Lions sold

[SammyGreene]

Club is making a "major announcement" at 11:15 a.m. this morning from the practice facility on a "new era" for the franchise.

[B.C.FAN]

Apparently so.

[Hambone]

Amar Doman is nephew of Herb Doman who was big in the forest industry owning Doman Industries based out of Duncan which morphed into Western Forest Products. Amar owns investment firm Futura Corp which as one of its investments owns CanWel a large Canadian building materials distributor. CanWel was originally a partnership between Canfor and Weldwood. Futura through its direct and indirect ownership positions has over $1.5B in revenuea and apparently has 2000+ employees under its umbrella. Doman has very deep pockets.

[cms22]

wow, great news........

I like everything about this new owner situation.............

[B.C.FAN]

Link to the Lions' Facebook Live video of the official announcement for those who missed it:
https://fb.watch/7t2H2u_wFo/

And the official press release, with more background on new owner Amar Doman:
BREAKING: AMAR DOMAN BECOMES THE NEW OWNER OF THE BC LIONS

[Sir Purrcival]

Any scuttlebutt on the price?

Awesome news. So glad to see that the new ownership has deep pockets and a local connection.

[Hambone]

Awesome news. So glad to see that the new ownership has deep pockets and a local connection.

As Braley's estate executor Grant Panchyson said Doman is exactly the sort of buyer Braley was always looking for. Kind of wonder if Doman's interest was a recent development or if he was kicking the tires on the Lions back when Braley was still with us. Obviously any potential sale was put on hold as soon as Covid reared its ugly head and would never happen until the CFL and Lions were able to resume play. It's hard to imagine it all came together and was finalized in just the past month or two.

[David]

This all happened so quickly and flew under the radar but it's wonderful, welcome news.

I was impressed by Mr. Doman's brief presser.


DH

[BC 1988]

A BC corporation with decades long history here--that's as good as you can get. After doing a quick search, Doman has never been listed in the long history of potential buyers.

From listening right now to Neil McEvoy on Rintoul & Surman on 650, this is not an overnight deal--they have been looking at a deal for a long time but preferred to keep it under wraps until the deal was done.

Question for those who have been here longer than I have: has any Doman companies (past or present) ever been an official Lions sponsor?

[BC 1988]

Apparently so.

Patrick Johnston getting a lot of static for his in-depth (probably the result of 2 minutes notice) analysis "owns a bunch of stuff" .

[Hambone]

For some reason I'm thinking the CanWel logo might have been evident in recent years. Doman Industries before morphing into WFP was predominently a lumber manufacturer with sawmills in Nanaimo, Chemainus, Duncan etc. Advertising or sponsoring at local sporting events attended by consumers generally doesn't provide much business value for companies producing commodities tailored more for export.

[zeppo]

Patrick Johnston getting a lot of static for his in-depth (probably the result of 2 minutes notice) analysis "owns a bunch of stuff" .

I suspect that if this announcement had anything to do with the Canucks he would have given a little more thought to his choice of words.

[SammyGreene]

Fantastic to see such a prominent and successful BC business family step up when they have never been mentioned as a possible buyer. We are talking about much deeper pockets than the rumoured Woodall proposal that was something like 20 owners investing $1 million each.
Doman on BC Global News:

I am prepared to put dollars into this team. Putting money back in and getting those marketing strategies out there. There were a lot of ideas on the table and with David being ill some of those things were sitting for a bit that I can re-energize.
We are not going to be afraid to invest in the club. To get that out there it’s not going to happen without investment and I’m the guy.

[B.C.FAN]

Patrick Johnston getting a lot of static for his in-depth (probably the result of 2 minutes notice) analysis "owns a bunch of stuff" .

I suspect that if this announcement had anything to do with the Canucks he would have given a little more thought to his choice of words.

He broke the story. The name of the buyer is more important than the other “stuff” he owns.

[TheLionKing]

Pleased to hear that the Lions have finally been sold. Local ownership with deep pockets is an added bonus. Now let's get on with rebuilding the fan base.