powerful Wall Street buyout firm and an upstart sports advisory company have made a dramatic joint proposal to buy all of the NHL's 30 teams for as much as $3.5 billion (U.S.).

Bain Capital Partners LLC and Game Plan International, both based in Boston, tabled the offer in a 30-minute presentation to NHL owners on Tuesday in New York, three sources told the Toronto Star.

The companies were invited to make their pitch by NHL commissioner Gary Bettman.

Bain managing partner Steven Pagliuca, co-owner of the NBA's Boston Celtics, and Game Plan, which recently acted as an adviser on the sale of hockey's Ottawa Senators, are betting that many NHL owners would welcome the chance to get out of the hockey business.

The NHL, which because of its ongoing player lockout recently became the first major North American pro sports league to cancel an entire season, has said its teams have lost a collective $500 million (U.S.) over the past two seasons.

It's unclear whether many of the league's owners, especially those with teams in large markets like Toronto, Boston and New York, would accept the offer.

Maple Leaf officials declined to comment, as did a Game Plan spokesman. Representatives for Bain and the NHL couldn't be reached.

A person familiar with the matter said no subsequent discussions between the league and the two companies were scheduled.

Response to the Bain/Game Plan proposal from more than 100 people at the meeting was muted.

Several in attendance said just one of the owners there asked a question of Bain and Game Plan — how the $3.5 billion pot might be divided between owners?

"They told us they had a formula to compensate each owner based on the revenue and assets and size of market of each team," said one owner who attended the meeting.

"I'm not sure how serious you can take the offer because it's an all-or-nothing deal. You need all 30 owners on board to make it work."

If the owners ultimately accepted an offer of $3.5 billion that would put the average franchise value at about $117 million, although large-market teams like the Maple Leafs would be worth far more.

Forbes magazine estimated the average NHL franchise value was $163 million in 2003-04, although several recent team sales have fallen far short of that figure.

Last week, for instance, Walt Disney Co. sold the Anaheim Mighty Ducks for $75 million.

The sale included a $15 million training facility.

"Hockey can be a real tough business with the slimmest of profit margins, obviously," said Jeff Phillips, a sports banker at investment firm Houlihan, Lokey, Howard & Zukin.

"You can justify investing in a team if you're winning, but if you're a small- or mid-market and you're losing money, I can see where it would lose its lustre," Phillips explained.

Using an overhead projector and PowerPoint slides, Bain and Game Plan officials outlined their view of how the NHL would evolve under a single-ownership structure.

If it was owned by a single entity, the NHL would operate in a manner similar to a large corporation, owners were told.

Each team, like a division within the company, would begin the year with a set budget and act autonomously on personnel decisions.

The purchase would not be dependent on the NHL reaching an accord with the players, and a sale would not affect the status of the NHL Players' Association as the bargaining agent for players under U.S. and Canadian labour laws.

And the move, Bain and Game Plan said, would help bolster the league's revenue because all of the teams would work together to generate more local television, sponsorship and revenue instead of competing against one another.

The move would also cut down significantly on the league's operating costs.

The Bain-Game Plan consortium told the NHL owners that it had arranged for a large Canadian-based financier to join its efforts.

While the group didn't name any prospective partners, Bain, which has $48 billion in assets under management, partnered in 1999 with the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan in an investor group that bought Shoppers Drug Mart., Canada's largest drugstore chain.

The teachers are majority owners of the Maple Leafs.