from Ballard's estate, equal to 60% of the total outstanding shares of Maple Leaf Gardens Ltd. In a separate transaction, Molson Brewery also agreed to sell its 20% stake in Maple Leaf Gardens Ltd. to Stavro. The purchase from Molson Brewery closed in 1994, and shortly thereafter Stavro bought the Ballard estate's shares for $34 a share, totalling $75 million. In the purchase from Ballard's estate, Stavro partnered with the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan. Through this transaction, the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan acquired 49% of the shares of Maple Leaf Gardens Ltd. and the balance of 51% was held by a holding company, MLG Holdings Limited (and that company was 80% owned by Stavro and 20% owned by TD Bank). The purchase was the subject to a review by the Ontario Securities Commission and a lawsuit from Ballard's son, Bill Ballard, and in the end, the deal stood. In 1996 Stavro sold 25% of MLG Holdings Limited to Larry Tanenbaum's company, Kilmer Sports Inc., for a reported $21 million. Around this same time Maple Leaf Garden Ltd. began to show increased interest in moving locations from Maple Leaf Gardens, their home arena since 1931, as well as interest in acquiring Toronto's newly formed National Basketball Association (NBA) team, the Toronto Raptors. At this time, the Raptors were looking to build a new arena, which was a condition of being granted a franchise by the NBA. The Raptors invited the Maple Leafs to be a tenant at the new arena they were constructing in downtown Toronto. Initially Maple Leaf Gardens Ltd. rebuffed the invitation because they concluded that “the footprint is too small”. When Allan Slaight acquired control of the Toronto Raptors in late 1996, talks recommenced regarding the proposed joint use of the new proposed arena. Maple Leaf Gardens Ltd. proposed constructing a new $300 million shared arena on top of the rail tracks at Union Station and the land on which the Toronto Raptors were to build their new arena would become a bus terminal. This proposal died when an agreement could not be reached with the City of Toronto government on the rent for the land. In November 1997 Maple Leaf Gardens Ltd. submitted a new proposal for a $250 million arena to be located at Exhibition Place. This would have been a hockey only facility as the Toronto Raptors had commenced construction of their own arena south