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Standard & Poor's '07 Outlook - Hotel & Gaming sector

12.11.06

Part 2:
What Will '07 Bring for Key Sectors?

S&P Ratings sizes up prospects for industry groups in the coming year. Part 2 includes a look at media & entertainment, oil & gas, and retailers

Hotel & Gaming: Growth Will Moderate
Standard & Poor's expects solid lodging industry performance again in 207, with revenue per available room (RevPAR) in the U.S. likely to grow in the mid-single-digits. S&P does, however, expect a decline in the rate of RevPAR growth from about 8% in each of the last three years. With still-record-high occupancy levels across all price segments, pricing power in the industry remains strong, mitigating any concern about a meaningful slowdown in 2007. Given prospects for continued strength in global lodging markets, Standard & Poor's would expect an upward bias again in 2007 for ratings, in the absence of debt-financed acquisitions, including those that take companies private.

For the U.S. gaming industry, S&P expects revenue growth to moderate further in 2007, reflecting a continued gadual slowing of the U.S. economy. Despite an anticipated modest decline in consumer discretionary spending, industry revenues are still expected to expand overall. From a ratings perspective, S&P does not expect overall credit quality in the sector to materially deteriorate in coming periods despite aggressive expansion plans by many industry participants. However S&P lowered the rating on Harrah's Entertainment (HET) to below investment grade on the news that it received an offer to be acquired by private equity investors.

Still, with most companies in the gaming industry carrying stable or positive outlooks, any weakness in credit quality will most likely be reflected by outlook revisions rather than rating changes. Further debt-funded transactions, however, could prompt more downgrades. (Full Story)

http://www.businessweek.com/investor/content/dec2006/pi20061208_407157.htm

Baseball and Casinos Don’t Mix, or Do They?

What’s good for the goose is supposed to be good for the gander, but in this case, who is the goose and who is the gander?

12.19.09
The New York Times

by MURRAY CHASS

Steve Swindal, a managing general partner of the Yankees, has other business interests outside of baseball. That’s where the slot machines come in... Swindal...George Steinbrenner’s son-in-law...Marian Ilitch...listed as an owner in the team’s media guide...first five years of the family’s ownership...name disappeared from the guide when the Ilitch casino was on the horizon... arrangement has raised some eyebrows among some baseball people, but Selig has sanctioned it. (FULL STORY)

You may also want to review these posts:

The Verifiable Truth: Detroit Tigers owner doubled his net worth gambling on casinos
The Verifiable Truth: New York Times sports writer recognizes conflicts in Ilitch casino ownership

Town lawyers say Shinnecocks eye huge resort

12.14.06
NewsDay.com

SOUTHAMPTON -- … attorneys for the Town of Southampton Thursday said the Shinnecock Indian Nation would build a casino the size of the Foxwoods Resort in Hampton Bays … the 79-acre Westwoods parcel ... environmental analysts based their findings on a 4.7-million-square-foot facility mirroring Foxwoods …

"They are being financed by Ilitch," he added, referring to the Detroit-based casino developers who are paying the Shinnecock'slegal fees. … But Tom Shields, a spokesman for Gateway Funding Associates, a company formed by casino investors Marian Ilitch and Michael Malik to fund the Shinnecocks, said the town was seeking to exaggerate traffic and environmental nightmares …"There's only one Foxwoods and there's no definite plans at this point in time," Shields said of blueprints for a Shinnecock casino … more…

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-lishin1215,0,4335907.story?coll=ny-top-headlines

Shinnecock tribe faces hurdles to get land

12.12.06
NewsDay.com

SOUTHAMPTON -- Ask Betty Cromwell . . . 82-year-old tribal elder can recall childhood games of red rover on Hamptons property that the Shinnecocks sought in a land claim that was dismissed two weeks ago . . . In his Nov. 28 decision denying a 3,700-acre land bid by the Shinnecocks, U.S. District Judge Thomas Platt did not dispute that the tribe once inhabited prime real estate, including the Shinnecock Hills Golf Club . . .

