into Denver," said Charlie I.vons. president of COMSAT Enter tainmont Group, on Thursday during a telephone news confer ence from company headquarters at Bethesda, Mil "T.et’s face it This is a great young team They lost in the first round of the playoffs to the defending Stanley Cup champi ons {New York Rangersl, hut they're young and they have a lot of heart We think the NHL is going to la; great in Denver The Rocky Mountain region is really Itecoming sort of the center of the universe, and we think our fan base will he considerable.'' Negotiations for the Nordiques were concluded at COMSAT headquarters on Wednesday and approved by the company's Ixiani of directors on Thursday, The transaction and transfer fees, if any, are subject to approval by the NH1. Board of Governors, probably in June. The team won't remain the Nordiques for long; COMSAT will change (he name, probably within the next month, but Lyons wouldn't say what names were under ^ onsideratlon Lyons exports the team to lose "a small amount of money' dur ing the two seasons it plays in 17,tXXVs*xit \!i \n hols Arena but it should Iwx onto profitable in the more upsi ale, lOlMtoseat Pepsi C Center The sale marks the return of an NHL franchise to Denver, whn h lost the Colorado His kies to New Jersey in P»H2 "Denver ts a very different plat e today (than when the Rock ies left) - a very vibrant city," Lyons said. ''There was some question whether baseball would work m Denver, and look what has happened (record atten dance], And the (IHL| Grizzlies and collrgiatt hot key in the area have done well." Lyons said the $75 million pur chase prit.it 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 huh for the 10-state Rooky Mountain region." Lyons said "With a pm i tali red Nuggets organisation, the Pepsi Center, our interests in tele vision production and a theme park, we re well on our way to achieving our goal And now we have NHL hot.key COMSAT Entertainment Croup, formerly COMSAT Video Enterprises, is a business unit of COMSAT Corp. Lyons and Bruce Crockett, president and chief executive offit er of COMSAT Corn said the NHL wants to see the frun < hise move out of Mi Nichols Annul after two vtxtrs, hut that the pure hnse of tfu> team was not contingent upon InnUiuiK the new arena. We've purchased the hw k ev team ami it's playing in Mi Ni i hols next year," Lyons said 'The deal on the new- arena is not done, fin! we intend to get it done." The Pepsi Center deal now is on ice w hile the courts and thi* government wrangle over a prop rr!v tax issue COMSAT. howev «r, hopes to break ground on the arena in July The sale culminates three months of negotiations between Nordiques' pn<sulent Martel Aubut and Cf )MSA 1 (l)MSAT 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 Quefiis s provtm ial government Quehei Premier Jacques Pnn/nau mgs ted Aubut's request for full funding of a $125 million hockey arena this month Despite their sou ess on the ice the Nordiques had the NHI.'s stx ond best regular season record — there had Ishiii relatively little outcry from fails m Queliec over the proposed sale of the Nordiques, which joined the NHL in Qutixs in 1970 A fan club nil iv at the Legislature drew onl) if)0 people last week Lyons said Aubut "thought he had no i hoice but to sell While we re excited to get the team. I feel some ambivalence, a bit of a heavy heart for Qurtxx s loss I know how much these enter prises mean to a community." (i/iarlotte O' A^an furnHun* ~R<efttu\/>ma *i AV.f/Ww/fCVf ■fXt-1779 mcs, ****!• j I 5« VIDEO GAMES Wh STREET PUlkK MARKET 683-8464 r — VIDEO ADVENTURE) VAUtt WTVfR Pi. At A Hsjs/lt 4 * , iJlfAi '■ 'V.'.W. 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