In response to a series of unknown financial arrangements between former Nashville Predators owner William “Boots” Del Biaggio and two other NHL owners, the league’s board of governors adopted a new policy that requires owners to disclose any and all business and financial relationships between one another.

In addition to requiring clubs to disclose business relationships, the NHL also has begun requiring owners to notify the league when they begin a sales procedure. The league has often found out about potential team sales through the press, but in the future, owners will be expected to alert the league as they begin to put together a sales pitch — even if that pitch is just for a percentage stake in a team.

— SportsBusiness Journal

Sounds like some darn fine policies to me. Although I'm not quite sure what the penalty would be for future funny business like what happened with Mr. Boots in Nashville.

We learn from SBJ reporter Tripp Mickle that these new policies were supposed to remain under a code of silence — mainly because their very existence just rehighlights the embarrassment of the whole Del Biaggio fiasco — but obviously there was a leak from on high.

The "sales pitch" business is also an attempt to thwart future Bootses, if there is such a thing, as you better believe the due diligence that wasn't done there when he was just a minority owner with the Sharks will now be applied even to the minor minority owners.

Tom Benjamin had the best recap of the situation this summer:

Boots doesn’t have any money. He never had any money. If the NHL had bothered to check him out, they would have learned this. A Google search turned up so little information on Boots I was suspicious of him in January 2007. My due diligence using Google was more thorough than the NHL due diligence?

There are only two options here:

1) Bettman is a chump who foolishly accepted the notion that Del Biaggio had tens of millions of dollars even though there is nothing in his background to suggest he has earned any money at all.

2) The league didn’t bother to check Boots out because Anschutz was his sponsor, because having Boots around as an owner in waiting helped Mario jerk an arena out of the people in Pittsburgh and because Boots helped Leipold sell his stake in Nashville.

I’m betting on on number two, but either way, Bettman booted it and the league richly deserves the Del Biaggio embarassment.

Agreed.

It's absolutely incredible that it took this nonsense, with a good chunk of a failing franchise tied up in bankruptcy court, to bring about what should have been absolutely standard league policies.

Then again, was it not already the case that NHL owners had to disclose business relationships amongst one another? And the penalty paid by Anschutz and Leipold for their indiscretions was what exactly?

Don't hold your breath waiting for the leak on that one.