. . .With the financial backing of Detroit-based casino developers, the Shinnecocks filed their 3,700-acre claim on June 15 of last year, only to see the Cayuga decision handed down 13 days later. Platt cited it and an equally important March 2005 U.S. Supreme Court case against the Oneida Indian Nation in his decision to throw out the Shinnecocks' land bid. . . more . . .

Big Lagoon Rancheria trust plan under fire

Coastal Commission has concerns about five acre parcel; wants denisty ordinance. Big Lagoon Rancheria Chairman Virgil Moorehead said there will be no such ordinances.

12.13.06
Times-Standard, CA

BIG LAGOON -- The California Coastal Commission has a few concerns about a Bureau of Indian Affairs proposal to bring five acres of Big Lagoon Rancheria land into trust. . . . five acres of land at the southwest corner of the intersection of U.S. Highway 101 and Big Lagoon Park Road (the entrance to Big Lagoon) . . . "The proposed placement of the subject parcel into federal trust status to allow development of three single-family residences on the five-acre parcel is not consistent with development policy of Section 30253 of the Coastal Act,” according to the Commission's report . . . Big Lagoon Rancheria leaders disagree with the Coastal Commission's conclusions. Chairman Virgil Moorehead stated there would be no ordinances drafted restricting certain types of development on the five acres. more . . .

http://haloscan.com/tb/timesstandard/4831020

You may want to review the following posts:
The Verifiable Truth: Big Lagoon Chairman, Marian Ilitch up to old tricks; but threats and dishonesty haven't made progess in the past.

The Verifiable Truth: Big Lagoon Rancheria purchases 16 acres

The Verifiable Truth: In a move right out of the Ilitch Bay Mills playbook, CA's Big Lagoon acquires 16 acres, increases leverage

Ilitch bankrolling Bay Mills Indians for more than a decade

Team Ilitch has been bankrolling efforts by the Bay Mills Indian Community to build another casino in Port Huron, MI

A surrogate testified last month (November 2006) that more than $10 million has been spent in legal fees alone.

Previously, publicists for Detroit's Ilitch Family (Mike and Marian Ilitch and their seven children), founders of Little Caesars pizza carryouts and owners of the Detroit Tigers and Detroit Red Wings sports teams, have craftly denied any significant commitment to or stake in plans for another Bay Mills Indian Community casino -- this one in Port Huron, MI.

Documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission indicate in 1994 Michael Malik and Tom Celani, Ilitch business associates, introduced the Bay Mills Indian Community to the Ilitches when the pair proposed the Indians develop an off-reservation Harrah's managed casino in the Foxtown area of Detroit (the Ilitches have substantial real estate holdings in Foxtown). That proposal eventually died. But now, Marian Ilitch (through Ilitch Holdings, Inc. subsidiary IH Gaming, Inc.) owns 100% of MotorCity Casino, one of Detroit's three large commercial casinos.

Then there were reports of Ilitch and affiliates' involvement with Bay Mills Indians land swap proposals for Auburn Hills, Vanderbilt, Charlotte Beach and Port Huron:

06.16.05
NewsDay.com

". . . In the 1990s, both backed the Bay Mills Indian tribe in their ultimately failed bid to construct a casino in Port Huron, Mich. . ."

But now, there's been recent confirmation that the Ilitches and their casino syndication associate Michael J. Malik, Sr. remain invested in and active with the Bay Mills Indian Community in Port Huron:

11.20.06
Port Huron Times Herald

" . . . Mike Malik, a Clay Township native who has been working with the Ilitch family for six years to develop a casino at the Thomas Edison Inn, raised several questions at that March council meeting.

"He expressed doubt, for example, that all 11 of Michigan's recognized Indian tribes would endorse DeFeo's casino. A single tribe could block the project, including the Bay Mills band that's part of the Edison Inn proposal. . ."

". . . Dick Cummings, president of the Michigan Machinists Council and a strong supporter of the Malik-Ilitch casino, went even further.

"I'm no genius, but I can do the math," Cummings said. "If a person goes around asking $100,000 a point, that adds up to $10 million. Well, no one builds a casino for $10 million. You don't build the parking garage for that. (Malik and the Ilitches) have spent more than $10 million just in legal fees."

