user: Los Angeles Kings reportedly to be up for sale by AEG after Stanley Cup Final vs. New York Rangers
Updated JUN 07, 2014 3:27a ET

UPDATE: The Los Angeles Kings will not be put up for sale and the report that they will be is "appalling," said the CEO of the company that owns them.

“It’s a complete fabrication from some unnamed sources trying to create chaos and mischief,” AEG president and CEO Dan Beckerman told Fortune, and added, “There are no plans to sell [the Kings] now, or at anytime.”

When Steve Ballmer agreed to purchase the Los Angeles Clippers for $2 billion, it stood to reason that other owners would take notice and perhaps see what they could get for their club.

After all, the $2 billion was for a basketball team that has never won more than one playoff series in one season. With perhaps the worst track record in all of professional American sports. In the midst of an ownership scandal which saw advertisers jump ship as if the Clippers were the Titanic. Which isn't even the No. 1 team in its own sport in its own city.

It appears we may have our first potential seller, and he owns a team that plays in the same city — same building — as the Clippers, but which actually wins.

Anybody want to buy the LA Kings?

The New York Post on Thursday reported that Kings owner Philip Anschutz and his AEG group are considering putting the Kings up for sale at the conclusion of the Stanley Cup Final.

"I can assure you there will be a de-coupling of [AEG’s] content from real estate," the Post quoted one "well-placed banker" as saying.

However, an AEG spokesperson told the Post that AEG has no intention of selling any of its sports-related properties, Kings included.

"AEG has no interest in auctioning any of its sports teams currently or at any time in the near future," Ted Fikre, AEG’s chief legal officer, told The Post.

However, putting the Kings up for sale is nothing new for AEG. In fact, in 2012, Anschutz, 74, put all of AEG up for sale. The deal never happened, though, as Anschutz was unable to find a single buyer willing to come close to his $8 billion asking price.

AEG owns numerous sports and entertainment properties, including the Kings, LA Galaxy and Houston Dynamo of MLS, Staples Center and LA Live in downtown Los Angeles, and a lucrative concert-promotion business.

With the only two team sales to ever hit the $2 billion mark both in Los Angeles (the Dodgers sold in 2012 for a little more than what the Clippers went for in the forced sale as a result of the Donald Sterling scandal), it would make sense that the city's most successful professional team in recent seasons would test the market, even if it is hockey.

After all, Forbes valued the Clippers at $575 million just months before Ballmer's purchase; the Kings, who won their first Stanley Cup just two years ago, were valued at $450 million last November (but are three wins away from their second Stanley Cup).

Indeed, another source told the Post, the Clippers sale is what piqued AEG's interest.

"[AEG is] trying to ride the Clippers coattails," the source said.

For now, it appears the Kings will have to remain focused on trying to win another Stanley Cup.
Please write a summary below.
Is Kingsâ owner following Clipsâ lead, going for post-Cup money grab?
FBI to review honeymooner's 2005 cruise ship death
New York (CNN) -- The mother of a man who died while honeymooning on a cruise in 2005 has new hope that the mystery surrounding his death will be solved after the FBI's New York office agreed to review the case.

"The tide is turning, I think, now," Maureen Smith, the mother of George Smith, told CNN on Tuesday. "With their resources we are going to be charging ahead."

George Smith, 26, went overboard from the Royal Caribbean ship Brilliance of the Seas on July 5, 2005, at 4:30 a.m., according to Smith family attorney Michael Jones. His wife, Jennifer Hagel-Smith, was found passed out in a hallway of the cruise ship that morning, Jones said.

Investigators found blood on the sheets in the Smiths' room and on the canopy over the lifeboats, about a 20- to 30-foot fall from Smiths' stateroom, the attorney said. A four-fingered bloody handprint was found on the ship's edge, where it appears Smith had been holding on before he descended into the water, Jones told CNN.

The Smith family has long held the belief that George was murdered.

"It's very difficult, and we have had many obstacles put in our path, but we are still here and we are still fighting," Maureen Smith said.

Jim Margolin, a spokesman for the FBI's New York office, told CNN the office was reviewing the matter.

A statement Tuesday from Royal Caribbean International emphasized the cruise line has consistently "provided unfettered support, assistance and cooperation to the FBI, including the provision of all documents and materials that were requested.

"As part of these efforts, Royal Caribbean assembled over 6,000 pages of documents covering its investigation of the disappearance of Mr. Smith and made all this information available to the FBI. The company has worked closely with all law enforcement agencies including the FBI and remains readily available to them if there is any further inquiry into the matter," the statement said.

Jones said the family had been seeking the transfer of jurisdiction from the FBI's Connecticut office to the agency's New York bureau for almost two years, after a video surfaced that showed at least three Russian-American passengers on the same cruise joking about George's death.

"Two of the targets from the investigation reside in New York," Jones said.

The attorney said he became aware of the video when lawyers for the cruise line turned over information and video after the Smith family reached a settlement with Royal Caribbean.

Jones said the video is in the possession of the FBI. While he hasn't seen it himself, he said he's been told what's on it by an attorney for Royal Caribbean.

It apparently shows one of the Russian-American passengers making an incriminating statement.

The passenger "stands up, hunches his shoulders and flashes gang signs, in the context of George's death," Jones said.

The men were interrogated by police on the ship the morning Smith went missing, according to Jones. Smith had been hanging out with these men at the casino and then at the ship's disco the night before and into the wee hours of the morning, the lawyer said.

James Walker, a maritime attorney who represented Smith's wife when she sued Royal Caribbean in 2006 for the wrongful death of her husband, believes a crime did occur. Walker said he took a forensic specialist on board the ship during his investigation into Smith's death in 2005.

"My only hope is that the FBI will make an arrest and there will be a prosecution because it's long overdue," Walker told CNN on Tuesday.

CNN's Mary Snow and Julia Talanova contributed to this report.
Please write a summary below.


assistant: The mother of a man who died while honeymooning on a cruise in 2005 hopes the case will be solved after the FBI's New York office agreed to review it.