AJC:Owners:Belkin will fire workers

[WraithSentinel]

http://www.ajc.com/hawks/content/sports/ha...0623spirit.html

Owners: Belkin will fire workers

New motion asks for stay to preserve status quo

By TIM TUCKER

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Published on: 06/23/06

If estranged part-owner Steve Belkin takes over the Hawks and Thrashers next month, he "will most assuredly terminate the employ of numerous innocent employees," the teams' other owners contend in a new court filing.

Thursday's filing even hinted who one of those employees might be, noting that Hawks general manager Billy Knight "has publicly stated that he does not trust Mr. Belkin and has refused to shake his hand."

In a 65-page filing, the owners who two weeks ago were ordered by a Maryland court to sell their stakes to Belkin asked the judge to stay the order while they appeal it to a higher court.

If a stay is granted, it would preserve the status quo during the appeal process. If a stay is not granted, Belkin could take over the teams as soon as July 13.

And if Belkin takes over, the other owners said in the latest legal salvo, he "will undoubtedly" view the staff as "loyal" to them and fire employees "who have made personal and family commitments to Atlanta."

Belkin did not respond to a request for comment late Thursday.

The filing did not lay out the grounds for appeal, saying only that there are "substantial and hotly contested legal issues" for Maryland's Court of Special Appeals to consider.

The other owners — a group led by Bruce Levenson, Ed Peskowitz, Michael Gearon Jr. and Rutherford Seydel — asked Montgomery County (Md.) Circuit Court Judge Eric Johnson to grant a stay of his earlier order without requiring that they post a bond during the appeals process. They said they "suspect [belkin] will demand a bond ... in the hundreds of millions of dollars."

A bond would be designed to protect Belkin against any drop in the value of the franchises during an appeal process that experts say could last up to a year.

Johnson is expected to hold a hearing within the next week or two on the

motion for a stay. His original ruling found that the other owners had failed to abide last summer's agreement to buy out Belkin's 30 percent stake in the Hawks, Thrashers and Philips Arena, triggering Belkin's right to instead buy them out at cost. In the order, the judge said the other owners should sell to Belkin within 30 days.

While arguing against a bond as a requirement for a stay, the other owners suggested in Thursday's filing that the court instead place several conditions on them during the appeal process. Those conditions would include that they remain responsible for the teams' operating losses and that they make no changes in senior management, led by CEO Bernie Mullin.

"Mr. Mullin's continued leadership will ensure that Belkin's interests will be preserved pending appeal," the

filing said. "There is no question that Mr. Mullin is both highly qualified and independent."

If the ruling is not stayed and Belkin proceeds to take sole ownership of the teams next month, the other owners "will be out on the street with ... no ability to protect their interests in the event of a reversal on appeal," their filing said.

It also said that the long-tangled case could get even more convoluted in the weeks ahead, noting that approval by both the NBA and NHL would be

required for Belkin to close on a purchase of their stakes and that "there is no guarantee either league will approve a buyout pending appeal."

The leagues have declined comment on the matter.

The court filing also cited "the potential for flip-flopping ownership," raising the scenario of what would happen if Belkin buys out the other owners, only to have them prevail on appeal and attempt to reclaim the teams from him later.

-----------------

Any legal experts out there? Just curious, is it looking bad for the current owners?

[TheDude]

that looks bad on two fronts-

1) the owners are pulling the "please feel sorry for the innocent victims" routine so i'm hoping that doesn't mean they don't have much else to go on.

2) Belkin had no comment. Which usually mean "yes, they're right."

if Belkin owned the team, i would hope that the fans booed him so much in his own arena, that Stern HAD to do somethign to prevent the embarassment.

[KB21]

Belkin would never show up at the home arena. He'd stay in Boston and send his cronie, Jan Volk, to Atlanta.

[gsuteke]

what would you expect the angle to be here?

i agree it looks bad that the Spirit has to resort to such tactics.

