To recap:

(though there's another $1.6-billion-in-damages lawsuit a-comin', guaranteed). Tom Hicks no longer owns the Texas Rangers (and Cliff Lee or no, still very sports nervous about tonight). But Tom Hicks, who paid around $84 mil for Norm Green's hockey team in '95, still owns the 4-and-oh-my Dallas Stars despite

-- two whole months

.

What's taking so long?

That's what The Hockey News's Ken Campbell attempts to answer this afternoon. Long story short: The team -- which drew a meager 11,750 for Saturday night's shoot-out win over the Blues, despite the win-loss record -- ain't worth the asking price. No, that sound familiar at all. Writes Campbell:

If the Stars were worth buying at their asking price, they would have had a new owner by now. Instead, Calgary oilman Bill Gallacher decided to pull out of the bidding, leaving a group including Tom Gagliardi of Vancouver and some local investors as the leaders to get the team.

But the Gagliardi group is probably seeing the Stars' financials and the losses they would have to absorb in the short term in order to get the team back on track and balking at the asking price. The NHL would like to believe the Stars are worth in the neighborhood of $300 million, but no buyer is going to pay anywhere near that in this economic climate.

When Gallacher was in the running for the team, sources told THN.com the final price would have been about $225 million and that price tag continues to be moving downward, perhaps as low as south of $200 million. The NHL has a vested interest in keeping franchise values high, which is why the initial asking price of the Stars was more than $300 million, but there is a built-in problem with that kind of thinking.

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