Dallas Stars Officially Sold to Tom Gaglardi

The Dallas Stars are finally at the end of one era and should be starting another later today. Tom Hicks and the lenders are officially gone, and the Stars finally have new ownership. Today the bankruptcy court in Delaware approved the sale of the team to Tom Gaglardi and things should be official later today. Earlier this week we all found out that the NHL Board of Governors approved Gaglardi as an owner and his bankruptcy plan, so now the only real thing left is for all the paperwork to be filed and the team to announce the deal. Gaglardi of course is from Vancouver but has family ties to north Texas and already is in the ownership group of the Kamloops Blazers of the WHL. He has made it clear that he does not wish to move the team at all and that the Stars will remain in Dallas.

From ESPN Dallas and Mark Stepneski:

"Today’s events bring to a close a tough chapter in Stars’ history that began when Hicks Sports Group ran into hard financial times, defaulted on $525 million in loans in 2009, put the club up for sale in early 2010 and eventually saw the team run by the league and lenders.Gaglardi is the President of Northland Properties Corporation, which he and his family run. The company owns and operates hotels and restaurants Canada and employs more than 10,000 people.Gaglardi leads the ownership group of the Kamloops Blazers of the Western Hockey League. The ownership group includes Shane Doan, Mark Recchi, Jarome Iginla and Darryl Sydor.Gaglardi, a life-long hockey fan, has strong Texas ties. His mother is from Longview and he has family in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.He’ll take over a team that, according to court documents, lost $37.9 million in the last fiscal year and $91.5 million over the last three seasons. The Stars are expected to lose $31 million this season.Court documents state that Gaglardi is “committed to keeping the Stars in Dallas and rebuilding the franchise both in terms of on-ice success and the fan experience.”"

Gaglardi has already been around the team for a few weeks now and has already started the change-over. Sources confirmed earlier this week that he plans to bring back Jim Lites to be the team president, a job he held twice in the past, and he will be the first big change brought on by Gaglardi. Financially things won’t of course just change over night or even over the weekend, but things should slowly start to change around the franchise. An official announcement should be made later today and Tom will apparently introduced in a big news conference on Monday.