[Admin]

I wonder what would happen then? Would he still have the rights to sell the team to someone else or would the team stay with Spirit?

That does sound a little desperate with them talking about the innocent employees, but maybe they are just trying to get that out there in case its something a non Hawks fan judge might not think about.

[Seano]

I agree. This seems a little desperate.

I'm starting to get a bad feeling about this whole thing. It's incredible and extremely sobering to read that Belkin could be taking over the whole works as soon as July 13th.

[gsuteke]

Quote:

---

I agree. This seems a little desperate.

I'm starting to get a bad feeling about this whole thing. It's incredible and extremely sobering to read that Belkin could be taking over the whole works as soon as July 13th.

---

Seano my friend,

it looks as if we may be screwed either way this thing ends up

[gsuteke]

Quote:

---

Quote:

---

I agree. This seems a little desperate.

I'm starting to get a bad feeling about this whole thing. It's incredible and extremely sobering to read that Belkin could be taking over the whole works as soon as July 13th.

---

Seano my friend,

it looks as if we may be screwed either way this thing ends up

---

In the Blue Corner

hailing from Atlanta, Washington, etc, etc

"The Nincompoops!" (sp?)

and the challenger in the Red Corner

hailing from Boston, MA

"The CheapAss Steeeeeeve Beeeeelkiiiiin!"

good luck Hawks' fans, always remember to keep your gloves up!

[Seano]

It ain't over yet. The forces of incompetent goodness could still prevail over the dark lord of evil efficiency and rat-like cunning.

I still have a bad feeling about it though. Hopefully that's just indigestion or something.

[gsuteke]

Quote:

---

It ain't over yet. The forces of incompetent goodness could still prevail over the dark lord of evil efficiency and rat-like cunning.

I still have a bad feeling about it though. Hopefully that's just indigestion or something.

---

i hear ya my friend. unfortunately i feel like it may be 6 of one or one half dozen of the other at this point.

[AtLaS]

yeah this sucks, it's just such bullshi t that the owners didn't buyout Belkin in time. I mean, how could they let this happen? They were saying something like Belkin was the reason they didn't buy him out in time, thats bull, they KNEW this would happen if they didn't meet the deadline, it just makes no sense. I think there is some other reason that the Spirit didn't buy him out in time, something that they just don't want ppl to find out about. I mean how are they gonna say that Belkin is the reason they didn't buy BELKIN out.. makes no sense.

But even worse is Belkin wanting to own a team in a city that ABSOLUTELY hates him. Why would he want to own a team where everyone hates him. That tells me right there that regardless of what he says, he doesn't care about the Hawks or Thrashers and just wants to operate cheap and milk the money. Whats EVEN worse is that once we GET a new GM, the GM won't have any power because Belkin will have to approve it first, so in other words when Belkin takes over Belkin is our owner, GM, EVERYTHING..

[Blunt91]

I am willing to bet that the Judge will ask the Spirit group to put up the bond. That is probably the only way the spirit group retain the rights of daily operations while the appeal process goes on. The bad part is that basically we wouldn't be able to touch 200million or so dollars until the process is through. I think this would severely limit us on player transactions this summer. Belkin doesn't give a dam'n. He needs to forget about his dislike for the other owners and think about the injustice that he is doing to the fans and more importantly the players that are already on the team.

[Eddielives]

Maybe someone could help me understand this better. What I want to know is how can he operate this franchise on the cheap and make money? I mean if he doesn't choose to invest in quality free agents or whatever else it takes to put a winning product on the floor, how does he think he's going to get butts in the seats, or jerseys sold,etc? Unless he has the ability to polish turds, who is going to want to see the Belkin run Hawks...a perennially low quality, losing, lottery-bound go-nowhere team? Help me understand his logic because I just don't get it.

[Diesel]

The owners all benefit from revenue sharing. The league makes money, the owners all get a cut... regardless of how well their team does.

You figure that ownership has a choice.

