Gearon: Spirit ready to welcome Belkin back

A Maryland judge ruled Monday that the eight-man ownership group, Atlanta Spirit LLC, resume operations as it was before its acrimonious break-up in 2005. Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Durke G. Thompson ruled that the contract the owners had reached that would allow the seven owners to buy out Belkin was too ambiguous.

Belkin has the right to appeal Monday’s ruling. But until any move is made, Gearon said operations for both franchises will continue as is.

“I can’t speak for what Steve will or won’t do,” Gearon said. “But I can tell you that one thing people fail to realize is that over the course of these last four years, we’ve been operating these franchises and making decisions ... which Steve has participated in.

“Steve has actively participated in meetings that we’ve had, in which our [general managers] have made recommendations and there hasn’t been a situation where there was contention and we did not go in a direction our [general managers] wanted to go.”

Belkin has options, one of them much more costly than the others.

Should he decide to stay in the group as a minority owner, Belkin would be required to pay his partners $25.8 million, according to court documents, which represents his 30 percent share of cash calls made during litigation.

He could appeal the court’s decision, but he would likely have to post a multi-million-dollar bond, at the court’s discretion.

Or Belkin could also exercise what amounts to an opt-out clause in the Spirit’s original partnership agreement and ask his partners to buy him out.

Thompson’s 38-page ruling actually encourages the owners to settle the feud without the aid of investment bankers or other outside parties. That might have happened four years ago had the NBA, and specifically Commissioner David Stern, not made it “clear that it desired the Belkin interest to be bought out,” Thompson noted in his ruling.

It is clear the entire costly affair might have been avoided at some point during the last four years had the sides ever been able to determine a settlement outside the courtroom. But that never happened.

“There was a lot of dialogue at different points during the last three or four years,” Gearon said, “but nothing that was ever close enough where we could say this matter was going to be settled.”

Attorney Steven Estep, who is representing Gearon and Washington, D.C.-based Spirit part-owners Bruce Levenson and Ed Peskowitz, said it “never got close.”

Gearon also dismissed rumors that the Thrashers are for for sale, insisting that the Spirit is simply “looking for other investors,” the same way Falcons owner Arthur Blank did recently.

“The biggest benefit from [Monday’s] decision is the black cloud that is no longer over Bruce Levenson, Ed Peskowitz and myself, with respect to the personal obligation to buy out Belkin,” Gearon said.

For fans weary of another round of legal maneuvering, Etstep cautioned that Monday’s ruling does not open that door.

“That would be the wrong conclusion to draw, because this legal process from the last four years has all spawned from that purchase and sale agreement that has now disappeared,” he said. “There is no basis to start this process again. Now we are back to an operating agreement that is clear and unambiguous. It’s not going to lead to bad things.

“It’s the same as it was before. And that’s a good thing. It’s not going to lead to bad things. Belkin can stay in if he wants. He has to catch up on his cash calls, which I don’t think is a significant enough amount of money to alter the future of the franchises. Or he can exercise his put and ask the other owners to buy him out. It’s pretty cut and dry.”