Jacobs: For sale sign not up on Bruins

Tag : sole sheets

While the Bruins' prospects twirled around the Ristuccia Arena icelast week, rumors once again swirled around the Hub that JeremyJacobs, chairman of the Black and Gold, had his hockey club up forsale.
"He's shopping it to his billionaire buddies," said one non-teamsource who deals on a regular basis with members of the Bruins'front office.
Not true. At least according to Charlie Jacobs, the family's pointman on Causeway Street, and according to his father.
"I can say with great confidence that it's not on the market," saidthe junior Jacobs. "My dad enjoys operating the team and having asay in what happens here, as do I."
"That's not happening. Nothing there," said the elder Jacobs,reached Friday afternoon by telephone in the Buffalo suburbs."Absolutely zero. Zip. I don't think that's happening in mylifetime."
Meanwhile, word broke Friday that Celtics owner Wyc Grousbeck andhis friends/investors have been in dialogue with the Los AngelesKings about buying a piece of that NHL club. The Los Angeles DailyNews reported that Tim Leiweke, president of the AnschutzEntertainment Group that owns the Kings, said he spoke to Grousbeckand a number of other "very interested" parties about taking aminority ownership position in the Kings.
Grousbeck, one of the Celtics' four managing partners, was notquoted in the Daily News story, and politely declined to commentFriday when contacted by the Globe about the Daily News report andrumors that the Bruins are for sale.
"I do apologize," Grousbeck wrote in an e-mail, "but no comment."
Which brings us to the world of "ifs." To wit: If Grousbeck andfriends were interested in buying into the NHL, why not buy theBruins . . . If the Bruins were for sale.
Again, the elder Jacobs dismissed the notion.
"Would he buy mine?" said Jacobs. "There's been no discussion onthat. No."
The Celtics today are the vastly more successful inhabitant of TDBanknorth Garden, which is owned and operated by the Jacobs family,of course. The Celtics for decades have groused about their leaseagreement on Causeway - in both the old and new building. Butrecent reports say their current deal is friendlier to the bottomline, in part because it is believed they enjoy ancillary revenuestreams, other than tickets sales, each time the Green play theGarden.
The Bruins under new ownership? Music to the ears of pleasesellthebruins.com , long the Internet outpost of fan ire directed at the Jacobs clan.A confirmed sale of the franchise, now 36-plus years beyond itslast Stanley Cup, could bring cyberspace to a halt well into thenext millennium.
Keep in mind, a Bruins sale would be both a complex and pricypurchase. The package includes the Bruins, the building, thestill-undeveloped building parcels (now officially teenagewastelands), the Celtics' lease, the concessions, and a succulentchunk of NESN. Open to bids, the starting price could be $1billion. The elder Jacobs revealed Friday that the team and NESNare under his sole ownership, while the rest of the package belongsto Delaware North Companies.