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
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