A blaring headline on my twitter screen reads "NHL wants Balsillie out of mix for Coyotes". As curiosity compelled me to click it, the subtitle of the article made me laugh extremely out loud (good thing I live alone). The subtitle proclaims "Team owners conclude Canadian billionaire would be untrustworthy".
Heh.
Now the summer soap opera of the Coyotes has brought as much amusement to me as Dany Heatley's ongoing soap opera, but the previous comments of Daly, Bettman, and now the BOG have totally jumped ship to the Comedy Network. Apparently the perfect character to buy a struggling team needs to be like the ever honest fraudsters that have recently plagued the League and currently find themselves residence in jail. I'll even take a stab at our dear George Gillett, who for all intents and purposes didn't really want to sell but ended up going for the money 'cause that pricetag sure was delicious enough even though I can see him getting more out of a Saudi prince for his soccer team... (And sorry George, but I hear the football league is going to be in heaps of problems some day soon thanks to overspending and underfunding, but hey, the Molsons say "hi").
Declarations topping this motion in the Anti-Bals charge this time is noted greedster Jeremy Jacobs, owner of the Bruins, and Craig Leipold, ex-Preds current-Wild owner, on the fact that Balsy would be untrustworthy despite the fact they approved him as an owner 3-times before fucking around with him. Also Leipold should know that Balsillie was so untrusting that William "Boots" Del Biaggio III got a higher nod over him...with intention to move that franchise anyway to Kansas City later, but that's fine 'cause Bettman would OK that one...you know 'cause it's not a hockey market but makes the NHL look big. Some notion that "bigger means it's good" or something. Whatever. (Also gotta laugh at the BOG snub nosing Balsillie's mock-season tickets drive, when Kansas City itself was peddling luxury boxes, but it's supposedly not considered the same thing).
Of course with the Pens, Bals wanted to move that deadbeat team (at the time) to Canada too, so that's why he was shuffled out on it. But it also took Lemieux to blackmail the city with a move to Kansas City if their new building wasn't built. Hey, Kansas City seems super popular! And it isn't even really in Kansas! (It's Missouri, which sounds like misery, and yes I know about the minor minor leagues there, but I also know many of them are folding because no one cares to see them).
Difference is, Pensburgh is a fairly viable hockey market. I mean, at least they get SNOW and don't have golf as their major selling point. And after being horrible for so long, now live off the easiest choices of drafting and a Stanley Cup for their troubles. Preds? Eh. When they have to explain to you what icing is on the jumbotron time after time, I start questioning. And while Garth Brooks is a fairly big hockey fan, he wouldn't even buy the team either... But the Coyotes don't have a bad set of players either. Despite that, they still can't sell tickets until the Habs or the Flames roll into town.
And your theory about "who would care about a Rangers vs Hamilton/Waterloo game" is moot because no one gives a damn about a Rangers vs Phoenix game either.
Plain and simple: no one gives a damn down there. Sure there are fans of the team, but most of the people in town would rather just head over to the Cardinals across the street (if they do even that). And no one gives a damn elsewhere. Like the Panthers--and I know Panthers fans--there are fans of the team, but they are so far and few that while the team was a step away from making the playoffs the NFL still took the centerpiece of the papers. Not that they paid them much attention anyway. Hell, hockey below the Mason Dixon line is moot in newspapers, as a first hand experience during the playoffs while vacationing in Washington/South Carolina. (I barely found a team shirt and when I did it was just Ovie and Semin...oh and the store was very very empty). And I pity the fool that has to deal with the local broadcasting of Lightning games (cringe). Makes you wonder if anyone can stay a fan of teams via these outlets when they don't even put the effort to said the players' names correctly. Isn't that right, Corey Price?
But you want to get personal, NHL? OK. The NHL started because the team owners were upset at the constant arguings, wranglings and general annoyances by Toronto owner Eddie Livingston. If the BOG had any balls of their own like they did in 1917 and got fed up with Bettman's constant arguings, question dodging, nose up in the air, Napoleon attitude and Daly's ass-licking followings, could they maybe do the same? In particular, say, the Canadian teams tired of paying for their failed "brothers" when lord knows that money would never go the other way should a local franchise need some cash, break the League and create their own? Call it the Canadian National Hockey League. After all, we wouldn't have problems selling tickets or TV time up here to our audience, and Bals could make his franchise all he wants in both Hamilton AND Waterloo (and Quebecor could make their QC team too boot). Winnie would return. I dare say, a team in the Maritimes. Our league's cashflow would nary miss a beat, nor suffer loss of interest, but I can't see the Rags and the newly rejuvenated Hawks or Bruins happy with sharing their money to feed the struggling franchises in the sun. I can also see many of the teams like Buffalo and the hockey holiday ticket price hikers of Florida suffering way more from lack of Leafs/Habs fans. On the flipside, I do know the Habs and Leafs would be very happy to NOT be sharing their profits to keep Vinny happy in beachland. (Sorry to Habs fans outside Canada though, but there will probably be a way to get Habs games somehow on TV, and if not, there's always the internets. If I can find a way to watch Dallas or Chicago, then anyone can). Eventually, through this scenario, would the Bettman NHL turn into a one-team NHA league like Livingston's?
It's all food for thought. At the same time, it isn't uncommon in the business world to reward failure with a bailout or two, but the NHL isn't the automobile industry. So when the BOG and Bettman and Daly finally get their heads out of their arses perhaps they'll smell the real scent of the manure they've set themselves up with. However, if by September, Jerry Bruckheimer offers a bid on condition to move the team to Las Vegas and he gets the OK to do so, then the League has officially nuked the fridge.
The thunder rolls...