I've been a bit slack on updating everybody about the Phoenix Coyotes situation, so here's a quick update. First, the parties are all in court today, arguing before the Bankruptcy Court whether or not Jerry Moyes actually has the power to put his team into bankruptcy. I'll have more on that later tonight.
But this little bit from yesterday's Toronto Globe and Mail is really interesting, especially to our friends from Winnipeg who might be in town for the Moose/Aeros playoffs series. It seems that early last month, while the NHL was attempting (and failing) to help the Coyotes find new ownership, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman sent an e-mail to people at the Coyotes updating the situation. Bettman makes it clear in the e-mail that it's proving to be nearly impossible to find a new owner to take over the team and keep it in Phoenix, and that "if we don't have an alternative, I will have to start looking at the moving option."
And just where does that moving option start? Well, it starts with Winnipeg, the original home of the Coyotes. And as for Hamilton/Southern Ontario, Bettman essentially writes that he just wants to string them along.
Nice going, Bettman.
What you have here is Bettman and the NHL saying that the team probably has to move because it can't find a buyer to keep the team in Phoenix because it's not financially viable to keep the team in Phoenix, and you also have Bettman saying the best option is Winnipeg while the folks in Hamilton are just strung along as suckers. And Moyes did what Bettman said the league would probably do: he found a buyer in Canada, but because of lease problems, he had to go through bankruptcy court.
(Oh, and one thing I haven't made clear in the past: the NHL is not objecting to the Coyotes going into Chapter 11. They're objecting about who is sending the team into bankruptcy.)
But we should have a better idea of what's going to happen with Phoenix later today, when the court hearing is finished.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
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2 comments:
Unfortunatley, Gary Bettman's credibility in Winnipeg is so tiny you'd need a high-powered microscope to find it. Him saying he'd rather put the team in Winnipeg than Hamilton is kind of like him saying, "Well if I had the choice I'd rather be hit by a bus than a train."
From the Winnipeg front... the discussion has certainly been raging here for the past week. Bettman is affectionately (or rather not so affectionately) known to the general population in these parts as something along the lines of "That Lying Rat Bastard Weasel That Took Away Our Jets And Moved Them To The Desert, I Hope A Hundred Thousand Fire Ants Crawl Up His Buttcrack And Can't Find Their Way Out". :) Local polls seem to indicate that 70-80% of us don't believe he'd ever really put the team back here because he's been extremely resistant to it ever since the Jets left back in the 90's and became the Coyotes. In this case, I think he only said what he did because he'd do anything to spite Balsillie and saying "Winnipeg over Hamilton" was just a way to twist the knife a bit.
Guaranteed, though, if you want to get a Winnipegger all fired up, this topic will do it!
Personally, I'm just disappointed that the topic had to surface (again) right now, when the Moose are doing so well that I think the city's attention should be on them and not be drawn away by Bettman's games. It's a shame that when the Moose are making franchise history and are closer than they've ever been to getting to, or even winning, an actual championship the "Bring Back The Jets" whispers have to start again. I just think they deserve not to be overshadowed in any way by Jets/Coyotes drama, and they wouldn't have if the Balsillie/Bettman saga hadn't gotten so extreme.
Ah well, what can you do?
Bettman.... or Buttman?
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