Coyotes File for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy: Jim Balsillie Puts in Offer
The financial woes of the Phoenix Coyotes continue as, just coming out tonight, the team has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The team has been bleeding money recently and it seems that Jerry Moyes can not do it anymore.
The bigger news for hockey fans is that Jim Balsillie, who tried to purchase the Penguins and Predators, has put in an offer at a reported $212.5 million to buy the franchise with the deal including moving the team to Southern Ontario.
Balsillie who seems to be public enemy number one with the NHL Board of Governors has jumped back into the picture and, to the uneasiness of Coyotes fans, has his best opportunity to get a franchise and move them.
The bankruptcy filing puts the Coyotes at the mercy of a judge who will decide if the sale will go through. However, the NHL Board of Governors has the final say in whether or not the transaction occurs. The league can take over management of the team until a suitable owner is found to run the team. While the league would like for the team to stay in Phoenix with profitable operations, moving the team to another location with a financially strong owner is very tempting in terms of making sure the team is secure for the future.
Writing for the Coyotes, I would be overwhelmingly sad if the team moved. I do not live in Phoenix and do not attend games regularly, but supporting the logo on the front of that jersey is something I pride myself on. While it would be the same players, a different name, logo, and city would make it hard for me to support the team as much as I do now. All Coyote fans can do now is hope that a miracle occurs and the Coyotes’ future in the desert is secured.
Unfortunately, it will have to take quite a miracle.
Posted by The Hockey Writers
on May 5 2009. Filed under Featured Articles, Pacific, Phoenix Coyotes, Western Conference.
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It’s over in Phoenix. The “experiment” has failed miserably. I still think Balsillie will screw this up, and the NHL BOG will reject his ownership proposal. The one place the team should move to is Winnipeg. This is where it started, and Bettman has gone on record stating that he would like to make right what was clearly wrong (ie. moving the team in the first place).
He won’t screw this up, Bettman will screw him over. He cannot handle that he has been unable to make the game mainstream in the US, even though he does nothing to clean it up (standard discipline, doing things to diminish fighting that studies have shown turn off a segment of fans–and don’t bother telling me about those of us who like them, ’cause we will watch hockey either way!).
What the league should do is return the team to Winnepeg. What they will do is what they did in Ottawa and Buffalo (both also going bankrupt) as well as Nashville: make it possible for the team to stay, even though the town cannot support the team.
Just please, no more teams in the Eastern Time Zone–it’s already crap that we (Western Conference) have to travel three zones and they (Eastern Conference) stay in their own.
Go Winipeg Jets… Hopefully
The same Bettman that wants hockey to be an American sport and wants to bring the experience all over the nation?
I think there are cities less deserving than Phoenix. Unfortunately, Atlanta could be one of them (I write for Atlanta). Success aside, there doesn’t need to be two teams in the Los Angeles area, or two teams in Florida. Dallas is not a heck of a lot different, a good example of a team that moved from a traditional market to a non-traditional one (from Minnesota). Carolina, too (from Hartford).
I’m not saying any of that to rip on any of the mentioned teams, but I’m failing to see how Phoenix is much different than the other non-traditional markets that Bettman has wanted for his NHL. Arizona is supporting the Diamondbacks, Suns, and Cardinals just fine, so why can’t the state have hockey? Maybe Bettman should chew on that and figure out how to make it work just like all the other sports in AZ.