Saturday, June 16th, 2007 by Adam Wagner
Jim Balsillie = Slimeball
He’s done it again, folks. The man who was going to buy the Penguins until he backed out has pushed himself into the running for another NHL team and, at this point, Pittsburghers can rejoice that this man never bought their team. As the Post-Gazette stated back when he was buying the team, Jim Balsillie is truly a man in motion . . . to Hamilton.
There was speculation that he would try to move the Penguins, despite the obvious popularity of the team in Pittsburgh (You try standing in a student rush line for four hours on a 30 degree night sometime. Not fun, especially when you receive standing room only tickets, but worth it.). It can be speculated that someone told Balsillie that it would be extremely difficult to move the team, as he did a rapid u-turn regarding his purchase of the team after meeting with the Gaming Control Board.
Balsillie’s decision to not buy the Pens did not take him out of the market for an NHL team, however, and when Craig Leipold announced plans to sell the Nashville Predators, Balsillie’s name was immediately brought up.
Well, Balsillie’s pitch was the most successful one, and his shenanigans began almost before his $220 million agreement was completed (quick note: He agreed to buy the Pens for $175 million. I think someone is getting a little bit more desperate).
Here is a timeline of Balsillie’s slow descent to utter slimeball:
First, he agrees to buy the team. Shortly after doing so, he tells commissioner Gary Bettman that he has no intentions of moving the team, and that he loves the Nashville market, which would be blatantly untrue even if Balsillie hadn’t begun to move one team to Hamilton already. The Nashville market is one of the most flawed in all of hockey. There is little to no corporate support or sponsorship, making it difficult for the franchise to thrive as it should. Balsillie’s should have said that, “We need to strengthen ties to corporations here in Nashville to ensure that this market remains a stable and successful one for the Predators.” Instead, Nashville received the vote of confidence.
Next, Balsillie’s attorney, Richard Rodier, was scheduled to appear in front of the Hamilton city council, supposedly for contingency purposes only. At this point, it is believed that if Leipold enacts a clause in his lease agreement (allowing the city to buy tickets), the Predators would not be able to move for seven years. If the team activated this clause and ticket sales did not rise to at least 14,000 a game, the team would be able to move after the 2007-08 season.
The next developments came yesterday, as Rodier said that Balsillie wanted the NHL to approve his right to relocate the team at the same time as it approved his sale and that Balsillie announced plans to start taking ticket deposits for the 2008-09 season in Hamilton. These were both still announced as “contingency” plans. Even Rodier’s comments don’t make this look like a contingency plan. They make it sound like Balsillie doesn’t want the team unless the NHL will let him move it. For example, Rodier refused to answer what would occur if the league would not review the right to relocation immediately. All of these efforts would be wasted, however, if Leipold enacted the exit clause and the city spent the roughly $320,000 to prevent the team from leaving.
Today, however, the story broke that the team can leave even if the team does read the magic number of 14,000 per game in attendance next year, as it was revealed that Balsillie can void his lease for $27 million. Many people in Nashville and others involved in the sale seem to believe that the NHL will hold up a move as long as there is a valid lease (meaning the 14,000 number is reached). This is hard to believe, as Balsillie seems to be an expert at contorting the truth to make it serve whatever purpose he wants it to, meaning in this instance to get the team to Hamilton.
One other interesting detail that points to the team’s potentially moving is that Rodier announced that he was finalizing a deal that would put Balsillie in charge of Hamilton Entertainment and Convention Facilities Inc., which controls Hamilton’s convention center, arena, Hamilton Place, and a parking garage. In other words, Balsillie is being put in charge of the entire hockey infrastructure of Hamilton, Ontario even as he completes the sale of a team in Nashville, Tennessee.
The largest major issue standing in the way of a move to Hamilton is the fact that it violates the territorial rights of both Buffalo and Toronto and that Balsillie would, therefore, have to buy the territorial rights to Hamilton for a named sum. Considering that a team in Hamilton would probably ruin Buffalo’s extremely successful market, that sum would probably have to be pretty high.
In the long run, though, I’m betting that Balsillie could force the team into Hamilton. He seems to be very good at getting what he wants, even though he is a complete slimeball. Fans of Nashville, do everything you can to keep this man from buying your team! Do not let him pull what he tried to pull here in Pittsburgh!
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