New Oilers Owner

After 10 months of bargaining and making five offers that were upped each time to a final deal worth roughly $200 million Canadian, local pharmacy billionaire Daryl Katz is now the proud owner of the Edmonton Oilers in Alberta, Canada.

The deal is pending NHL approval, which can take on average between six weeks to two months.

After rejecting offers that began at $145 million, the 34-member Edmonton Investors Group agreed February 5th to an offer that works out to $22,000 a share for 100 percent of the collective 7,492 shares.

Katz became the 538th richest person in the world in part from building the Rexall pharmacy chain, according to Forbes. Rexall holds the naming rights to the 18,100-capacity Rexall Place arena, where the Edmonton Oilers call home.

The billionaire isn’t planning to keep the Oilers at the aging Rexall Place but has promised to contribute $100 million for a new arena, which, according to the Edmonton Sun, he would like to see built "as soon as possible."

Katz also agreed to build the team a new practice facility on the University of Alberta campus and spend the maximum allowed on player salaries.

"My preference would be to have the Oilers at the heart of the community, in the centre of downtown, in an effort to revitalize downtown," Katz said in a conference call.

Last year, Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel formed a committee to research building a new arena. On February 6th he said that the report would be released March 10th, after initially quoting the end of January as a release date, according to the Sun.

While the city of Edmonton owns the Rexall Place, Northlands Park operates the venue.

"It’s another chapter in Edmonton and the relationship with NHL Hockey and the relationship with the Edmonton Oilers," Ken Knowles, President and CEO of Northlands Park, told Pollstar. "Our goal is to continue to provide the best service available for the main tenant in our facility, that being the Edmonton Oilers."

Knowles said that "it’s too premature to comment with any certainty" about the possibility of Rexall Place being torn down to bring in a new rink. He added that Northlands would comment after the mayor’s report is made public.

"What we want to do as an organization is certainly support what is in the best interests of this community, the city of Edmonton," Knowles said.

"If it is a new facility, [hopefully] we would be the operator of that new facility because I think we certainly have a proven track record over a number of years with what we’ve done with what is now known as Rexall Place." – Sarah Marie Pittman