You may also want to review these posts:
The Verifiable Truth: Rep. Candice Miller introduced HR 813 on February 13, 2003 to approve settlement of unsubstantiated land claims and a casino for Port Huron

The Verifiable Truth: Aide negotiated '11th Hour' Port Huron casino deal for Gov. Engler; then returned to private practive, retained by those who got the deal

The Verifiable Truth: Voters & local officials questioned Gov. Engler's flip-flop on casino policy and the Port Huron casino deal he signed on his way out the door.

Archaeology Briefs: INDIANS KNEW A GOOD THING: THE HAMPTONS!

Archaeology Briefs: INDIANS KNEW A GOOD THING: THE HAMPTONS!

Ilitch guilty of "champerty?" the Big Lagoon Rancheria example

Main Entry: cham·per·ty

Function: noun

Inflected Form(s): -es

Etymology: Middle English champartie, modification (probably influenced by Middle English partie part) of Middle French champart field rent, from champ field (from Latin campus) + part portion

: a proceeding, illegal in many jurisdictions, by which a person not a party in a suit bargains to aid in or carry on its prosecution or defense by furnishing money or personal services in consideration of his receiving a share of the matter in suit : maintenance with the addition of an agreement to divide the thing in suit

A Forbes' writer has suggested casino syndicators like Marian Ilitch and Michael J. Malik, are guilty of "champerty:" Is she, or isn't she? You be the judge.

For almost a decade, Marian Ilitch and her friends have been bankrolling disingenuous lawsuits, land claims, and other skirmishes intended to provide leverage for their true objectives:

• Win the exclusive rights to develop and manage extremely lucrative Indian Casinos and resorts off existing reservation lands in locations that have greater marketing value.

Currently Ilitch, Michael Malik and their various casino syndicates are at work in Michigan (Port Huron), New York (Southampton/Shinnecock Hills) and California (Barstow). In each situation they’ve either encouraged or resuscitated these disingenuous “loss leaders” in order to facilitate or leverage negotiations for casinos or at worst case share in any favorable settlement or judgement the tribes might realize -- as if lawsuits were the new stocks and bonds.

Case in point:

07.28.05
NorthCoastJournal, “Big Lagoon Rancheria’s casino
dream awakens”

by Heidi Walters

“For 10 years the Big Lagoon Rancheria has battled with the state of California over the tribe's plans to build a casino at Big Lagoon. The main sticking point has been the state's contention that a casino at Big Lagoon would be an environmentally unsound endeavor, given that the lagoon is an ecological preserve and home to three species listed under the federal Endangered Species Act. The tribe disagrees with the state's assessment, and in 1999 sued the state for "bad faith" negotiating. . .

“But now it looks as if the lawsuit could go away and the rancheria might get to build its casino -- 700 miles south, in the desert town of Barstow. But don't cry for the rancheria. The deal, which would be part of a settlement agreement in which the tribe agrees to not build anything commercial on its Big Lagoon tribal lands, could yield profits for the 18 family members of the rancheria that are far above those anticipated from the original Big Lagoon project. After all, 60 million people a year drive through Barstow, many already primed for gambling as they travel I-15 to Las Vegas. . .”

http://www.northcoastjournal.com/072805/news0728.html

Forbes writer accuses Ilitch of champerty; calls it "far more disturbing" in context of Abramoff

Forbes writer Walter Olson, in his essay “My Kingdom for a Casino” accuses Detroit casino maven Marian Ilitch, and fellow casino syndicators like Michael Malid, of “champerty;” calls schemes for expanding gaming empires “suspect,” “sleazy,” and “far more disturbing” than anything Jack Abramoff was up to.

05.08.06
Forbes, “My Kingdom for a Casino”
by Walter Olson

“If you thought Jack Abramoff was suspect, look at the latest land claims filed by Indian Tribes.

