Edmonton Investors Group

The Edmonton Investors Group Limited Partnership is the limited partnership which currently owns the Edmonton Oilers of the National Hockey League, as well as the Edmonton Oil Kings of the Western Hockey League. With more than thirty individual shareholders, EIGLP is the largest ownership group in the NHL. Among the four North American major sports leagues, only the Green Bay Packers have a larger ownership group.

History

In the mid-1990s, Edmonton Oilers owner Peter Pocklington was in a precarious financial situation. Pocklington's main creditor, the Alberta Treasury Branches, were demanding repayment of millions of dollars worth of loans that ATB had made to Pocklington in the 1980s and early 1990s. The once-popular Pocklington had a strained relationship with Edmontonians due in part to his decision to trade Wayne Gretzky as well as a variety of other reasons. As a result, attendance at the Northlands Coliseum had declined - partly due to the team's declining on-ice fortunes but also due to personal animosity towards the owner.

This animosity hindered a 1996 season ticket drive that was needed to keep the team in Edmonton. It was largely due to the perseverance of future EIG partner Cal Nichols, that the Friends of the Oilers ticket drive ultimately expanded the season ticket base from a dismal 6,200 to over 13,400, enough to secure the team's future for the short term. However, it was increasingly obvious that Pocklington would not be around for the long term. In early 1997, Pocklington announced his intention to sell up to 45% of the team on the stock market. Pressure from ATB forced him to abandon this plan and put the team up for sale.

When the Oilers were put up for sale, many doubted whether a local ownership could be found and believed the proud franchise would be re-located to an American city as had happened with the teams in Quebec City in 1995 and Winnipeg in 1996. In 1997 the population of the Edmonton metropolitan area was still under one million, a figure viewed by many fans to be the minimum base a major sports team needs to be financially viable. With the only other former World Hockey Association team in Hartford re-locating in 1997, many analysts predicted that the "domino effect" would be completed in 1998 with the Oilers' move.

However, the terms of Pocklington's lease at what was then known as the Edmonton Coliseum prevented him from unilaterally moving the team or selling it to someone who intended to move it. The lease stipulated that an ownership group willing to keep the team in Edmonton would have six weeks from the time any such intention was declared to purchase the team for US$70 million. In addition, the ATB is a crown corporation owned by the Albertan government, though they treated the matter as non-political. While Albertan Premier Ralph Klein wanted to keep the Oilers in the capital, he was wary of a series of scandals involving favouritism at the ATB that had plagued his predecessor, Don Getty, in the 1980s. Klein was unwilling to make any move that might have been perceived by voters as government subsidization of a hockey club that paid multi-million dollar salaries.

Nichols, a prominent businessman in his own right, immediately began putting together an ownership group. At the time, the Albertan economy -- driven by the oilpatch -- was still recovering from price crashes in the 1980s and 1990s. Most Albertan investors preferred to commit their money to the re-emerging oilpatch, not a "small-market" hockey team. With no single Albertan magnate willing to commit $100 million to purchase the team, Nichols was forced to secure smaller investments from a larger number of investors. Lenders were willing to finance 40% of the purchase price, meaning Nichols needed to come up with about $60 million. Nichols had about $35 million in investments when an offer of US$85 million came from a buyer who wanted to move the team to Houston.

The Oilers' sale attracted interest in from several American cities, and as Nichols was securing local investors, an offer of US$85 million came from Les Alexander, a Houston-based businessman and an owner of the National Basketball Association's Houston Rockets. Houston, which had recently had an application for an expansion team rejected by the league, was (and still is) the largest U.S. city without an NHL franchise. Alexander's original offer was to keep the team in Edmonton on the condition that the lease be terminated, attendance remained at acceptable levels, a local ownership group was eventually found and an expansion team be granted to Alexander in Houston. The Edmonton City Council rejected these terms, believing they gave Alexander too much discretion to move the Oilers to Texas. The city believed the lease they negotiated with Pocklington was still the best chance they had of keeping the team in Edmonton in the long term. Alexander then offered the ATB (which had the team in receivership by then) US$85 million to purchase the team and move it to Houston, and submitted a US$5 million deposit. Nichols was given until March 13, 1998 to match the deposit and commit to purchasing the team for US$70 million, or the lease would be automatically terminated and the team would move.

Nichols was eventually able to assemble a group of 38 local investors. As the deadline neared, the Edmonton Investors Group (EIG) decided to commit to the purchase by matching Alexander's deposit with a down payment of US$5 million. The remainder of the US$70 million was paid to ATB 40 days later, and the NHL then approved the sale. Although major sporting leagues generally frown upon large ownership groups controlling franchises, the NHL decided to forego putting a team in Houston and allow the Oilers' sale to EIG to proceed as they did not want to lose any more Canadian teams - this would have put their lucrative Canadian television contracts in jeopardy.

The Edmonton Investors Group Ltd. is mainly a local ownership group, but includes a few business people from outside the city as well. The Oilers sale even drew interest from Calgary-born comic book creator Todd McFarlane, creator of the famous Spawn character. McFarlane and artist Brent Ashe later designed the Oilers’ third jersey.

The Oilers' new owners have maintained good relations with fans. As a result, fans in Edmonton backed the league-imposed lockout of 2004-05 even though it wiped out an entire season, and came back after the lockout was settled. In the 2005-06 NHL season, the Oilers sold out every home game except one, where a computer glitch prevented the release of several hundred tickets.

