Lightning Sold, To Stay in Florida
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TAMPA, Fla. — A group led by former Florida Panthers coach Doug MacLean has agreed to buy the Tampa Bay Lightning and says it has no plans to move the franchise that won its only Stanley Cup three years ago.
“Absolute zero thought of that,” MacLean said at a news conference following the sale by Palace Sports and Entertainment, a group led by Detroit Pistons owner Bill Davidson.
“We’re following a great ownership group that took the Tampa Bay franchise and really put it on the map,” MacLean said.
Davidson bought the Lightning in 1999 and helped transform the club from a perennial last-place team struggling to sell tickets into a franchise that won the Stanley Cup in 2004 and has made the playoffs the past four seasons.
The one thing Davidson couldn’t do, though, was make the Lightning profitable.
Team officials have said the club has lost more than $70 million under current ownership, and that the only season the club made money was during its championship run.
MacLean, fired in April as the Columbus Blue Jackets’ president and general manager, declined to discuss the purchase price, saying the sale still is subject to approval by the NHL’s board of governors.