1. Spend money, make your team more marketable and make money.

2. keep everything on the cheap, make revenue from the league.

I guess that Belk's idea is to not spend money unless it's for a player who can definintely fill the luxury boxes. The way that BK is building, he's not getting players who are extremely Marketable... so Belk would rather operate on the cheap and hope won of our own draft picks become that marketable superstar.

[Packfill]

Quote:

---

Maybe someone could help me understand this better. What I want to know is how can he operate this franchise on the cheap and make money? I mean if he doesn't choose to invest in quality free agents or whatever else it takes to put a winning product on the floor, how does he think he's going to get butts in the seats, or jerseys sold,etc? Unless he has the ability to polish turds, who is going to want to see the Belkin run Hawks...a perennially low quality, losing, lottery-bound go-nowhere team? Help me understand his logic because I just don't get it.

---

Sterling has made money for years now running the Clippers on the cheap. That is the Belkin model.

I have said this before, but the best possible outcome of this whole thing is for an entirely new owner to buy the team and send the "group of idiots" and Belkin out of town.

[Diesel]

No...

The hawks are losing money now in the shortterm because they came into ownership IN DEBT.

BK or no GM could clear up the Hawks debt early. I mean, we owed Theo, Big Dog, JT, and Shareef over 60 million dollars.

We were in the luxury tax and we wasn't winning. That's part of the reason why BK didn't consider trying to hold on to sheed. That would have been one more big contract.

The reason why Belk didn't really want JJ had nothing to do with basketball or the draft picks as he says. But it has everything to do with the fact that the Hawks had finally gotten to a place with no big contracts. I believe Belk would have liked to ride the minimum for a while, picked up a couple of top notch draft picks for a while and cleared up the debt that they owed coming in.

Just imagine, after the debt is gone, The Belk model would have started to work... same way that Sterling did it in LAC. Sterling would keep good rookies until it was time for them to reup and he would let them go.. .for more good rookies. A rookie contract was his friend. He made a lot of money doing it.... but his team was always the low man.. Recently, he's changed. Keeping Maggette, signing Brand, picking up Cassell.. and look at the difference it has made. Maybe this is what Belk envisioned.. keeping the team on the cheap until there's a chance to get some superstar players.. then making a run.

I'm not sure... You could probably ask Amy to ask her father about his plan?

[Duff_Man]

Belkin = Vince McMahon. This is a WWF(E) feud like I have never seen. I am almost disgusted with this whole thing and am wondering where we will all be in 5 years...I hope I am still a Hawks fan, but I just don't know.

[DJlaysitup]

AJC:Owners:Belkin will fire workers

ruin the economy and strangle cute puppies...LOL...sounds like a PR piece to me.

[AHF]

Quote:

---

The owners all benefit from revenue sharing. The league makes money, the owners all get a cut... regardless of how well their team does.

You figure that ownership has a choice.

1. Spend money, make your team more marketable and make money.

2. keep everything on the cheap, make revenue from the league.

I guess that Belk's idea is to not spend money unless it's for a player who can definintely fill the luxury boxes. The way that BK is building, he's not getting players who are extremely Marketable... so Belk would rather operate on the cheap and hope won of our own draft picks become that marketable superstar.

---

Bear in mind as well that the franchise will appreciate over time and that is where the real money can be made. Belkin could buy the team now for a total of like $25M, run with losses for a while (that could be kept to a minimum by minimizing payroll ala Sterling) and sell the team in ten years for huge profits.

[Diesel]

Definitely.

I think Belk can be even Smarter than that. He can bring in a basketball name like Bird as a co-owner... get the fans all fired up. Give Nique something.... Maybe even GM spot... Make the fans love him. Then give Nique instructions to not spend... The same playbook that Sterling used when he hired Elgin Baylor. Then when the debt is paid and the team is worth 260 million and the Hockey team is worth 260 million and the Arena is worth 190 million, Sell it all for 500 million and make a windfall profit..