“As everyone now knows, courtesy of Jack Abramoff, sleazy tactics abound in the fight over where and whether Indian tribes build casinos. Too bad more attention hasn't been paid to one of the worst abuses: tribes' filing of massive land-claim lawsuits against property owners, to be traded off in settlement in exchange for casino rights. . .

“In virtually all these cases tribes have made clear that they would settle for a casino permit. . .

“Occasionally one of these suits will make national news, typically when it impinges on a playground of media folks, as with last summer's claim by the Shinnecock to be the rightful owners of large tracts in the Hamptons. More often the claims drag on in obscurity--many of the upstate New York claims have been pending since the 1970s and 1980s--posing hardship to farm families and other innocents whose title to the land had rested undisturbed for 100 or even 200 years. . .

“By now, with fortunes at stake, big law firms are lining up to help with the claim suits . . .”

“ … Far more disturbing is the role of the wealthy backers, including Rochester mall developer Thomas Wilmot and Detroit pizza magnate Marian Ilitch, who bankroll the would-be land grabs in exchange for a share of the resulting settlements or casino action. Financing others' litigation--"champerty"--was long illegal at common law, and you can kind of see why. . ." (Full Story)

Find out more about "champerty" @ Answers.com.

Motown's Team Ilitch tops Abramoff on Congressman's "Top 10 List"

Nine months before Team Ilitch flew Rep. Richard Pombo (R-Tracey, CA) to Detroit & threw a $5,000 per person "All-Star" fundraiser in his honor; a $26,600 payment went to support his San Joaquin County GOP Committee . . . and more.

And by the end of Rep. Pombo's second turn as Chairman of the House Resources Committee, Team Ilitch out-paced even Jack Abramoff to secure two spots on Pombo's "Top Ten List" of individual donors.

In 2003, Detroit-based casino syndicators, including Marian Ilitch and Michael J. Malik, Sr., formed Barwest LLC; the partnership pushing plans in Barstow, CA, for two Indian casinos under the banner of one large commercial resort developed by Barwest or its affiliates.

Records available from the California Secretary of State indicate Barwest (Ilitch/Malik) made three political contributions in California during the last 3 years: two payments of $5,000 each on May 13, 2005 to "Citizens to Save California" (a committee supporting Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s failed 2005 special election propositions); and a single $26,600 payment on October 18, 2004 to the San Joaquin County GOP Committee (ID #742270).

The San Joaquin County GOP Committee reported the Barwest contribution on October 25, 2004 under late contributions reporting requirements. There were three contributions reported by the GOP Committee on October 25; each was listed as $26,600; in addition to the contribution received from (1) Detroit-based Barwest, the others were from (2) RICH Political Action Committee (CA filer ID # 1270991) and (3) “Jeff Denham for Senate” committee (CA filer ID # 1251652).

Under California's political reform laws, Barwest L.L.C. was to have reported this contribution as a "major donor" by January 31, 2005. No disclosures were filed. A second reporting period for major donor disclosures ended June 30, 2005. Again no disclosures were filed. Michael Malik did not file disclosure documentation declaring Barwest L.L.C. a "major donor" until September, 5, 2005 -- nearly a year after making the contribution and seven months after disclosures were required.

What is a RICH PAC?

The Stockton Record March 9, 2006, says:

RICH Political Action Committee "is [Congressman Richard] Pombo's 'leadership PAC,' a kind of extra campaign committee that many lawmakers maintain. Pombo calls his Rich PAC. The money raised for these accounts can be used for nearly any purpose other than to directly get the lawmaker re-elected."

Rep. Pombo makes his hometown in Tracey, CA -- in San Joaquin County.

It is not clear why Detroit-based Barwest sent a contribution, relatively large by its own standards, to a county political party committee 2400 miles away. However, Rep. Pombo was by elective office also a voting member, with appointment priveleges, of the San Joaquin County GOP Committee. And, in 2003, then-House Speaker Tom DeLay had appointed Rep. Pombo to serve as powerful Chairman of the House Resources Committee (among other things, Resources has oversight on energy matters as well as Indian Country, Indian gaming and Department of Interior matters).

The amount, $26,600, is curious too -- not $26,000 or $26,500 or $25,000 -- especially since RICH PAC appears to have matched the contribution on the same day.

