Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Wednesday: Vinik Jumps Back Into Channelside Game with Auction Interest

Wednesday is auction day at Channelside, where we expect Lightning owner Jeffrey Vinik to bid upwards of $7.1 million for the nearly-vacant plaza adjacent to all his other downtown holdings.

There are only two other bidders that we know of: the Port Tampa Bay and the joint Liberty Group/Convergent Capital group.

The Port, which desperately wants to keep the plaza away from the less-experienced Liberty Group, needs to be careful not to cross into illegal territory in colluding with Vinik.  But there are enough attorneys - and enough watchdog journalists - in on this story to hopefully make sure that doesn't happen.

Then again, nothing is predictable on this story:
UPDATE: Vinik was the only party to submit a real bid Wednesday, lining him up for a July 15 hearing before a bankruptcy judge, who stands to approve the takeover.  While newspapers celebrate {link to Times' site}, Liberty/Convergent says it will continue to fight in court {link to Times' site}.

10 comments:

  1. 1 step closer! "Channelside Live", the future pre & post game hangout for ALL Lightning & Rays games...

    As you (Noah) being somewhat of a "watchdog journalist", for the sake of everyone in West Central Florida, please lets let the chips fall into place peacefully. Luckily Vinik got something good going for Tampa, along w/ other important players around him like Stu & Bob involved. I mean, obviously "blow the whistle" if needed, but lets not try to stand in the way of positive progressiveness for the benefit of generations to come...

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    1. I generally agree with what you said. Except that Vinik doesn't want to spend money on a baseball stadium.

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  2. Well, you, I, or any other outsider to the situation doesn't really know what his intentions are. Either or, you gotta find it hard to believe that he doesn't know what his part of the future of Channelside is. I think people such as him, Stu, and Bob knows, and it's just a many of time until we know. Why? Because you don't spend a combined billions on real estate, and don't have a plan in place. I guess we'll have to wait to wake up one day, and read TBO or TBT about the announcement of the Rays move...

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    1. Well, you sure seem confident you know that baseball is headed there. There's little doubt Vinik knows what he's doing...but there's been little indication there's any room for baseball in those plans.

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    2. I guess if the media doesn't report it, it's not happen... lol
      And as far as being confident, it's like they say, "if it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and walks like a duck, it's a duck"...

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    3. The only mention of a stadium on Vinik land has been from wishful newspaper columns and online comments from fans. Just sayin'.

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    4. Of course, why would Vinik, Stu, Bob, and anyone else in-the-know show their cards? Part of why people of such become successful is following the whole "lose lips sinks ships", which shouldn't have to be said, it's just common sense...
      If only we could be flies on the walls OR have the opportunity to snoop in the offices of Stu & Jeff's... lol

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