According to TSN, Stephen Rollins, a Hollywood writer/producer and Atlanta native has contacted Bruce Levinson to talk about buying a majority share of the Thrashers.
A quick perusal of his IMDB page gives rise to questions about how he would afford a majority share of an NHL franchise. I have heard estimates that a similar share of the Carolina Hurricanes would cost an investor upwards of $85 million. The fact that I've never heard of the two films Mr. Rollins has produced in the past ten years leads me to believe that kind of cash may be a bit out of his reach.
He is the CEO of Lightning Pictures, LLC which apparently stole its logo from Jerry Bruckheimer. While "American Identity" looks like an admirable short film about honoring our soldiers (something Hollywood does far too little of), the website doesn't contain much to inspire faith in the financial future of the company or its CEO.
Then of course there are the concerns about Hollywood types owning NHL teams. I think that was tried somewhere South of us and it didn't go too well.
On the other hand, I like Rollins' passion for the Thrashers, Atlanta, and hockey in general. Like Shooter and I, he was a huge Knights fan. He was involved in the petition campaign to convince the NHL to bring hockey back to Atlanta. He believes in Atlanta as a hockey market, and is a fan first and foremost. Apparently he wears his Thrashers jersey to "work" on game days.
If he were to be able to raise the capital to buy and maintain the team, there would be no more question about the interest of ownership in the hockey side of things.
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I'm not sure about the financial side of things either, but considering his vested interest in the city and the franchise, it'd be fantastic to have him on board in an ownership capacity.
GPY- I agree. It would be huge to have somebody who is enthusiastic about both the city and the sport in an ownership position. Shooter, Morty, Frenchy, and I have actually been putting together our own proposal to buy the team, but so far we have only been able to scrape together $29.47 and an old t-shirt stained with Frenchy's drummer sweat.
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