3rd time's a charm?

Research in Motion C.E.O., Jim Balsille, is at it again. With previous attempts to purchase the Pittsburgh Penguins, and Nashville Predators falling short, it appears that his dream to own an NHL franchise is still fresh in his mind. Yesterday, the Phoenix Coyotes declared chapter 11 bankruptcy, and shortly there after, Balsille made his offer of 212.5 million dollars with an additional 17 Million dollars to keep them alive during the chapter 11 hearings. Now the biggest issue with his offer, is the one major stipulation he's had in his previous 2 bids. Balsille has made this offer on the grounds that he is able to move the Coyotes to Southwestern Ontario. Current location rumours have included Kitchener-Waterloo (where RIM is located), Hamilton (taking advantage of Copps Coliseum), or even that coveted 2nd Toronto team.

Now I'm sure the vast majority of my readers haven't purchased an NHL team before, and are unsure if that offer is fair or not. To clarify, Forbes ranked Phoenix 30th of 30 NHL teams in order of financial value, and lists the franchise value at 142 million dollars. During the attempted purchase of the Nashville Predators, he set up a season ticket site for the future 'Hamilton Predators', and managed to sell 15,000 season tickets for a team that he didn't even control, thus proving the ferocious demand for another franchise in the Southwestern Ontario area. This time around, Balsille hasn't begun to reserve tickets just yet, but he has started this website called www.makeitseven.com (referring to bringing the Coyotes to Canada and making them the 7th NHL franchise) With the NHL owners sharing revenues across all teams, I can only imagine that the other 29 owners should be drooling at the thought of moving the 30th ranked team (in regards to financial gains) to a hockey crazed market. Sure, Ballsille could have been a little softer in his approach, but the way I see it we are looking at a man with deep pockets who wants to be an NHL owner. Not because it's the only thing he can thing to purchase with his spare $212.5 million, but because he is a hockey fan. A passionate owner who is willing to spend money to put a competitive team on the ice isn't a bad thing at all.

Gary Bettman has never liked the aggressive way Balsille does business, and showed with the Pittsburgh and Nashville situations that he won't allow an owner to pick and choose where a team is located. Since the Coyotes have filed for chapter 11, all ownership responsibilities now fall to Mr. Bettman himself. So if a sale is to happen, it'll have to go through Gary.

I'd love to see another team in Southwestern Ontario... but I can't help but wonder what the fine people in Winnipeg must think. They lost the Jets to Phoenix, and are eager to get a team back in Manitoba, now they might have to watch the team they loved potentially move to Ontario.