Nashville Predators arena sponsor Sommet Group is really the one in hot water
Last week after the Nashville Predators filed a lawsuit against the Sommet Group over the non-payment of arena naming rights fees, the story took a bit of a turn sideways as Brian Whitfield, the CEO of the Sommet Group, informed a reporter at The Tennessean that Predators chairman and principal owner David Freeman had a federal tax lien currently in force, due to personal income taxes owed.
While it was certainly newsworthy to hear that Freeman is in debt to the IRS, and working to sell assets to pay it off, how was that related to the Sommet Group not paying fees owed to the team? Other than causing personal embarrassment to Freeman (and stirring up the press in Toronto), what do federal tax liens have to do with anything here?
Apparently, quite a bit, as it turns out...
Thanks to a tip from OtF reader BamaMan-PredFan, this comes from the October 23, 2009 print edition of the Nashville Business Journal, which lists recently filed federal tax liens:
Who is "Personel[sic] Department", do you ask? Let's go back to the lawsuit that the Preds filed last week (emphasis mine):
Personnel Department is a limited liability company organized and existing under the laws of the State of Tennessee, and maintains its principal place of business at 725 Cool Spring Boulevard, Suite 320, Franklin, Tennessee 37067. Although originally formed as "The Personnel Department LLC," the company, by articles of amendment filed with the Tennessee Secretary of State November 6, 2009, changed its name to "Sommet Group, LLC."
Yup, that's right. The Sommet Group has a federal tax lien slapped on them, too. That would certainly explain why they've had trouble paying their obligations to the Nashville Predators.
What it doesn't explain is why Whitman would try to embarrass Freeman publicly by revealing his tax lien, while his own company faces a similar situation.
Evidently he was confident that The Tennessean wouldn't do any digging around of their own on this. Sure enough, they took Whitfield's accusation, verified that it was true, and ran with it, rather than do some elementary ground work to see whether the Sommet Group was simply trying to divert attention from their own financial troubles.
UPDATE: Another curiosity can be found at the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance website. The Personnel Department LLC is listed as having a delinquent business license as of July 31, 2009 for employee leasing (temporary staffing), while the Sommet Group is shown as an "unapproved applicant." I spoke to someone there who said that while the firm is going through the process of getting this license renewed, they should not be conducting business until that is complete (perhaps as early as next week).
It can't possibly be good for the Sommet Group to have a federal tax lien hanging over them, and have a portion of the business interrupted while a licensing issue remains unresolved.
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Comments
I'm glad this is coming out now...
…as opposed to later, since Freeman et al. seem to have granted some temporary clemency to the Sommet Group to amicably resolve the dispute. It ought to put Whitman back in his place.
TNan?
but will the Daily Rag report this? since it won’t be putting the Preds in a negative light?
I just set up an RSS in Outlook...
…to see if the Tennessean reports it, after I retweeted Dirk’s link to @tndotcom and @tnsports.
Incredible Scoop!
How in the world would you stumble across that?
by Preds On The Glass on Dec 4, 2009 1:49 PM EST reply actions
Rock On Sherlock Holmes!!!!
Section 326 is in the house!!!
Bless you, sir!
For saving me the time to verify this myself (not that I could have done nearly as good a job. I actually the initial indication that i saw was by a commentor to the original story on the Tennessean website the day after the story ran.
I was gonna try and run it down myself, but didn’t quite know where to go. Good thing we’ve got SHERLOCK HOAG on the job! Great job!
Now if only Glennon could pick it up and report on it. Fat chance the TN editors would allow that…
I sent ya a BBM since I was in the car when I saw this.. but wow.
Mad props to the person that tipped you off on this!!
The Home of Cellblock 303 - Section303.com
Great article, Dirk.
A posse ad esse.
The Copper & Blue|OilersNation|Hockey or Die!
Twitter: @JonathanWillis
Mail: jonathan.willis@live.ca
Mr. H
you are kicking major butt today, sir. WTG. still waiting for that TNan story on this . . .

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