Schulman keeps Ducks on target

Michael Schulman took over day-to-day operations of the Ducks in June, after the NHL suspended owner Henry Samueli indefinitely and Samueli’s wife and co-owner, Susan, agreed to abide by the terms of the suspension.

Samueli had entered a guilty plea in federal court to one felony count of making a false statement to the Securities and Exchange Commission during its investigation into his company, Broadcom, and alleged practices of backdating stock options to reward executives.

A judge rejected a plea bargain and delayed Samueli’s sentencing. In the meantime Schulman has made several major decisions, including allowing former general manager Brian Burke to leave after Burke declined a contract extension.

Schulman sat with The Times recently to answer questions about the future of the franchise.

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Have you gotten any indication from the league as to what would happen if Mr. Samueli should go to prison? Could the NHL and would it force Mr. and Mrs. Samueli to sell the franchise?

They could do it. I don’t expect them to do it.

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They being the NHL?

The NHL. He’s suspended indefinitely. We don’t know what that means. We’re expecting the sentencing for Henry to be sometime this summer. Yes, the NHL has a right to force that but I certainly don’t expect that.

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Have they given you any indication that they would not force him to do that, or is this just a gut feeling?

Based on what the offense is here it’s sort of a gut feeling, but no, I don’t have any indication from the NHL.

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Are you in contact with [Deputy Commissioner] Bill Daly at the NHL or is this just an understanding that he’s suspended and you just go along and operate things day to day?

I’m in contact with both Bill Daly and [Commissioner] Gary Bettman, trying to understand the parameters of the suspension. And I’m now the acting governor so I attend the board of governors meetings.

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Getting back to Brian Burke and the way that evolved, for somebody of his stature to resign during the season is fairly unusual. Was it your feeling that you knew he didn’t want to stay, so let’s just take care of this now and let’s move on to whatever’s next rather than letting it linger?

When the final decision was made I knew he didn’t want to stay, but up until that time, even though there was a lot of discussion on the subject we had an offer on the table. We liked Brian. We wanted him to stay. We wanted to give him as much time as he needed to make the decision, and he hadn’t made a decision, so we didn’t act. Then, when he finally notified us that he was not going to sign an extension we moved quite quickly.

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You have mentioned that you look at the club on a daily basis but you also have a five-year plan and a 10-year plan. Were you speaking figuratively or do you literally have a five-year and 10-year plan?

More figuratively, long term. We started out with a plan, and I’d have to say when we first bought the team we weren’t nearly as experienced as we are now, since we didn’t have any experience. Who would have contemplated what’s happening to the economy, or who would have guessed that we would have won the Stanley Cup in the second year? So plans change quickly.

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The team is near the salary cap and has been for the last couple of seasons. Is this team making money?

No, it’s not making money.

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Has it made money since the Samuelis have owned it?

It has not and part of our initial plan [was] we didn’t expect that we would in the first four years. We hope someday soon to break even.

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Can you give me an idea of what the losses might be, or is that privileged information?

That’s privileged information.

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You talked before about the economy and who would have forecast the economy would take the turn that it has taken. How has that impacted your operations?

So far this year we’re doing slightly better than last year, which is a good sign, but I think that’s because there’s a lag. Most of the tickets are sold in the springtime and early summer before the economy really fell apart. So I’m not sure, no one’s really sure what impact this is going to be next year.

But if you had asked me when we first took over the team 3 1/2 years ago if we’d be making the revenue we are now, only in our wildest dreams, so it’s beyond our wildest dreams.

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But while the revenues have gone up, so have the expenses. Payroll and travel, with airplane fuel.

Yes, it’s something that you have to monitor every day. We have spent near the cap. We’re one of the top five or 10 teams in terms of salary and we’ve done that because we have felt each of the first four years that this is a team that could win the Cup, and you go for it when you have that opportunity. Someday we’ll lose some of our great players and veterans and we’ll be in a rebuilding mode and when you’re rebuilding you tend to bring younger players in, and the costs will go down.

But we still think we have a chance and we’re going to do whatever it takes to win the Stanley Cup.

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You believe that there is a large enough market for this team to thrive long-term here?

Absolutely. We plan on it. We’re exceeding our goals in terms of revenue. We will maintain our costs as best we can and I think we will break even in this community.

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helene.elliott@latimes.com