John Davidson: He’ll Be Here A While
As first reported by Bernie Miklasz of the St. Louis Post Dispatch, the St. Louis Blues formally announced Tuesday that current Team President John Davidson has agree to a multi-year contract extension. Terms have not been disclosed.
Such a deal has been speculated on by Post Blues beat writer Jeremy Rutherford for sometime now. The hold up between acceptance and announcement appeared to be the pending sale of the franchise by principal owner Dave Checketts and majority investor TowerBrook Capital Partners. Understandably so, ownership seemingly does not want to agree to a long term deal, on or off the ice, that may impede the process.
Davidson has been a key face of the St. Louis Blues to the media, fan base and has been generally thought highly of among the two groups since his hiring in 2006. But in business anything goes and for some odd reason a potential new owner may want to steer clear of the best front office stash in the NHL.
If ownership issues were truly a major determining factor, does this announcement mean that a new owner is on the horizon?Possibly, but blue bleeders should temper their hopeful expectations. There is a more likely explanations.
Davidson’s original five year contract expires June 30th, 2011. There is little chance that an ownership change is finalized ahead of that date. The Blues must have a Team President to continue business as usual on what could be a very important July 1st. JD has an intimate knowledge of the organization and of the sport at large which will be as vital to daily operations as it was a year ago.
Take care of business today and let the details fall where they may tomorrow.
Surely Checketts wouldn’t take a risk if it were not highly calculated.
There could also be one or more serious suitors identified by Game Plan LLC, the firm retained by Checketts to assist in the buyer search, who have all agreed in some fashion that Davidson’s contract wouldn’t adversely affect their level of interest. A pre-qualification as it were. Giving current ownership the freedom to continue building for the 2011-12 season and beyond.
If anything can be legitimately taken away from today’s news it’s that Davidson’s return reinforces a sense of stability and clam. The Blues are not going away anytime soon and the organization will continue to push forward with the team building model Doug Armstrong has championed since his take over at the helm.
Some may read that last sentence in and rant in a negative tone, but in the end Davidson will be here a while and that’s a good thing.
