TAYLOR, Mich. -- Sam Simon, president and chairman of Taylor, Mich.-based fuel distributor Atlas Oil Co., is the latest name thought to be interested in the Detroit Pistons basketball team. Sources familiar with the situation told Crain's Detroit Business that Simon would be part of an investment consortium led by Mike and Marian Ilitch, the Little Caesars Enterprises Inc. pizza founders who also own the Detroit Tigers baseball team and the Detroit Red Wings hockey team.
"I can't comment on that. I can't confirm or deny it," Simon, who noted that he's a longtime [image-nocss] close friend of Ilitch Holdings Inc. president Chris Ilitch and is a Pistons courtside season-ticket holder for 18 years, told the newspaper. "I'm a huge Pistons fan," Simon said. "They need a person who has passion and the drive. They're missing an owner."
He also was complimentary of the Ilitches: "They're a solid organization."
Atlas Oil declined to comment to CSP Daily News.
The company, which employs nearly 400 people companywide and has annual revenue of $1 billion, is part of Simon Holdings Inc., the umbrella organization for Simon's investments that also include real-estate and trucking entities. Atlas Oil owns or supplies fuel to retail stations in at least 10 states and manages or supplies nearly 400 locations.
According to the report, Pistons owner Karen Davidson told reporters last week that the basketball team will soon have a new owner, and details are emerging on who might buy the NBA franchise along with Auburn Hills, Mich.-based Palace Sports & Entertainment, which manages venues and the team.
Davidson announced in January that she wants to sell the team and entertainment venue she inherited when her auto glass industrialist husband, Guardian Industries Inc. chairman William Davidson, died in March 2009. Palace Sports recently confirmed that it has retained Citi Private Bank's Sports Finance and Advisory to act as a financial adviser on a sale.
The team is estimated by Forbes.com to be worth $479 million, said the report.
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