Bettman and Balsillie
As I mentioned a little in my 30 teams in 30 days: Phoenix Coyotes feature, the Coyotes have no owner, and Jim Balsillie, co CEO of RIM, is making a huge push to gain ownership. The NHL repeatedly shuts down his attempts saying that it is nothing personal, yet Balsillie is still trying to put in a bid. I might be a little biased on this because I am canadian, and Balsillie aims to bring the team to Hamilton, but i don’t understand how this isn’t personal, and why Gary Bettman and Bill Daly won’t open their eyes to the fact that hockey WILL NOT WORK in Arizona.
The Coyotes lost 60 million dollars last season. 60 million. That’s ridiculous. A mediocre team at best, playing in a market that has the Phoenix Suns in the NBA, the Arizona Diamondbacks in the MLB and the Arizona Cardinals in the NFL, and boasts year round temperatures of around 90 degrees. Hamilton has proved that they are a huge hockey market, plans are there for a new state of the art Arena and all the NHL’s demands have basically been met by Balsillie. So, the one remaining question is: how is this not personal?
Is it possible that maybe Gary Bettman and Jim Balsillie were ennemies in elementary school and Bettman is holding it against him? It just doesn’t make sense. Is it maybe because Balsillie is Canadian? This is a possibility, as Bettman is willing to accept a bid that’s at least 100 million dollars less to keep the team in Phoenix, an AMERICAN city. Bettman could be trying to get more fans on his side, as i think he has finally noticed that most fans boo him whenever they see him at one of the games.
Just open your eyes, Bettman. Turn your head and look up north, where there are at least 500,000 fans, many of which are already season ticket holders for the team that is undoubtedly supposed to be there (imagine that). Think of it this way: if you approve Balsillie’s bid, and stop paying the board of governors to reject it, and award the team to Hamilton, and you walk in the arena, you might finally hear the sounds of applause being directed at you, as opposed to the boos that you’ll experience from the 29 other arenas.
Oh and, cheers from a sold out crowd are always better than cheers from about 100 fans. Open your eyes.
