Given today's report of the NHL's Board of Governors unanimously deciding to turn down Jim Balsillie's bid to buy and relocate the Phoenix Coyotes, it appears that he has successfully ostracized himself from his potential peers in a matter of just 3 years. And while they may or may not mean anything during this current bankruptcy trial, I think it would be safe to assume that if Judge Baum does not decide to rock the NHL boat and rule in favor of a smoother transition to the Reinsdorf group, that the likelihood of Jim Balsillie reappearing for a fourth time would be slim to none.
At the moment we can only speculate as to why the group of men whom we will affectionately refer to as the NHL fraternity, have chosen to do their part in blocking the Blackberry bid soon after ruling in favor of his acceptance back when he was interested in taking over the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2006. Obviously we know a lot more today about Jim Balsillie's motives than we did back then. But what we cannot say for certain is whether this is simply a decision to lockout a relocation bid to Southern Ontario, to preserve the NHL's plans to touch base with the Arizona market, or a mixture of the two. Until this point, it was not clear as to whether there was merely a personal conflict between the League's Commissioner Gary Bettman and prospective owner Jim Balsillie, but now we can see that the entire board is backing the stance of the NHL. And that is not to say that things aren't personal still, as the Board of Governors may see Balsillie's flamboyant actions as a means to look after his own interests while ignoring the interests of the League itself.
As expected, the Balsillie camp is claiming that the reasoning behind the Board's decision today is in question, noting how the same board members voted to accept Jim Balsillie three years ago. And I suspect that prior to a ruling, Judge Baum will be looking for an answer to these claims before deciding to rule in favor of a bid that happens to be roughly 65 million dollars shy of the Blackberry offer. Although I would be surprised to hear anything that we haven't already been told by Bettman or Daly thus far.
In other related, yet currently unsubstantiated news, Jerry Moyes may have just opened a whole new can of worms. I don't have a lot of details just yet, but Jerry apparently is threatening Coyotes Season Ticket Holders, suggesting that they would also be considered unsecured creditors and could potentially lose both their tickets and the money they bought them with.
If true, expect this to be hitting the airwaves very shortly.
No comments:
Post a Comment