Hawks’ sale is in peril — and that’s bad news we don’t need
Alex Meruelo insists he has the resources to buy and run the Hawks.
The NHL wasn’t happy with the Atlanta Spirit when they owned the Thrashers. The NBA never has been thrilled with them as Hawks’ owners, either. But the league and Atlanta may be stuck with them a little longer.
Our Tim Tucker is reporting that the proposed sale of the Hawks from the Atlanta Spirit to Los Angeles businessman Alex Meruelo has hit a “significant snag.” You generally can read that as financial.
Tucker noted last week that the league approved the sale of the Philadelphia 76ers but would offer no update on the Hawks’ sale. Now we know why.
Meruelo, whose purchase of the team was announced Aug. 7, subject to league approval, did not deny that the deal might be in trouble in a statement but he maintains that he has the resources to purchase and run the team: “I have more than ample resources to purchase and operate the Hawks in a first-class manner. I am committed to the purchase of the Atlanta Hawks. While I can’t comment on the details of the approval process, I have and will do everything I can to bring the process to a positive conclusion.”
Here’s my first thought: Not again.
Many of the Spirit’s problems stemmed from partners battling each other, usually in course, and those issues filtered down to the sports franchises. It significantly affected the perception of the franchises, hurting the product and even attendance. The Spirit is a damaged brand at this point and new ownership is needed.
Meruelo doesn’t bring any guarantees as to how good of an owner he would be, but he certainly would provide a needed new face in the executive suite.
In short, this would be bad news.
By Jeff Schultz
Follow me on Twitter (@JeffSchultzAJC). Friend me on Facebook (Facebook.com/JeffSchultzAJC).
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
165 comments Add your comment
Art Vandelay
October 26th, 2011
9:45 pm
I know I’m in the minority here, but if there’s a question about Meruelo’s financial ability to own and run the Hawks, then I hope they reboot the process and start looking for someone else. The last thing we need is an owner who’s living paycheck to paycheck, so to speak, and won’t spend the money necessary to raise the Hawks to the upper echelon of the league. They’ve managed to be a good second-tier team, but haven’t risen above that level since around 1987. The Hawks need a Mark Cuban style owner — someone with more money than he knows what to do with, and actually cares about basketball (and ideally, has at least SOME connection to this city).
Ray Hudson
October 26th, 2011
9:47 pm
Agree with Art. The last thing the Hawks need is an undercapitalized owner.
Vain Jangling
October 26th, 2011
9:49 pm
Thank God the attorneys will be well fed.
Delbert D.
October 26th, 2011
9:49 pm
Dubai is a lot nicer than Atlanta.
ASG must go
October 26th, 2011
9:52 pm
This is a blessing ultimately if the ASG or their bankruptcy trustee can find someone to buy the team and arena 100%
Joe
October 26th, 2011
10:23 pm
Owning the hawks is asking to lose $
sports
October 26th, 2011
10:36 pm
the sooner the better to get the hawk thugs outof Georgia
DawgNole
October 26th, 2011
10:39 pm
Gotta agree with you on this one, Delbert. The deal announced this summer just never has seemed “right.” Something odd about it that I haven’t been able to pinpoint. No big surprise now that it appears on shaky ground.
Dan
October 26th, 2011
10:47 pm
This clown, Alex Meruelo, should never go anywhere near the Hawks. For him to have donated to the Swift Boat Veterans Against Kerry is disgusting. He must have severe mental issues. Anyone who would donate to that group has no business being anywhere near an NBA team. You can’t go much lower than to disparage John Kerry’s military service. What a loser.
chris
October 26th, 2011
10:51 pm
WHO CARES!!! Quit wasting Ink on a team that isn’t going to play this year. Personally I hope the NBA fizzles and goes away and if they do come back that they play an half empty arena’s.
Hawker 2
October 26th, 2011
10:53 pm
maybe the hawks will leave town like the nhl team. Atlanta fans don’t want to pay big money to watch these overpaid mediocre players on the hawks. move on!
Bluestreak
October 26th, 2011
11:15 pm
It’s the Curse of Thrash!!
The sale will stall until ASG is forced to turn the team over to the league else they go completely broke!
There is a Winnipeg version of the curse too, have you seen the standings? The team still stinks north of the border and won’t be there in 3 years.
Former Hawk Fan, you make a great point and it epitomizes the lack of foresight the ASG has been plagued with since the beginning.
Objective fan
October 26th, 2011
11:37 pm
SON OF A…..
Objective fan
October 26th, 2011
11:40 pm
Where are the local billionaires in this city? We see other wealthy individuals buying up non-contending NBA franchises like it’s going out of style, yet NO ONE wants this bunch? In a Top 10 market? What a joke!