This was a random one-time contribution by Barwest; an organization that has never contributed to any political committee in Barstow (CA) or greater San Bernardino County where it seeks to build casinos. In fact, a review of contributions over the last decade by Barwest and its principals (Ilitch Family members and Michael Malik) failed to turn up any other instance of a contribution that large to a county party committee anywhere in the U.S.

Adding to the curiosity factor, MapQuest estimates San Joaquin County is approximately 370 miles by car (or a six hour drive) from Barstow; and from San Joaquin County (CA) to Detroit (MI) is six times as far.

Something else to consider: during the roughly four year period Pombo served as Chairman of House Resources, convicted former lobbyist Jack Abramoff, someone to whom Pombo has been negatively linked, ranked #10 on RICH Political Action Committee's "Top Ten" donors list.

Opponents exploited Rep. Pombo's alledged relationship with Abramoff during the closing weeks of the 2006 mid-term elections. Pundits suggest it was one of the factors that contributed to Pombo's failed re-election bid.

Of little discussion during the election: Detroiters Mike & Marian Ilitch (owners of the Detroit Tigers and founders of Little Caesar Pizza carryouts) and their partner Michael Malik. The Ilitch's son and Malik had organized the July 2005 MLB All-Star Game fundraiser for Pombo.

A cumulative review of RICH PAC's individual contributors after Pombo's appointment as Chair of House Resources ('04 and '06 election cycles) shows Mike & Marian Ilitch at #9 and Michael Malik at #5 on RICH PAC's "Top 10 List" (for purposes of this analysis married couple's contributions were combined and household totals considered).

Considering the alledged circumstances that found Abramoff at #10, it would only make sense to examine more closely how it was that business partners from Detroit landed atop Abramoff on Pombo's "Top 10 List." Pombo may not have been re-elected but that doesn't mean the roots of corruption have been cut-out.

RICH Political Action Committee '04 & '06

"Top 10" Indiviual Donors

"Top 100" Individual Donors

Ilitch/Malik Gaming Affiliated Donors

Among sources used for this post: California Secretary of State; Michigan Secretary of State; Center for Responsive Politics, www.opensecrets.org; Federal Election Commission; PoliticalMoneyLine for Congressional Quarterly; CampaignMoney.com; Newsmeat.com;

Please comment or email here with any corrections, updates or questions.

You may also want to review these posts:
The Verifiable Truth: Team Ilitch directed $40,000 to RICH Political Action Committee

Ruling aside, Ilitch tribal partner plans to build Southampton casino

Ruling aside, tribe plans to build casino

BY JOHN MORENO GONZALES
Newsday Staff Writer

December 5, 2006, 10:47 PM EST

As the Shinnecock Nation absorbed the blow of a federal judge's decision to reject their claim to 3,600 acres of prime East End real estate, the tribe continued Tuesday to seek the legal right to build a casino on the smaller Westwood parcel it already owns.

U.S. District Court Judge Thomas C. Platt released a 13-page finding this week that rejected a claim by the Shinnecocks for lands including the Shinnecock Hills Golf Club and the former Southampton College campus.

The claim was made with much fanfare in 2005, when tribal members tapped sacred drums and burnt sage over a stack of legal documents before walking them up the federal courthouse steps. Generations of Shinnecocks held that the expanse was wrongfully taken from them in 1859 by power brokers bent on extending the Long Island Rail Road's Montauk line.

But Platt wrote that the Shinnecocks failed to meet a U.S. Supreme Court standard in which American Indians must show that any lands they seek have been in continuous historical dispute. That standard applies, Platt wrote, particularly if the area has undergone dramatic changes over the years.

"Over 140 years passed between the alleged wrongful dispossession and the attempt to regain possession," wrote the judge.

The Shinnecock Board of Trustees released a sharply worded statement Tuesday promising to appeal Platt's ruling in the 2005 case, and to press on with the Westwood case now being tried in U.S. District Court in Central Islip.

