Blues confirm sale to sports entrepreneur Checketts

By JIM SALTER, Associated Press Writer
March 24, 2006

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Dave Checketts is buying the St. Louis Blues, ending a 10-month search for a buyer that led the NHL club to sell off many of its top players.

The team announced the sale Friday morning and called a news conference for 1 p.m. EST. The Blues said owners Bill and Nancy Laurie will sell the team and the Savvis Center to Checketts and his Sports Capital Partners, along with Towerbrook Capital Partners.


The NHL's Board of Governors must approve the deal. A lease locks the Blues in St. Louis until the 2010-11 season.

A spokesman for the Blues confirmed the sale but declined to give the price or answer any other questions, deferring all comment until the news conference. Forbes magazine had put a value of $140 million on the franchise and the Savvis Center.

Messages were left with a spokesman for Checketts, who declined comment Thursday night when he was in Salt Lake City for a ceremony retiring the jersey of former Utah Jazz star Karl Malone.

The sale comes during a difficult season for the Blues. The Lauries announced plans to sell the team, saying they had lost millions since purchasing the franchise in 1999.

Management traded away several stars this season, including Chris Pronger and Doug Weight, in an effort to make the Blues more attractive for sale. After 25 straight postseason appearances -- the longest streak in the four major pro team sports -- the Blues officially were eliminated from playoff contention this week and, with 51 points, are tied with Chicago for the second-worst record in the NHL.

Attendance, sixth in the league with an average of 18,560 fans in 2003-04, has dropped to 26th with an average of 14,080 fans this season.

The 50-year-old Checketts became the youngest person to run an NBA team at age 28 when he took over as president and general manager of the Jazz in 1984. After leaving the Jazz, he ran the New York Knicks and Madison Square Garden, which also owns the New York Rangers and the WNBA's Liberty.

Checketts founded New York-based Sports Capital Partners in 2001, and brought the expansion soccer team Real Salt Lake to Utah in 2004. His investment group also owns a minor league hockey team.