More Notoriety Off the Ice – Hockey Business is Fierce
With the impending NHL season looming upon us, many are anticipating another great season.
However, even as we await the first puck being dropped to begin the season, there seems to be more news off the ice involving key figures in the NHL. That isn’t to say that the off-season hasn’t had great player signings and movements, but the management and business side of things are far more prominent this time around.
Possibly the most interesting fable this off-season is the immediate future of the Phoenix Coyotes. Hockey in the desert hasn’t exactly went swimmingly well for NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman.
When Bettman came into power as the NHL commissioner, his personal task was to create news fans for the NHL. He began to do this by awarding franchises to “un-traditional” hockey markets. Expansion franchises began to appear in Tampa and Sunrise, Florida, San Jose and Anaheim, California, Nashville, Tennessee, and Atlanta, Georgia to name a few.
By doing so, he rose the league to 30 teams and expanded the league revenue. This was a bold move by Bettman, but in some circumstances it had payed off. San Jose became a tremendous hit in California and developed into a huge base of fans. Bettman saw new fans for his new teams and began re-locating struggling teams.
Bettman had moved the Minnesota North Stars to Dallas, the Quebec Nordiques to Colorado, and the Winnipeg Jets to Phoenix.
The latter has obviously floundered the most since the move. Phoenix has struggled on and off the ice for the past several years and they aren’t alone. Many of the expansion franchises have also had the same struggles.
Enter Jim Balsillie. The CEO of Research and Motion Inc. has been trying to purchase an NHL for the past few seasons. He has not succeeded due to the fact that his intentions are to move a franchise to Hamiliton, Ontario, Canada, which has infuriated Gary Bettman.
The entire process has exploded far beyond a simple purchase agreement. Phoenix Coyotes owner Jerry Moyes expressed concern over his financial losses with the team. Moyes claims to have lost millions of dollars and quickly filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy on May 5th. Shortly after the filing, Balsillie put together an offer that would see Moyes receive a large sum of money in return.
Bettman and the NHL were quick to fight back and the bankruptcy war has been on ever since. Both Bettman and Balsilie have slug mud at one another in a hypocritical fashion.
Balsillie has slandered the league by claiming many of the owners have not co-operated under league rules in the past and have been allowed to retain their teams. (Bettman and the other NHL owners insisting that Balsillie has not followed the obliging steps to come by a team and have basically labeled him as a rebel)
Bettman made one of the most hypocritical statements of all when the NHL do in their own bankruptcy bid to retain the rights to the Coyotes. By doing so, this goes against the leagues own anti-trust rules stating that no owner can have stake in more than one team. (The team owners would all have a stake in the Coyotes under this bid)
The league bid also poses a question.
If the NHL and Gary Bettman were so concerned with keeping a team in it’s current location, why didn’t they engage control of the various other teams that were moved in the past?
It all comes to a head on September 2nd. Bankruptcy court proceedings will decide if Balsilles bid will be eligible. If it is eligible, Balsillie will have the highest bid on the September 10th auction and could possibly move the team.
Whatever happens in these proceedings will be an consuming myth, but there is a better and more stirring put a question to in all of this.
Did free agency even happen or did I miss all of it with the Bettman and Basillie show?
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Filed under Franchise Bankruptcy by on Aug 22nd, 2010. 
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