NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Nashville Predators owner Craig Leipold tapped into country music star power and catchy marketing slogans. He helped the NHL negotiate a new labor deal friendly to small-market franchises and even traded for Peter Forsberg.

After 10 years, it still wasn't enough.

The Wisconsin businessman, tired of losing money, reached an agreement to sell his team to Canadian billionaire Jim Balsillie, the same man who pulled out of a deal to buy the Pittsburgh franchise in December after the NHL insisted he commit to not moving the Penguins.

Leipold told Predators employees of the sale in a meeting Wednesday in Nashville, according to a person familiar with the sale who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the deal had not been finalized.

Might the sale involve relocation of the franchise? The NHL's Board of Governors must approve any sale, but the Predators have struggled to sell tickets for years and their future in Nashville has been in doubt.

Team officials declined to comment when contacted by The Associated Press. An announcement confirming the deal could come Thursday.

Balsillie, the co-CEO of Blackberry makers Research in Motion Ltd., has offered an undisclosed amount for the team, Canadian sports network TSN reported. An amateur hockey player who was one of Time Magazine's "Time 100" in 2005, Balsillie withdrew his $175 million offer for the Penguins last winter.

Cities interested in the Penguins then included Kansas City, Mo.; Houston; Portland, Ore.; and Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Leipold helped bring the NHL to Nashville in the mid-1990s when then-mayor Phil Bredesen, now Tennessee's governor, built an arena and started looking for either an NBA or NHL expansion franchise.

The nontraditional hockey market landed the expansion franchise in June 1997, and the Predators played their first game in October 1998.

But ticket sales lagged after the first couple of seasons when the excitement and novelty wore off, and the team struggled to grow from expansion franchise to playoff contender.