The Dark Side of the Kings pt. 2
While former Los Angeles Kings team owner Jack Kent Cooke was undergoing the trials and tribulations of marrying a woman half his age on the East Coast, back on the West Coast, the current Los Angeles Kings team owner was in the process of selling off his team, fully aware his empire was crumbling and federal prosecution was inevitable. Most longtime Kings fans are intimately familiar with Bruce McNall and his Ponzi-esque schemes that landed him in a federal penitentiary. Since most people already know the details, there's no need to revisit them other than to say it would be impossible to imagine that a man with his intelligence level could ever honestly believe he would get away with it. He had to know he was looking at significant time behind bars at some point.
Not only did his actions fall into the "well, it was fun while it lasted" category, he actually wrote a book titled "Fun While it Lasted: My Rise and Fall in the Land of Fame and Fortune". Along with purchasing the Kings, trading for Wayne Gretzky and ultimately changing the face of professional hockey in the western United States, McNall acquired a movie production company, (responsible for the wildly popular "Weekend at Bernie's"), fifty thoroughbred racehorses, a Boeing 727, residential properties in Malibu and Palm Springs and one big fat house in Bel Air, and palled-around with some of the biggest celebrities in Hollywood. Sounds like fun.
After selling the majority interest of the Kings to Jeffrey Sudikoff and Joseph Cohen, the franchise immediately fell into financial trouble as Cohen and Sudikoff couldn't even meet player payroll and we're forced into bankruptcy themselves. Fortunately the franchise was rescued by Philip Anschutz and Ed Roski, who immediately began planning a new arena in downtown Los Angeles where both the Lakers and Kings would play. Fifteen years later the LA Kings would be hoisting their second Stanley Cup on home ice at Staples Center.
As for the rise and fall of Bruce McNall, his incarceration raises a question: Would you trade five years of being on top of the world for six years behind bars?
The Great One and Bruce
Bruce in 2019
The cover of Bruce's book
The Hockey Writer's article on Bruce from 2018:
https://thehockeywriters.com/bruce-mcnall-la-kings/
The CNN Money article from 1997:
https://money.cnn.com/magazines/fort...2192/index.htm
Not only did his actions fall into the "well, it was fun while it lasted" category, he actually wrote a book titled "Fun While it Lasted: My Rise and Fall in the Land of Fame and Fortune". Along with purchasing the Kings, trading for Wayne Gretzky and ultimately changing the face of professional hockey in the western United States, McNall acquired a movie production company, (responsible for the wildly popular "Weekend at Bernie's"), fifty thoroughbred racehorses, a Boeing 727, residential properties in Malibu and Palm Springs and one big fat house in Bel Air, and palled-around with some of the biggest celebrities in Hollywood. Sounds like fun.
After selling the majority interest of the Kings to Jeffrey Sudikoff and Joseph Cohen, the franchise immediately fell into financial trouble as Cohen and Sudikoff couldn't even meet player payroll and we're forced into bankruptcy themselves. Fortunately the franchise was rescued by Philip Anschutz and Ed Roski, who immediately began planning a new arena in downtown Los Angeles where both the Lakers and Kings would play. Fifteen years later the LA Kings would be hoisting their second Stanley Cup on home ice at Staples Center.
As for the rise and fall of Bruce McNall, his incarceration raises a question: Would you trade five years of being on top of the world for six years behind bars?
The Great One and Bruce
Bruce in 2019
The cover of Bruce's book
The Hockey Writer's article on Bruce from 2018:
https://thehockeywriters.com/bruce-mcnall-la-kings/
The CNN Money article from 1997:
https://money.cnn.com/magazines/fort...2192/index.htm