Feuding owners, Tampa Bay Lightning style

This is one of those stories that once again seems to prove it is better to have one owner than two. Len Barrie and Oren Koules bought the team in 2008 from Palace Sports an Entertainment, the corporation that owns the Detroit Pistons of the NBA. Almost from day one the two owners have disagreed about how the club should be run.

The fight has gotten so ugly that the NHL had to step in and mediate some sort of peice. In all reality this feud between the two owners has seriously handicapped the team’s effort to field a winner in the upcoming NHL season. Since the two men could not agree on anything, NFL Commissioner Gary Bettman had to step in and give each owner a 60 day period to buy the other out.

Len Barrie was given the first 60 day period, and that time is now about half over. However he might have found his new partner in St. Louis Real Estate Mogul Anthony Sansone Jr. Sansone is interested in investing in the Lightning but with only30 some days left to put this deal together the deal might never get done.

Bettman cannot realistically expect that a deal for half a NHL franchise can get done in that amount of time. The Phoenix Coyotes ownership mess has been going on for more than a year, and Bettman wants a deal for half the Lightning in little more then a month. This is yet another example of why Bettman is the worst Commissioner.