NHL Interference or Balsillie Offside
Just the facts please
Another chapter closes on the sale of the Phoenix Coyotes to Jim Balsillie CEO of RIM. Judge Baum also rejected the NHL bid to buy the team but left the door open for the NHL to amend its bid to be fair to all including Jim Moyes and the great one Wayne Gretzky both of whom were left out to be included in the settlement by Gary Bettman.
With Bettman hired on as commissioner February 1, 1993 his main objective was to increase exposure of NHL coverage south of the border particularly in the southern States but he has done the exact opposite. Bettman concentrates on teams mainly in the south namely the Florida Panthers, Nashville Predators, Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, Atlanta Thrashers, Minnesota Wild and the Columbus Blue Jackets. Media and fans from the north including Americans from the traditional hockey belt have accused him of ignoring Canada having an anti Canadian agenda just look at his record it speaks for itself. He has not once but twice led the owners into locking out the players resulting in millions of dollars of lost revenue, along with an entire hockey season canceled unable to reach a settlement on capping their salaries.
Many fans have yet to return to the game they love since the lockout and why, because of the poor handling by Bettman himself. The league also lost major networks in airing games across the States and had to settle for OLN with a smaller share of the market ESPN, ABC and FOX dropped the NHL from their regular season schedule.
NBC was the only large network to sign on airing NHL games but only with revenue sharing and no money up front. The way I see it the salaries of players got out of hand, the owners of these franchises let this crumble happen in the first place because of greed for the cup. Teams paid their way to the top instead of earning it by training the players to win. Too many sports franchises pay their way to the top instead of nurturing their players and draft picks, they bought talent at enormous salaries to improve their franchise and in the end, it all backfired.
While some of those southern teams along with others south of the border have had their struggles attaining revenues bringing into the black, he still refuses to see an opportunity for the advancement of hockey in Canada. Putting a franchise in Hamilton would certainly boost a rivalry that would not only gain added attention with fans but also boost revenues across this market of the golden horseshoe. This is about fans and the players and the stability of the NHL and not Bettman’s own personal agenda in keeping a team out of Hamilton. Both Toronto and Buffalo would veto such a move of course since they would be afraid of lost fan based revenue. Have they ever heard of rivalries? Not only would a team in Hamilton support such a rivalry between these teams, it would boost up support all across this region.
Toronto is forever taking their fans for granted and one day those fans rooting for Toronto will wake up and smell the stink of rotting roses. My wife being one of those lost fans to the Leafs, as a die-hard Leaf fan she decided to turn her attention toward the Montreal Canadiens this year, me I still have faith in the Leafs and will be watching their games, but would like to see a change in the attitude of owners and coaches getting these players to form a team of competition instead of a team for others to use as their practice, something is has seemed more often then not in the last 42 years. The dedicated fans of Toronto deserve better, not for the owners to have the mentality of ‘doesn’t matter win or lose, the fans will always be there’.
In court, Bettman asserted his NHL powers and league rules to overturn Jim Balsillie’s bid in acquiring the Phoenix Coyotes, yet if this team remains there, I hardly think it will last beyond next season. That is already a foregone conclusion.. The coyotes will eventual move from there and be relocated to a more profitable centre like the northern States or Canada. Mr Bettman has dearly forgotten how the NHL was back in the days of the original six when it was truly a sport and not a political game of corporate sponsorship. Hamilton one day will be awarded an NHL franchise and why wait for the inevitable to happen. Hamilton has the backing of fans, a facility and of course Jim Balsillie who was not shy at spending money to attract the fans to a game they love to watch.
Two hundred thousand fans who signed a petition from both the States and Canada thought moving this bankrupt team to Hamilton was for the better of the league and yet he chose to ignore it. All Jim Balsillie wanted was a dream come true but unfortunately, he went about it the wrong way, in hindsight Balsillie should have used his business expertise to negotiate with the Governors and lay out a solid plan to run this franchise and he probably would have succeeded in his goals, but then again, it didn’t work in his last two attempts now did it?
Jim Balsillie has tried two other times in acquiring teams to be moved to Hamilton only to be denied this by NHL interference. The first was for the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2006. Balsillie made the decision to withdraw his bid in December of 2006 when he received notice from Bettman that the NHL was going to handle the deal to build a new arena on Balsillie’s behalf and that the NHL would have the right to take over the team if necessary. This left a lot of uncertainty in the deal and Balsillie backed out.
The second team was the Nashville Predators in 2007. This was almost a signed deal between the then owner Craig Leipold and Balsillie until it was learned that Balsillie started to sell seasons tickets for the “new” Hamilton team to show the board of governors that a team in Hamilton could be viable. Mr. Leipold took offense to this and sighted that Balsillie had reneged on the deal by tying to move the team out of Nashville before the deal was even signed. The Predators were eventually sold and has lost money ever since.
Let us hope the next time, if there is a next time he wants to bid on a team more diplomacy on both sides of the bargaining table is used. As for Gary Bettman how long, will it take you to realize that putting a winter sport in the desert will never amount to any thing close to a successful franchise unless of course you have Canadians or fans from the northern states residing there? Wake up and listen to the fans— Mr Gary Bettman you are a prize, yes indeed you are! You have again accomplished to disappoint fans who’s love of the game is now becoming pure frusteration of not getting these teams out of the area of an uninterested fan base, and into an area that spend their seasons doing everything to support them.
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