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NHL blocks Pastor's $278M bid for Coyotes

by Demitri Diakantonis | Published May 15, 2013 at 11:09 AM

The National Hockey League has turned away another bidder in its long auction of the Phoenix Coyotes.

The league confirmed Tuesday, May 14, that it rejected a bid from Capstone Affluent Strategies CEO Darin Pastor.

A source familiar with the auction process said Tuesday that Pastor submitted a $277.5 million bid this past weekend, significantly higher than the NHL's $170 million asking price. Pastor's offer calls for him to pay about $42 million in cash at closing on June 15, and the remainder over a 15-year period, according to the source. The bid is not subject to any financing conditions.

"Mr. Pastor's bid was rejected," NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said in a Tuesday e-mailed statement. "We found that various elements of the bid were unworkable for the NHL and inconsistent with the terms we had previously discussed as being necessary for the bid to be considered."

A NHL spokesman declined Tuesday to comment further on what the league found wrong with Pastor's offer.

The source said that the league is seeking a shorter time frame on the payout period.

On March 29, Pastor, a Buffalo, N.Y., native, formed a exploratory committee to make a bid on the Coyotes and vowed to keep the team in Phoenix.

Pastor declined to comment Tuesday on the specific terms of his bid, adding that he found out through the Canadian radio station that it was rejected. He said he will revise his offer and submit a new one to the league.

"We're certainly not done," Pastor said.

Pastor's family has a history of running hockey teams. From 1956 to 1971 his family owned the Buffalo Bisons minor league hockey team.

There is at least one other bidder remaining in the auction. A group led by AltaCorp Capital Inc. chairman and CEO George Gosbee and former Research in Motion Ltd. executive Anthony LeBlanc are also pursuing purchasing the team, but the financial terms of their bid is not clear, according the source.

Earlier this year, former San Jose Sharks CEO Greg Jamison missed a Jan. 31 deadline to complete a deal to buy the Coyotes because he was unable to secure financing. Peak6 Investments LP chief executive Matthew Hulsizer dropped his bid for the Coyotes in 2011.

The NHL acquired the Coyotes out of bankruptcy protection in 2009 and put them on the block in 2010. During the bankruptcy case, the franchise received a formal offer from a group led by Chicago White Sox and Chicago Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf and a letter of intent from a group identified as Ice Edge Holdings LLC to make one worth $150 million, according to The Deal Pipeline.

Ice Edge was led by hedge fund managers Daryl Jones and Keith McCullough. Ice Edge also reportedly counted Coyotes minority owner John Breslow among its investors and planned to install LeBlanc as its CEO if it won the Coyotes derby.

Research In Motion founder Jim Balsillie offered $212.5 million for the team on the condition that he be allowed to move it to Hamilton, Ontario.

Ice Edge withdrew its offer, and the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Arizona in Phoenix rejected Reinsdorf's bid, as well as the NHL's initial proposal. Ultimately, the league was able to win court approval of a $140 million bid.

The main drive behind the NHL's bid for the Coyotes was its desire to keep the franchise in Phoenix. Whoever ends up winning the Coyotes auction will still have to negotiate a new lease with the city of Glendale for the team's Jobing.com arena.

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