gary bettman Archive

I’m not a huge Gary Bettman fan, but this is one of the few situations where I’m rooting for him. The NHL is the last obstacle standing in the way of Jim Balsillie swooping in and purchasing the Phoenix Coyotes. Ice Edge Group, a third potential buyer, recently backed out of the bidding.

Balsillie plans to move the Coyotes to Hamilton, Ontario if he gets a chance. While I know Canada loves hockey, I don’t think this should happen. Hamilton is merely an hour drive away from Toronto and Buffalo is less than two hours away. The Leafs would take a hit from a well-funded upstart franchise, but I doubt they’d get strong-armed out of their own territory. On the other hand, the already-small-market Buffalo Sabres could get put out of house and home. According to Forbes, they lost an estimated $8.9 million in 2007-2008.

I would speculate that Gary Bettman fears contraction if he lets Balsillie bully the Sabres. The issue isn’t stopping Jim Balsillie from taking his shiny toy home to Ontario. The problem is that the move will further de-stabilize the NHL that has a number of struggling franchises.

Via New York Times:

The N.H.L.’s worst fears were realized on Tuesday when Commissioner Gary Bettman informed United States Bankruptcy Court that Ice Edge Holdings had dropped out of Thursday’s auction for the Phoenix Coyotes.

That revelation from Bettman, contained in a footnote of a four-page statement filed with Judge Redfield T. Baum’s court, left just two bidders for the bankrupt team: a $242.5 million offer from the Canadian billionaire James L. Balsillie’s group, PSE Sports and Entertainment, and a $140 million offer tendered by the N.H.L. itself.

“I have been advised that the Ice Edge Group does not currently intend to participate in the auction,” Bettman said in the footnote.

The N.H.L. entered the auction at the Aug. 25 deadline after its white knight, the Chicago baseball and basketball owner Jerry Reinsdorf, dropped out of the bidding. Balsillie’s lawyers argued that the league’s entry into the auction effectively disqualified it from judging the merits of various bids.

Ice Edge, a group of Canadian and American investors that had barely activated its Web site, sought through its $150 million bid to keep the Coyotes in Arizona while playing five home games in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

Balsillie’s PSE bid seeks to move the Coyotes to Hamilton, Ontario, sometime this season or at the start of the 2010-11 campaign. On Monday, PSE offered a $50 million payment to the city of Glendale to drop its claims against the Coyotes for breaking the team’s 30-year lease on the municipally owned Jobing.com Arena.

In July, N.H.L. owners voted by 26 to 0 that Balsillie lacked the “good character and integrity” to join their ranks.