Profiles of the prime investors and other movers and shakers behind the deal to bear an NHL pair back to Winnipeg after a 15-year absence. Winnipeg On the Winnipeg side, the notable musician has been a establishment called True North Sports and Entertainment. The convention was created in 2001 by Winnipeg businessman Mark Chipman and other partners with the objective of construction a unknown sports and relief venue in downtown Winnipeg that could bring back the depressed commercial region and peradventure attract an NHL party to the city.
The new 15,000-seat complex, named the MTS Centre, opened in 2004 and became the profoundly of the Manitoba Moose, the AHL span Chipman had brought to Winnipeg after the Jets pink in 1996. With that team, which had some of the strongest gathering numbers in the league, True North showed hockey could once again be a in the money company advance in Winnipeg. Billionaire and inheritor to the Thomson media means David Thomson got confused in True North through his family's unfeigned estate arm, Osmington Inc., which owned the dock the MTS Centre was built on.
Eventually, Thomson and Chipman bought out the other partners and became the exclusive owners of True North. Mark Chipman: topple of True North Sports and Entertainment, the companionship that will own the additional yoke and already owns its following people's home arena, the MTS Centre, which was built in 2004 to supersede the Winnipeg Arena, where the Jets occupied to production and which was demolished in 2006. Chipman is president and chieftain managerial of Megill-Stephenson Co. Ltd., a holding associates started by his father, Robert Chipman, that owns several crate dealerships.
Mark Chipman, president of True North Sports and Entertainment Inc. (John Woods/Canadian Press) The throng also has stakes in the MTS Centre and the Manitoba Moose, the steading band for the Vancouver Canucks. The Moose were in days gone by duty of the International Hockey League before Chipman brought the rig to Manitoba from Minnesota following the Jets' departure in 1996.
He successfully negotiated for the Moose and five other IHL teams to be accepted into the American Hockey League. The Moose have proven to be a big receive for the MTS Centre and have ranked near the cork of the coalition for mellow and playoff attendance. Chipman is big cheese of the Hockey Canada Foundation and sits on the boards of various community organizations. He is married with three daughters and has two brothers, Stephen and Jeoffrey, who are also busy in Winnipeg's corporation community and the genus holdings. He earned a BA in economics and a rules and regulations condition from the University of North Dakota.
Prior to his come back to Winnipeg, he worked as a member of the bar in the U.S. Thomson Reuters chairman and True North co-owner David Thomson. (Darren Calabrese/Canadian Press) David Thomson: Chairman of Thomson Reuters, the media conglomerate founded by his grandfather, Roy, in 1934 and later outing by his father, Kenneth.
With an estimated catch importance of $23 billion, Thomson was ranked cardinal on Forbes magazine's 2011 directory of Canadian billionaires and 17th in the world. Co-chairs the family's investment concern, Woodbridge, with sibling Peter. Together with Chipman, owns True North Sports and Entertainment. Divorced with three children. Based in Toronto, Thomson has been more of a peaceful pecuniary colleague rather than being momentarily confusing in negotiations over the NHL deal.
Atlanta Negotiating for the Atlanta viewpoint has been Atlanta Spirit LLC. The ownership aggregation has owned the Thrashers since 2004, when it purchased the team, along with the NBA's Atlanta Hawks and the operating rights for Philips arena, from Turner Broadcasting System Inc. for $250 million US.
While responsibility and media big cheese Ted Turner is not pull apart of Atlanta Spirit, several of its members have links to him. Michael Gearon, left, and Bruce Levenson, members of the Atlanta Spirit LLC ownership group. (David Goldman/Associated Pres) Atlanta Spirit LLC has officially been seeking a customer since December 2010 for the financially troubled Thrashers, which have losses reportedly in the collection of $20 million to $40 million per year. Numerous factors played into the team's less-than-stellar monetary situation.
Fan substructure was empty (the set ranked 28th in that sphere this condition out of 30 NHL teams). There were squabbles within the ownership group, which wasn't exceedingly painful on keeping the duo for several years. The Thrashers' payroll was amidst the lowest in the league, and the team's gig on the ice was less than impressive: it didn’t conquer a playoff plan in 11 seasons. The car-boot sale of the gang to Winnipeg’s True North Sports and Entertainment comes about five months after Atlanta Spirit settled a lawsuit with a ci-devant colleague of the ownership group, Steve Belkin.
Members of the Atlanta Spirit grouping include: Bruce Levenson: Co-founder, along with Ed Peskowitz, of United Communications Group (UCG), a portfolio of past master issue report companies. Michael Gearon: Founded the telecommunications eagerness Gearon Communications in 1990 at the stage of 25; sold the society in 1998. Ed Peskowitz: Co-founder with Levenson of UCG.
Rutherford Seydel: Atlanta barrister snarled in the Atlanta Spirit’s natural estate, franchising and charge transactions. A son-in-law of Ted Turner and a manager and vice-chairman of the Conservation Fund. Todd Foreman: Partner in UCG and a certified purchasers accountant. Michael Gearon Sr.: Close moll of Ted Turner and bygone overseer of Turner Broadcasting; has prostrate three decades with the Atlanta Hawks.
A official state entrepreneur, he retired from traffic at length of existence 37. Beau Turner: Ted Turner’s son and chairman of the game table of trustees for the Turner Endangered Species Fund and fish and wildlife overseer for Turner Enterprises Inc., the mould holding place for the Turner family.
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