Posted May 6, 2009, 5:01 AM
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Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Vancouver
Posts: 341
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Canada's 7th NHL Team? (Again)
Considering Phoenix's current situation, this is actually more likely than you might think:
Quote:
Balsillie offers to buy bankrupt Coyotes, move team to Canada
By Dave Gross and Don McGowan, Canwest News Service
Canadian businessman Jim Balsillie is back in the hunt for a National Hockey League franchise.
Balsillie, the BlackBerry billionaire, tabled an offer on Tuesday to purchase the Phoenix Coyotes, following the team’s bankruptcy filing.
The hitch in the offer is that it is conditional on relocating the team to southern Ontario. The offer to purchase the club is pegged at $212.5 million US.
“This is the deal that I am focused on,” Balsillie said Tuesday night at a brief news conference in Toronto. “This is the opportunity that’s come up out of the bankruptcy financing. I am prepared the financially back it. I think this is very good for the game, very good for the league, very good for the fans.”
Balsillie has also agreed to help the Coyotes by supplying $17 million US to keep the team afloat prior to the proposed sale.
The Coyotes filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Tuesday in Arizona. Balsillie’s offer to purchase the team was included in the court filing.
The NHL was quick to react to the news — deputy commissioner Bill Daly issued a statement on Tuesday night outlining the removal of Coyotes’ chief executive officer Jerry Moyes from authority to act as a representative for the Coyotes in league business.
“We have just become aware of today’s bankruptcy court filing purportedly made on behalf of the Phoenix Coyotes. We are investigating the circumstances surrounding the petition, including the propriety of its filing. We have removed Jerry Moyes from all positions of authority to act for or on behalf of the club. The league will appear and proceed before the bankruptcy court in the best interests of all of the club’s constituencies, including its fans in Arizona and the league’s 29 other member clubs.”
Moyes earlier told the Arizona Republic: “Extensive efforts have been undertaken to sell the team, or attract additional investors, who would keep the team in Glendale.”
Moyes bought the team in 2001 for $127 million US. Forbes Magazine estimates the Coyotes worth to be $142 million — last among the 30 teams in the league.
“This is a very serious and committed offer by me and it’s funded and financed and fully backed,” said Balsillie.
Hamilton, Burlington and the Kitchener-Waterloo region have been rumoured potential destination spots if Balsillie is successful in his bid.
A week ago, NHL Players’ Association executive director Paul Kelly issued a statement saying he believes the issue of a second franchise for Ontario (Ottawa isn't part of Ontario?) is worth further study.
“The viability of a second team in Toronto or southern Ontario should be explored, so, in the event that relocation needs to be considered for franchises that are struggling where they are currently located, a well-informed decision can be made,” Kelly said.
Balsillie, the co-chief executive officer of Research In Motion, which makes the wireless BlackBerry device, has been stubborn in his pursuit of landing an NHL team. He has made attempts to acquire an NHL franchise twice before.
In 2006, he made a $185-million US offer to buy the Pittsburgh Penguins, but the deal was rejected after the Penguins secured funding for a new arena.
Balsillie, who made a $10-million down payment on the Penguins, had stated that he intended to keep the team in Pittsburgh had he landed the franchise, but wouldn’t rule out moving the franchise to a Canadian city.
Balsillie withdrew his offer in December 2006 after reportedly being told by NHL commissioner Gary Bettman that the league would limit how much control Balsillie had over the team.
The down payment was later repaid to Balsillie.
In May 2007, Balsillie announced that he had struck tentative agreement to buy the Nashville Predators, with intentions of moving the team to southern Ontario, likely to Hamilton. The next month, Balsillie began accepting season-ticket deposits for the Hamilton Predators. The move apparently angered the NHL’s board of governors. Reports later in the month indicated that Predators owner Craig Leipold, scared off by Balsillie’s comments about relocating the team, had asked the NHL not to consider an offer from Balsillie unless a “binding agreement” was reached regarding the team’s future in Nashville.
TSN reported on Friday, June 22, 2007, that Leipold had instructed the NHL not to consider Balsillie’s application to purchase the team. That November, a group of Nashville businessmen reached an agreement to buy the team, and the deal was approved by the NHL later that month.
Balsillie has set up a website, www.makeitseven.ca, and is encouraging people to sign up to support the relocation of the Coyotes. The name of the site refers to the number of Canadian teams in the NHL — if the Coyotes moved to Ontario they would become the seventh.
Balsillie spokesman Bill Walker told blogto.com on Tuesday that more than 2,000 fans signed up for the site within 100 minutes of it going live.
© Copyright (c) Canwest News Service
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Source: The Vancouver Sun -- http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/B...498/story.html
Last edited by Kodii; May 6, 2009 at 5:16 AM.
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You are right by the way; this thing is a lonnnnnng way from being a done deal.
Go Jets Go 
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