Preds Owners Submit Lease for Approval

A couple weeks ago, Hockey News writer Ken Campbell opined that since the Nashville Predators' ownership group hadn't completed the modifications to the Sommet Center lease after months of negotiating and legal work, that they should "forget the deal was ever reached, rip it up while it still isn't iron-clad and let's move on, for everyone's sake. Move the team to Kansas City to see how long it will take to fail there."

I didn't bother responding here at the time, because this tripe has been spewing out of Toronto for quite a while now, the only difference is which day and which medium (TV, print, online, etc.).

Well, hopefully we've moved a step closer to allowing those folks to go back to chewing bark, accosting moose and obsessing over the Maple Leafs' collection of untradeable players, as the Freeman group is indeed submitting the amended Sommet Center lease to Nashville's Metro Sports Authority this afternoon, as reported by the City Paper's Richard Lawson.

UPDATE: In the Tennessean's story about this same development, there is an interesting tidbit of news: Boots Del Biaggio is no longer the single largest stakeholder in the team, as had been widely reported earlier. To quote the Tennessean, "the Predators' lead owner, Nashville-based venture capitalist David Freeman, owns 32.63 percent of the team, while California-based William "Boots" Del Biaggio III and Warren Woo together own 31.58 percent." Many have used the angle of Del Biaggio being the largest stakeholder as an indication that this is all merely a front for an eventual relocation to Kansas City.