Vanderbeek Says He Will Remain Majority Owner Of The Devils

Added on Feb 03, 2011 by J Merrill in

NHL

A report by Bloomberg, early on Tuesday, prompted a response from the Managing Partner of the New Jersey Devils. The report stated that Jeff Vanderbeek was toying with the idea of selling his stake in the franchise, but Vanderbeek says differently.

“As managing member of the New Jersey Devils, it is not my desire to sell the team,” Vanderbeek said. “My partner, Brick City, and I have different visions for the franchise. While Brick City has a right, under our partnership agreement, to explore a sale and Moag and Co. has been retained to assist in these effort, I anticipate maintaining a controlling interest.”

Vanderbeek acknowledges, and understands, that his partners have different visions for Brick City LLC, and the minority partners are exploring a sale. Brick City LLC is the legal name for the Devils share owned by Ray Chambers and Mike Gilfillan, his son-in-law. According to Gilfillan, Brick City has exercised its contractual rights under its partnership agreement with Vanderbeek to cause a sale of the entire team and arena rights, subject to certain terms and conditions. Gilfillan said they accomplished their original goals, and its time to move on. He said “Our goal was to use professional sports as a catalyst for economic development in Newark by constructing a state of the art arena for the teams as well as for concerts and family shows. Brick City feels we have accomplished that objective with our partner Jeff Vanderbeek.”

Gilfillan also said they feel as though they did a lot of good for the city of Newark, and the teams using the arena. He said “The arena and the teams playing here have also attracted more people to come back to the city in an ongoing effort to restore pride, sports, arts, culture and business to this beautiful city.”

Vanderbeek was a season ticket since the 1980′s, and had the opportunity to become a minority owner of the Devils in 2000. In 2004, another opportunity presented itself, and he was able to purchase a majority stake in the company. Vanderbeek was one of the leading proponents behind the building of the Prudential Center in Newark, which opened as the Devils’ home in 2007. The New Jersey Nets are playing their home games at the arena this season and next before a planned move to a new arena in New York.