"The nation will be asking the court to revisit this decision because the town's dishonesty and misconduct should prevent it from hiding behind a technical defense," said the statement.

In the current matter before Judge Joseph P. Bianco, the Town of Southampton is seeking to block a Shinnecock effort to exempt itself from town zoning laws and possibly build a casino on 79 acres in the Hampton Bays known as the Westwood property. The Shinnecocks own the land today, but they must prove so-called "aboriginal title" to it in order for it to be officially recognized as part of the main Southampton reservation to the east, and a place where gaming would be permitted under federal law.

On his second day of testimony, James Patrick Lynch, a freelance historian hired by the Town of Southampton to disprove historical use of the parcel by the Shinnecocks, was cross-examined by the Shinnecock's attorney, Christopher Lunding of Manhattan.

Lunding sought to find holes in two voluminous reports produced by Lynch, using the historian's own footnotes to show he had omitted historical accounts that showed the Shinnecocks had family dwellings and houses of worship in and around the property since at least the 1800s. Lunding confronted Lynch with the summary of a 1922 trial in which the Shinnecocks challenged a claim to the property in a case against then-landowner William Hubbard.

According to the 1922 summary Lunding placed on an overhead projector, "four families of said tribe resided on said tract."

Copyright 2006 Newsday Inc.
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-lishin1206,0,432693,print.story?coll=ny-longisland-homepage

Dunn & Bradstreet subsidiary indicates Detroit Tigers and Casino are sister companies

In what most certainly must be an effort at ongoing damage control and an attempt to de-link perception about the ownership of a Major League Baseball franchise concurrent with ownership of a major league casino, the web site for Ilitch Holdings, Inc. (Mike & Marian Ilitch and family) has been cleansed of nearly every reference to their gaming interests and ownership of Detroit's MotorCity Casino.

However, the editors of Forbes' 2006 List of the "400 Richest Americans" certainly didn't buy that "shell-game" and apparently Hoover's, a subsidiary of Dunn & Bradstreet, providing comprehensive profiles on more than 18 million businesses around the world doesn't either.

Hoover's on-line (as well as Google Finance) provides this overview for the Detroit Tigers, Inc.:

12.06.06
Hoover's

Overview
These Tigers prowl in the jungle of Major League Baseball. The Detroit Tigers franchise was a charter member of he American League in 1901 and has won 10 league pennants and four World Series championships (the last in 1984). For all its past success, however, the team struggled to finish with a winning record for more than a decade until the 2006 season, when the club won its first AL pennant since 1984. (Detroit lost the World Series, though, to the St. Louis Cardinals.) The baseball franchise is part of Ilitch Holdings, owned by Mike and Marian Ilitch. The Ilitches, who bought the Tigers in 1992, also own the Detroit Red Wings hockey team, part of MotorCity Casino, and Little Caesar Enterprises.

link: http://www.hoovers.com/detroit-tigers/--ID__46741--/free-co-factsheet.xhtml

You may also want to review these posts:
The Verifiable Truth: Detroit Tigers owner doubled his net worth gambling on casinos
The Verifiable Truth: Baseball and Casinos Don’t Mix, or Do They?
The Verifiable Truth: New York Times sports writer recognizes conflicts in Ilitch casino ownership
The Verifiable Truth: Notice of $625 million MotorCity offering lead by Deutsche Bank and Merrill Lynch states, Marian Ilitch is co-owner of the Detroit Tigers
The Verifiable Truth: Firm says “Ilitch Holdings” paid $106 million for Casino Interests

Owners of Baseball's Pittsburgh Pirates drop Ilitch-like casino bid

Ilitch ownership model acceptable in Detroit doesn't satisfy PA state regulators

The Nutting Family, owners of Baseball's Pittsburgh Pirates, had recently purchased a western Pennsylvannia ski resort hoping to win one of two casino resort licenses available in the state. They had already designed and unveiled plans for a multi-million dollar casino at their existing Seven Springs Mountain Resort which had been expected to bring 300 new jobs to the area.

