Let's Go Blues

SCP Worldwide's seven-month search for a major investor in the Blues could be over by the end of January.

Blues owner Dave Checketts is in New York today pouring over the documents that will keep SCP in control of the club and him as the front man of the organization.

Checketts would not disclose the identity of the investors, but said there is "more than one group," and he also said publicly for the first time that TowerBrook Capital Partners would not be divesting all of its interest in the Blues, as TCP indicated it would in May.

"I can see the light at the end of the tunnel," Checketts told the Post-Dispatch. "Our investor group is 95 percent assembled ... now during the next few weeks, we'll work on league approvals and getting everything done and wrapped up. I said in Florida at the (NHL) Board of Governors meeting that I thought this would happen in the early part of the year, and I think that's still true."

The announcement that TCP will remain in the investment comes as a surprise. TCP notified Checketts earlier this year that it would be divesting its stake in the team and Scottrade Center, which was believed to be as much as $100 million or 75 percent of the original purchase. That is the move that triggered the search for a new investor.

But in the last few months, TCP altered its plans and now will keep "a major chunk" of its equity in the Blues, although not as much as it held previously.

"They're thrilled about how things are going, and the way the club is playing ...," Checketts said. "As we got into the fall, it didn't hurt that we got started 9-1, and the business dramatically started to improve, and we got the opera house deal all done ... and then looking toward the new (NHL) television agreement. All of those things created a situation where they notified us that they would be willing to continue to play a role and we accepted that with open arms.

"So Towerbrook is actually not exiting completely, but is going to stay in for a major chunk of the equity, and that makes it that much easier for us to not only stay in control, but to continue to run the things the way we are."

Along with TCP, Checketts said the Blues' new investment structure will include SCP, minority owner Tom Stillman and the undisclosed group of investors.

Checketts wouldn't say much about the identity of the new investors, acknowledging only that "there's more than one and we do have some local people in with us, and we have some others who live in other places in the country, but who are interested in hockey and passionate about what we're doing in St. Louis. We feel very good about the group."

Under the new arrangement, Checketts is expected to remain the Blues' Governor.

"Between Towerbrook and our new investors, they are very, very supportive of us continuing to run the franchise and be in control," he said.

The plan is to have the investor group solidified early in 2011, and have the paperwork presented to the NHL for approval shortly afterward.

"I don't know if we'll have it done it time for the (NHL) All-Star break (Jan. 30), but that would be a worthwhile goal to be talking to the league about our investor group and having them do all of their background work around the All-Star break, or maybe even a little bit later in February," Checketts said. "But this is going to happen in the next couple of months."

Nyghtewynd wrote: