Any notion that we bought this to go elsewhere is silly at this point. |
Bill Laurie still owns the team until we close. |
I succeeded in turning a building into a business. |
I want to bring stability to the team. We're going to be making long-term decisions to ensure front-office stability. |
I've had experience running teams in very big markets, very rich markets like New York. I've runs teams on a shoestring in Utah, in some very small markets. The equation really doesn't change. What's critical is being responsible about it. |
I've known J.D. forever. He's really encouraged us to pursue (the sale) based on the passion for hockey in St. Louis. We have a lot of people who have worked with us and for us at the garden and we've known a lot of people in hockey. But first we're going to evaluate what we have here. |
It enhances the whole game experience to have a soccer-specific stadium. That's what we'll do. |
It's time for Salt Lake City to have another major league team. |
Next season we will move ahead and begin working toward the ultimate goal of a Stanley Cup championship. That's what I think is very possible and I want our fans clearly to know that. |
The fact that we have 44 to 50 alumni that still live here and still love St. Louis ... I want those guys involved with us, working for us. |
The fans are the reason we get into this business. The fans here are worth a goal a game to the Blues. |
The good news for St. Louis fans is I understand what we did right in New York with the Rangers, and I also understand what we did wrong. Where we started to go wrong with the Rangers is when we got away from a drafting, developing, being careful about a team chemistry approach with an owner that just wanted us to buy every big name in the business. That doesn't work in hockey. I knew it then, I especially know it now. |
The people here are very passionate about sport if it's presented in the right way. They want to be major league and they want to win. Two very simple things. |
These things don't work unless there's some public-private partnership there. The notion that any of this money is just lining our pockets is just erroneous. They're (the county and city) taking over the land, just the way they do with any other private enterprise. . . . This just happens to be more public because it's private sports. |
We're not pursuing any other opportunities. It's not on our radar. |