The NHL last weekend ended its 301-day lockout — which prompted commissioner Gary Bettman to cancel the 2004-2005 season — with the league and the players' association agreeing in principle on a six-year collective bargaining agreement. One byproduct of the new pact is that it will all but end the hopes of Bain Capital LLC and Game Plan LLC to acquire the struggling league. (For more on this auction-related deal and others, visit AuctionBlockDatabase.com.)

In early March, the two bidders submitted a proposal to buy the entire NHL for $3.5 billion and operate it as a single entity.

While the proposal will likely never be completed, it wasn't a total failure. As one source put it, "the proposal initiated a productive dialogue about how to fix the league's financial problems."

Technically, the offer is still on the table. One source with knowledge of the proceedings called the situation fluid, saying that if the new collective bargaining agreement causes future conflict, NHL owners could go back to Bain and Game Plan and renew talks. GamePlan chairman Robert Caporale confirmed situation and the possibility for future talks.

The deal was first discussed eight months ago. The NHL then asked the two financial buyers to come back to present what one source described as a "concept" for how the league would be run under a single corporation. Bain and GamePlan made that presentation to team owners in New York on March 1.

"The firm responded to a request to share an alternate structure that might have solved the strike," said Stephen Pagliuca, a Bain managing director and co-owner of the National Basketball Association's Boston Celtics.

Had the bid succeeded, Bain and Game Plan would have set up the NHL as a NewCo. An exiting owner would have had the option to sell his team in whole or in part. In the latter case, the owner would then have converted his remaining ownership stake into stock of the single entity. Bain and GamePlan would have owned the stake not taken by current owners.

After the presentation, the bidders raised their proposal to $4.3 billion, from $3.5 billion, with a three-tier payment structure — the highest valued team would receive around $210 million, the lowest about $75 million. Forbes magazine valued the prestrike NHL at $4.9 billion.

But the proposal faced problems, the biggest of which was having to get each owner to agree to the deal. "Bain and GamePlan were always aware their effort faced substantial obstacles in having to satisfy the [league's] 30 owners," said a source with familiar with the discussions between the NHL and the group.

Bain planned to treat the NHL like any distressed asset, restructuring finances, aligning interests and limiting player salaries.

One of the measures taken would have been revenue sharing, a source said, using the bigger market assets — the Detroit Red Wings, New York Rangers, Philadelphia Flyers and others — to support the whole company.

A recent study by former Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Arthur Levitt found that the NHL lost more than $270 million in 2003-2004 season and that only 11 teams turned a profit. And even with the new labor agreement in place, the NHL is not out of the woods. The league lacks a U.S. television contract. ESPN, which previously carried the NHL, declined to pick up a $60 million option to televise games next season but has not ruled out considering a deal at a lower price.

Despite the problems, the NHL has experienced a flurry of M&A activity. In addition to the Bain and GamePlan offering, Walt Disney Co. was able to sell the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim to tech billionaire Henry Samueli, the co-founder and chairman of Broadcom Corp., and his wife, Susan, in a deal valued around $75 million. On July 6, Trinidad-based Casino Fortune.com, an online casino company, submitted a bid to buy the St. Louis Blues from Bill Laurie, according to a report in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Laurie put the Blues on the block June 17.