The undisclosed loopholes in MLB's gaming prohibitions that allow the Ilitch Family (Mike and Marian Ilitch) to own the Detroit Tigers and Detroit's MotorCity Casino, plus have additional financial interests in gaming ventures proved impossible for the Nuttings.

According to Robert Nutting, President and CEO of his family-owned Ogden Newspapers, Inc., the scheme worked out between the Ilitch Family and MLB in Detroit could not satisfy Pennsylvannia state gaming regulators.

12.05.06
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

". . . They also had a rough blueprint of how to go about owning a casino and a baseball team at the same time. In Detroit, the Ilitch family, headed by Mike and Marian Ilitch, purchased the Tigers baseball franchise in 1992. The patriarch keeps his name on the baseball team, while the matriarch now runs the Motor City Casino. But that wasn't doable in this case, said Mr. Nutting, because of the unique provisions of the state's 2004 gaming law.

"The main sticking point was that the law prohibits the casino and the umbrella resort from having different owners, which rules out any kind of arrangement by which the Nuttings could parcel out the casino to a different, but related, ownership outfit.

"I think the reason that was not doable is that the [resort license rules] are so unusual and so specific; they simply didn't have a lot of flexibility or latitude," Mr. Nutting said. Pursuing a divestiture similar to the one that was drawn up by the Ilitch family, and approved by Major League Baseball, would have required a full overhaul of the Pirates' ownership structure.

"The only other option would have been to keep the casino and sell its stake in the ball team, but that's something the Nutting family had no interest in doing . . ."

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/pp/06176/701101.stm

Firm says “Ilitch Holdings” paid $106 million for Casino Interests

Since April 2005, an Austin, Texas based financial services firm, Westlake Securities, has represented it negotiated the $106 million sale of a client’s interest in MotorCity Casino to “Ilitch Holdings.”

04.25.05
Westlake Securities
Press Release

“Westlake Securities is pleased to announce the sale of a Minority Interest in the holding company for MotorCity Casino, located in Detroit, Michigan. Westlake’s client in the transaction, Atwater Entertainment Associates, LLC, realized $106.4 million in the sale. AEA’s minority interest was purchased by Ilitch Holdings, which also bought the remaining equity in the holding company including the controlling interest owned by Mandalay Bay Group prior to its merger with MGM Mirage Resorts. Michael McAllister and Alex Klingelberger advised on the transaction for Westlake. . .

“. . . Westlake examined both the alternative of buying out the other MotorCity owners, as well as selling the AEA ownership interests. After advising AEA in its discussions with several potential buyers, Westlake and Asher negotiated on behalf of and advised AEA's members to accept a sale of their interest to Illitch Holdings, another minority interest shareholder of MotorCity Casino. . .” (Full Release)

client said:
Vivian L. Carpenter, President
Atwater Entertainment Associates, LLC

Mike Ilitch is chairman of Ilitch Holdings, Inc. and the owner of the Detroit Tigers. Major League Baseball prohibits team owners, managers and players from any involvements with gaming. For a decade, Mike and Marian Ilitch have sworn Mike has no involvement or interest in MotorCity Casino or any of the other gaming ventures Marian Ilitch has become involved with in the past decade; and the pair also insists that Marian Ilitch has absolutely no financial interest or management role with the Tigers baseball team.

Mike and Marian Ilitch are co-owners of the Detroit Red Wings NHL team according to the team's official web site. Although news that Wayne Gretzky’s wife, Janet Jones, was involved in gambling escalated to national scandal early in 2006, the NHL does not have MLB-like prohibitions on gaming. Concurrent ownership of the Red Wings and MotorCity Casino or various other gaming interests might present public relations challenges but apparently not any regulatory or legal challenges.


You may also want to review these posts:

The Verifiable Truth: Detroit Tigers owner doubled his net worth gambling on casinos

The Verifiable Truth: Baseball and Casinos Don’t Mix, or Do They?

The Verifiable Truth: New York Times sports writer recognizes conflicts in Ilitch casino ownership

The Verifiable Truth: Notice of $625 million MotorCity offering lead by Deutsche Bank and Merrill Lynch states, Marian Ilitch is co-owner of the Detroit Tigers