Lightning Sold To Florida Exec

May 18, 1998 / 11:52 PM EDT / CBS/AP

A 17-month search to find a buyer for the struggling Tampa Bay Lightning is over.

The NHL club and its lease to the Ice Palace arena were sold Monday to Palm Beach businessman Arthur L. Williams, a one-time Canadian Football League owner who made his fortune in insurance.

While terms of the sale were not disclosed, Williams' offer is believed to be comparable to the $130 million that Detroit Pistons owner William Davidson reportedly had offered.

The Lightning faced a Monday deadline to respond to Davidson, who appeared to be the frontrunner to obtain the team, which finished with a NHL-worst 17-55-10 record last season.

"Art Williams offered the most financially sound proposal of any of the groups who pursued the team," Lightning president and CEO Chuck Hasegawa said in a brief statement. "Our desire in selling the team was to insure our fans and the community that we had seriously-committed ownership. Mr. Williams will provide that support."

Hasegawa said the sale is expected to be closed by June 30, pending NHL approval.

League commissioner Gary Bettman issued a statement Monday approving of the sale.

"This is a positive development for the Tampa Bay Lightning," Bettman said. "We will begin our due diligence immediately and will work with the Lightning and Art Williams to proceed witht he approval process as quickly as possible."

Williams, 56, was unable to attend a news conference because he is out of the country, team officials said.

"Tampa Bay is a wonderful community and I so look forward to next season ... I can't wait to close and get started," the new owner said in a statement.

A native of Waycross, Ga., Williams founded A.L. Williams & Associates in Atlanta in 1977, and within 12 years the company grew into the nation's largest seller of individual life insurance. The Palm Beach resident sold the company to New York-based Primerica Corporation in 1989.

The six-year-old Lightning had been owned since their inception by Takashi Okubo, a Japanese businessman who never attended a game and didn't meet NHL commissioner Gary Bettman until last month.

Attendance dipped 20 percent last season and staggering debts also made it difficult to sale the team.