Tampa Bay Lightning terminates deal with buyers

The deal Absolute Hockey Enterprises was hoping to put together to buy the Lightning from Palace Sports & Entertainment apparently is dead.

Palace Sports nixed the purchase agreement when Absolute Hockey did not come up with a required $5-million payment. Now the investment group has splintered as Coral Springs real estate developer Jeff Sherrin is suing Hollywood producer Oren Koules for allegedly failing on Nov. 13 to make a capital contribution of $4.16-million.

Sherrin is asking $50-million in damages.

The suit was filed in the 13th judicial circuit in Hillsborough County.

The other known members of the investment group are Mark Burg, Koules’ business partner, former Blue Jackets president Doug MacLean and Tampa attorney Steve Burton.

While the deal as originally announced with much fanfare on Aug. 7 is no longer valid, don’t be surprised if a deal is resurrected at a later date with Koules or a group led by him.

Koules has a minor hockey background and always expressed his interest most fervently. He said shortly after the sale was announced that he already had depth charts on his desk in Los Angeles.

But that apparently is not something that will happen quickly.

The bombshell is another blip in a process that has been anything but smooth. At the news conference announcing the original sale of the team, the St. Pete Times Forum lease and 5½ acres of adjacent land for about $200-million, the group said it would announce the rest of the investment group in a week to 10 days.

But names were difficult to come by, and while Berg and Burton were brought on board, MacLean always maintained at least one other investor had yet to be named.

Absolute Hockey said repeatedly it hoped to close the deal by the end of November. There also was a Dec. 31 deadline in the purchase agreement to finalize the transaction.

But when the deal did not make it onto the agenda of NHL Board of Governor’s meeting Wednesday and Thursday in Pebble Beach, Calif., it was obvious the deal was not progressing as quickly as hoped.

-- Damian Cristodero, Times Staff Writer