(Reuters) - Ray Chambers will pay $25 million to help the New Jersey Devils pay down debt and hand his 47 percent stake in the hockey team to his partner Jeffrey Vanderbeek, the New York Post reported on Saturday.
The National Hockey League team has debt of about $180 million and has "mostly" been losing money, the newspaper said, citing unnamed sources.
Chambers' stake includes part of the Prudential Center, where the Devils play, it said. The arena is also used by two basketball teams, the New Jersey Nets and New York Liberty.
The deal needs the approval of the NHL and the Devils' lending group, the report said.
The cash will go to refinancing the team's debt and Vanderbeek, the majority owner and a former senior banker at Lehman Brothers, will take over Chambers' stake, it said. The two men bought the Devils in 2004.
(Reporting by Ann Saphir in Chicago; Editing by John O'Callaghan)
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