Following a successful 2005-06 season which saw the Oilers fall one win short of winning the Stanley Cup and a boom in the Albertan economy, fan support reached its highest levels. A waiting list for season ticket buyers, unheard of during the days of Pocklington's ownership, was put in place after the owners were compelled to cap the number of season tickets sold. The team has also announced that a lottery will be held for the right to purchase multi-game packages at Rexall Place.

In the 2006-07 NHL season the Oilers sold out every home game for the first time, despite missing the playoffs by a substantial margin. The ownership group then reportedly received a C$145 million offer from local billionaire Daryl Katz for the franchise, although Nichols subsequently said the team was not for sale.[1] Daryl Katz upped the offer to $150 million, but was turned down again.

On August 7th, Daryl Katz made a 3rd offer for the team of $185 million. Cal Nichols, spokesman for the EIG, said it amounted to a hostile takeover, and had caused divisions within the EIG.

On December 13, 2007 Daryl Katz submitted a 4th formal offer to the EIG to buy the franchise. The offer was $190 million to the EIG shareholders, plus another $100 million towards the building of a new arena in downtown Edmonton. Cal Nichols indicated that he would accept the offer for his share of the team, but that the EIG had to have the owners of 2/3 of the shares agree to the proposal. The EIG will be meeting to decide on the bid in January, 2008.

Shareholders

As of July 2001, the ownership of the EIG was as follows:

Shareholder	Type	No. held	% of vote	Citizenship
Larry M. Makelki	Class A	500	8.33%	Canadian
Lockhold Consultants Ltd.	Class A	500	8.33%
Gary Gregg	Class A	500	8.33%
774791 Alberta Ltd.	Class A	500	8.33%
Edwin E. Bean	Class A	500	8.33%
Jacob Ambrosius	Class A	400	6.66%	Non-Can.
Skyreach Equipment Ltd.	Class A	300	5.00%	Canadian
Art Mihalcheon	Class A	300	5.00%
750322 Alberta Ltd.	Class A	300	5.00%
W. Gordon Buchanan	Class A	200	3.33%
887877 Alberta Ltd.	Class A	200	3.33%
The Edmonton Journal	Class A	100	1.66%
McFarlane Toys Canada, Inc.	Class A	100	1.66%

There are 12 other shareholders with 100 shares each and eight with less than 100 (2 of whom are non-Canadian). The non-Canadian shareholders represent 10 per cent of the voting interest of EIG.

January 21, 2007 as written in the Edmonton Journal by Dan Barnes, there are 3 parts to the share purchase offer made by Darry Katz. A majority have reportedly got on board with the offer, a small group who doesn't want to sell, & an undecided group.

Sellers

Shareholder	Percentage Held	Job
Larry M. Makelki	9.14%	Oilfield Supplier Lloydminster (Plainsman)
Edwin E. Bean	9.14%	Founder of Crystal Glass
Jim Hole	9.14%	Lockerbie & Hole Group of Companies
Cal Nichols	9.14%	Founder of the Gasland Group of Comapanies
Bruce Saville	9.14%	Founder of Saville Systems
Manuel Balsa		Oilfield Manufacturing
The Edmonton Journal		Local Newspaper
Dave Addie		Oilfield Supplier Lloydminster (BMW)
Neal Allen		Ampscot (Weatherford Ampscot)
Tim Melton		Melcor Developments Ltd
Don Hamilton		Edmonton Northlands
Rusty Stalwick		Lloydminster Consortium of Five (Nilsson Brothers Livestock Exchange Manager)
Ron Hodgson		Automobile Dealer
Michael Dalton
Brian Hryniuk
Jim Zanello		Accountant
Todd McFarlane		Comic Book & Toy maker
Ted Barrett

The investors above account for about 68% of the outsanding shares.

Members not willing to sell

Shareholder	Percentage Held	Job
Gary Gregg	9.14%	Founder Gregg Distributors
Bill Butler	< 1.00%	Springwood Developments (Real Estate)
Brian Nilsson		Lloydminster Consortium of Five (Nilsson Bothers)
Art Mihalcheon		Steel-Craft Door Products Ltd
Jakob Ambrosius

The above members account for about 22% of the outstanding shares.

Undecided

Shareholder	Percentage Held	Job
The Estate of Gerald Knoll		Founder of KSM Inc. (Oilfield Manufacturer)
Dale Sheard		Cavarzan Inc
Ernie Elko		Construction
Harold Roozen		CCI Thermal Technologies Inc (Oilfield Heating)
J.R. Paine and Associates		Geotechnical and Construction Materials Engineers
Keith Weaver		Lloydminster Consortium of Five
Roger Roberge		Lloydminster Consortium of Five (Livestock Hauler)
Marcel Roberge		Lloydminster Consortium of Five (Livestock Hauler)
Chris Kuchar		Tri-Service Oilfield Mfg. Ltd (TSM)
Simon Sochatsky		ZCL Inc. (Fibreglass Oilfield Tanks)

The above investors account for around 10 per cent of the shares

Gerald Knoll passed away on January 18, 2007. One of the founding members of the EIG.

Mike oootside of edmonton (talk) 18:29, 22 January 2008 (UTC)

Notes

[2] [3] [4] [5] Mike oootside of edmonton (talk) 18:30, 22 January 2008 (UTC)

See also

• Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment

EIG says "Oilers not for sale." - August 7th 2007 "Oilers' owners warming to Katz's offer to buy team." - January 21st 2007