The National Hockey League said Thursday its board of governors unanimously approved Henry and Susan Samueli’s buy of the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim from Walt Disney Co. for a reported $75 million.
The Samuelis,Henry is cofounder, chairman and chief technical officer of Irvine chipmaker Broadcom Corp.,had been talking with Disney for some time on the buy. The sale includes Disney Ice, the team’s practice rink.
One early move for the Samuelis could be a name change,not the deletion of “Anaheim,” but its “Mighty Ducks” moniker.
“We’ll do what the fans want,” Henry Samueli said in a past interview. “If they want to change the ‘Mighty Ducks’ name we’ll do it. But we absolutely, 100%, will not change ‘Anaheim.'”
Samueli was referring to Angels owner Arte Moreno’s renaming of his Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.
Henry and Susan Samueli own H & S; Ventures of Newport Beach. An arm of H & S;, Anaheim Arena Management LLC, manages the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim where the Ducks play.
Anaheim Arena Management took over running the Pond from bankrupt Covanta Energy, formerly Ogden Services, in 2003. The city of Anaheim owns the arena.
“Since Susan and I also own the management company that operates the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim, the Mighty Ducks’ home ice, acquiring the team was a natural next step,” Samueli has said.
Meanwhile, the Ducks plan to announce they’ve hired Brian Burke as general manager, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times.
Burke is former general manager for the Vancouver Canucks and Hartford Whalers. He would replace interim general manager Al Coates, who’s also the team’s vice president of business operations.
