The Tampa Bay Lightning were once owned by the Yakuza?

[realmofotalk]

SI.com - Writers - Lester Munson: An NHL lockout glossary - Tuesday January 11, 2005 10:30AM

Okubo, Takashi: The former owner of the Tampa Bay Lightning, Okubo was described by a source in one lawsuit as being a "gangster" and a member of a Japanese mob organization known as "yakuza," a group that has been known to launder money through sports enterprises. Under Okubo's leadership, the Lightning were one of the worst franchises in sports and nearly went bankrupt until Bill Davidson's remarkable rescue.

Columns: Blunderful

2. THE MYSTERY OF THE ORIENT: Who was Takashi Okubo? Did he exist? And if so, did he have any money? Who knows?

After the Pritzker group fell apart, Esposito looked everywhere for money. He found some in Japan. "The more we drank, the more it made sense," Esposito said then. "I said hockey. They thought I said sake."

Okubo never saw a game. For that matter, he never saw Esposito, either.

"I was supposed to go to dinner with him in Tokyo," Esposito said. "Steve Oto (the team president) set it up. So my wife and I go to this restaurant, and there is Yoshiyuki Sugioka (a member of the team's board of directors) and this other Japanese man. We exchange gifts. I remember I gave him a lovely tie, and they gave us robes. And we sat down and had dinner. We ate raw fish and raw turtle. We were almost done before I found out the other guy was an interpreter. For 45 minutes I thought it was Okubo. But you know, the interpreter was a hell of a good guy."

Organized crime, money laundering, shady and possibly nonexistant figureheads, and a crappy upstart hockey team. Think The Mighty Ducks meets Casino.

[Foster]

Ahhh to be rich.

[browntown653]

What the hell? Can't wait till Martin Scorsese gets his hands on this one.