Columbus
October 26th, 2011
11:40 pm
Not good news. None of you know what you are talking about. None of us know what is going on. I will hold out hope because if the ASG can work through their “snag” I would think anyone can. There is no rush with there not being a season anyway. The question is I would think is, will the new guy have to cough up more cash than he is comfortable with doing as a safety net. I mean who wants to put up a “deposit” of millions of dollars that will just sit there and he cant touch it. I mean will the league just keep the money until he sells the team or dies or what? I mean this guy is a business man and that is valuable liquidity to use on other ventures that is just locked away like a deposit on an apartment or house you rent, but it is MILLIONS! I guess he could get interest of some sort on it but not nearly as much as he could make by putting it to work, especially in this economy with their being all kinds of companies he could pick up as a huge discount. Whats up with the NBA?
I say let Mark Cuban decide if Mureulo is financially sound or not since he does the same thing basically. The NBA wants to get some cash anyway they can since there will be no season or what?
I dont know, but it aint over till its over. Hope this guy can afford to and does get the team because he is passionate like Cuban and will do whatever he can to win it all.
C from Marietta
October 27th, 2011
12:08 am
Love to jump to conclusions huh? No one is saying the sale will not go through. Jezz
CrazyDiamond
October 27th, 2011
12:47 am
We are so screwed!
David Smith
October 27th, 2011
1:33 am
I should have know we hadn’t heard the last of The ASG.and the thought of them running anything related to this city is discouraging news.
BooBoo
October 27th, 2011
1:52 am
Hopefully the sale will not happen simply because the NBA will sleep with the fishes. One down, baseball and football next. Disgruntled millionaires with no college degrees and barely any control of the English language can cry me a river when they are unemployed and have so many tattoos no one will hire them. Of course Plaxico Burris can always find a job as a possey bodyguard.
extremus
October 27th, 2011
1:56 am
Well, if the NBA as a whole goes under because of their general stupidity, greed, and arrogance then the sale of the Hawks won’t matter, will it? Let’s think positive; the NBA lost me and a whole lot of other fans quite some time ago, and if the league dies it will inspire positive changes in labor negotiations and ridiculous guaranteed contracts in other pro sports. Maybe if those hedonistic (”What Should I Do?” sums up most of the stars nowadays) clowns have to learn Italian or some other foreign language to continue playing pro basketball, perhaps they’ll be a bit more appreciative of the fact they get payed AT ALL to play a GAME. And if not I hope their skill set goes beyond fast food, for their sake.
Wxwax
October 27th, 2011
3:23 am
Why is everyone in a hurry to get a new under-funded owner?
We already have those. What we need is an owner with deep pockets, not an owner who barely qualifies.
free pizza
October 27th, 2011
6:49 am
if he doesn’t have the cash, can he pay part of the bill in free pizza for the hawks owners for 3 years? If so, they can get unlimited ingredients and free delivery?
Paddy
October 27th, 2011
7:08 am
Ryan……..Ted Turner didn’t sell these teams to the ASG! Don’t blame Ted he had nothing to do with it.
SG
October 27th, 2011
7:08 am
With ASG still having a “sizable” chunk of minority ownership is this really a surprise? Think back to 2004 when their initial smoke and mirrors plan failed to fool the Boards of both the NBA and NHL. And so now the new guy can’t foot the entire note (bad sign to begin with), but the only partner he can find is the ASG? He comes to the table w/ the same clowns who really don’t want to be involved anymore but don’t have any other option and the NBA already despises? I say good for the Board.
Ted Turner
October 27th, 2011
7:26 am
N*@#er Please!
Ted
October 27th, 2011
7:34 am
No one cares about the Hawks.
Paul H
October 27th, 2011
7:48 am
Can Joe Johnson buy them?
Don
October 27th, 2011
7:56 am
Move them back to St. Louis.
ChillyMutt
October 27th, 2011
8:00 am
*yawn* NBA *yawn*
waffleboy
October 27th, 2011
8:14 am
This is karma for screwing over Thrashers’ fans.
Miles Zaharko
October 27th, 2011
8:18 am
After the loss of the Thrashers, I welcome anything that further damages the ASG and their properties. As long as any of the ASG partners have a “significant minority stake” in the Hawks or Philips Arena after the sale, I will NEVER set foot in that building for ANY event.
Jason
October 27th, 2011
8:32 am
Does anyone really still care about the Hawks anyway? And if they do, why???
TED!
October 27th, 2011
8:34 am
bring back Ted Turner to buy the hawks! He’s got billions in cash and tons of land—he can buy the hawks with pocket change.
Richham
October 27th, 2011
8:46 am
The reign of the Atlanta Spirit continues…hahahahahaha. It’s a fitting story with Halloween around the corner. Cursed you say?
