Page 73 of An Irresistible Force (Vancouver Vice)

Chris

When I got backto the Millionaires’ office, I managed to catch both Rhett and Swanny at the tail end of a meeting.

“Lucky? What are you doing here on a Monday morning?” Rhett wondered.

“Great news.” I realized that my expression didn’t match my statement and I pasted on a grin. “I’ve convinced the Richardsons to sell the team.”

“Fantastic!” Rhett high-fived me, and even Swanny looked pleased. “Wow, that didn’t take you long at all.”

I nodded, but it seemed like ages since I’d left here. So many things had happened since then. “What we need to do now is put together a package that we can present to them.”

Swanny nodded. “Did they all agree to sell?”

“No. Not surprisingly, Thomas is still against this. But I think that the mediation decision came out against him, so he’s S.O.L. Majority rules.”

“Okay, we’ll need to get some valuations on other AHL teams,” Swanny began.

“I’ve already got that stuff.” I patted my laptop case. Amanda and I had worked together to try to figure out how the Vice could save money and why we were so in debt, so she had analyzed all the publicly available financials of other teams.

“Wow,” Rhett said. “Looks like we’ve got exactly the right person for this project right here.”

Swanny nodded slowly. “Yeah, sure. We can work together on this thing. We’ve got to wrap up here, but I’ll meet you in my office in a half an hour.”

I called Greg to let him know I’d be staying at the Millionaires offices while we cranked out the details of the offer.

“Sure, Chris. Don’t worry about it. Amanda told me you wouldn’t be around.”

Ouch. “She did? Well, let her know anyway. And if either of you still need me for anything, just call.”

“Will do. But should we even proceed on anything? Maybe you guys will want to change everything when you take over.”

“No, I think the plans that the three of us put together are exactly what the team needs. Go ahead. I’ll back you guys up on this end.”

“Okay, sure.”

Swannyand I started hashing out all the details of the proposal we were going to put in front of the Richardsons. We had to balance making an offer that was attractive enough for them, while not overpaying. I gave him a brief outline of the situation at the Vice: their debt problems, the lack of staff, and problems with the head coach. He already knew how crappy the team itself was.

He sat back in his chair and whistled. “Was it three months ago you went to the Vice?”

“Not quite.” Less than three months ago I met Amanda and couldn’t stand her. I looked around Swanny’s bright spacious office, and all I wanted to do was go back to those crappy basement offices so I could hang out with Amanda again. My chest hurt again, and I fished around for a ginger root capsule.

“I cannot believe how much you’ve learned in such a short time.”

I shrugged. “Amanda was a teacher, and she’s got her MBA. She knows how to explain stuff.”

“Maybe I should be hiring her to train everyone. But seriously, Lucky. I was beginning to wonder if you were ever going to get the business side. I knew you were a smart guy, but you didn’t seem to be fully invested. Now I can see you’re going to be real useful around here.”

It was tough to explain why I had worked so much harder for the Vice. Maybe it was because they really needed my help, rather than the make-work projects Swanny doled out. Or maybe I needed time away from the Millionaires to get over how much I missed actually playing the game. I should have been happy that I was finally succeeding, but instead it felt like the low-grade darkness was creeping back up on me. But I sucked it up and started showing him the industry financials I had.

It took most of a week to hammer out the details of the deal, but the final dollar amount was up to the Cooper family. Swanny came back from the big meeting and passed me the draft document. I flipped through to the financial part.

“Is that all you’re going to offer them for the team?”

Rhett gave me a bleary look. “C’mon, Lucky, whose side are you on here? The truth is that the team is in terrible shape. Thanks to you, we found out about that big write-off. I understand that they won’t be running up big debts like that anymore, but still. It’s one thing to pay a decent price for a profitable team, but it’s going to take a pretty major investment on our part to get the team in shape and increase attendance.”

I looked down at the document. “But it’s nowhere near the amount that most AHL franchises are going for. You told them what Amanda said about her father doing them a solid, right?”

He nodded. “Rusty Cooper hasn’t forgotten that.”

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