GT
October 27th, 2011
8:47 am
Seems to me if there was a market of these teams ,like the reported values would tell you, that the line would be long with buyers. Certainly in the hockey situation I have never heard such whining from local carpet baggers who have landed in our city to make a living off this situation. I think their disgust was more about losing an easy paycheck because the team couldn’t find the next sucker to take over this foreign sport than telling fact. I have always imagined that those reporting spots were long taken in Philly and Boston so the minor league reporters floated down to Atlanta to find a seat at the table. You don’t find minor league college football reporters down south, yet what tickles me some is these carpet baggers try to get into that market too. I hope they know more about hockey. Anyway if this is such a great deal and there is such great interest in hockey the team was for sell. There is a thing call demand in the market place Demand killed the Flames and it is about to kill the Hawks for a separate reason but the same lack of demand.
J
October 27th, 2011
8:47 am
Najeh, your comment will fall on deaf ears … these idiots are classless and assume NBA players are thugs. I’ve commented many times on this fact alone but people still call the NBA players thugs (even though i have yet to see an example of that from our Hawks players) and still say they hate the Hawks/NBA but yet they follow college basketball. It’s the worst kind of hypocrite i can think of. None of these fools even think about the amount of jobs this affects as a whole. It’s so old now to read about people saying “i won’t step foot in Philips Arena now b/c of ASG”. Ok, GREAT, we got your point a long time ago … now please, beat it. Half of them probably have not stepped foot in Philips since 2007 and yet they come on here to still voice that. Honestly, i’m tired of hearing it. If there is a great event going on at Philips, i’m bringing my family. I may hate the ASG but it’s not the shows fault we attend for their bad decision making. It’s not the Arena employees faults.
Thrash
October 27th, 2011
8:49 am
Karma, baby, karma…
J
October 27th, 2011
8:51 am
and why the F&*% do these retarded bloggers get on here to bash the Hawks? That’s getting old too … you don’t like the Hawks, GREAT, don’t come to games.
Ben
October 27th, 2011
8:54 am
Can we now list Atlanta’s most hated people as:
1) Atlanta Spirit Group
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
2) Eric Gregg
3) Jim Leyritz
J
October 27th, 2011
9:07 am
(STILL 2-10) Against Ranked Teams = obvious Thrashers (racist) loyal fan still whining about his Thrashers and trying to throw dirt at the Hawks, whom have been the only sports team in Atlanta to consecutively make the playoffs the past 4 years. Ok, so they didn’t win anything but neither did the Thrashers. Thrashers are stinking it up in Winnipeg right now and didn’t do too great here either. Your point is you hate the Hawks, great, go troll somewhere else. Or go sit in your closet and cry (which you’re probably already doing, with computer in hand).
juice sourcer
October 27th, 2011
9:14 am
Another example of why Atlanta continues to be Losersville USA and always will.
GT
October 27th, 2011
9:14 am
They are thugs. The problem with worshiping these thugs is we forget they are thugs and the conduct is spread to the society as a whole. Somebody in this paper had written about how the players had trumped the owners this week. You keep believing that, but if you don’t have adults involved in this business you are not going to have the NBA, which will barely be noticed by most of America. There is a reason we don’t raise our kids to be thugs and if you watch how most of these millionaires end up you began to see why.
again
October 27th, 2011
9:19 am
Again, I’ll say it….No One Cares
The NBA has so little to do with basketball, it’s a shell of what was once a great game.
ASG in a world of hurt
October 27th, 2011
9:31 am
Is anyone honestly surprised by this? If you paid attention to the details about how the Spirit was financing a large portion of the sale to this guy AND that some of the Spirit were going to keep up to 20% of the ownership, you knew this was a sketchy deal.
They RUSHED to make this announcement before the league had even started their approval process because they wanted to draw attention away from the Thrashers debacle as quickly as possible.
GT
October 27th, 2011
9:31 am
again you are right, I am just amazed at what a publication will back to make money. But it is what it is.
PMC
October 27th, 2011
9:35 am
Well…… at least it happened quick. I guess the NBA could take over the team.
Que outside comments about how Atlanta cannot support teams blah blah. We have ONE owner, exactly one who has the financial wherewithal and the pride to be a team owner.
It’s just sad. People want to have pride in this town.
Beau Turner
October 27th, 2011
9:35 am
Have all of you saps finally figured out that Time Warner pulled the rug out from David McDavid’s feet and sold to my group instead because my daddy pulled some strings?
Tech'10
October 27th, 2011
9:35 am
meh. Now where did the coffee machine get moved to.. that is a more important issue to me.. Good luck Hawks, the Spirit ruined half of ATL sports, so I hope this guy can actually come in a make a change.
PMC
October 27th, 2011
9:36 am
again – you haven’t paid attention. The NBA last year was fantastic. Regular season and playoffs.
Rutherford Seydel
October 27th, 2011
9:37 am
Beau! Stop giving away family secrets!
Do you want to go down to the Pink Pony for lunch? Your father gave me a few more million to blow.