Balsillie Denied

Sun Media's Steve Simmons reports on an Arizona bankruptcy court's ruling Wednesday, effectively denying Jim Balsillie's bid for the Phoenix Coyotes:

Billionaire Jim Balsillie is now 0-for-3 in his attempts to be a National Hockey League owner and Hamilton is oh-for-two decades in its attempts to house an NHL franchise.

And who knows now when any of that is going to change?

That was the sombre reality of the non-decision decision made by U.S. bankruptcy court Judge Redfield T. Baum, who rejected Balsillie's very public bid for the Phoenix Coyotes with pre-judice yesterday and also rejected the NHL's bid, leaving it a back door entrance should it choose to tie up the loose ends of its bid that the Judge was clearly uncomfortable with.

"In hockey parlance, the court is passing the puck to the NHL who can decide to take another shot at the sale net or it can pass off the puck," Baum wrote in his decision.

Baum gave the NHL some hope -- and at least control of this situation -- while at the same time striking Balsillie out of the game as a potential purchaser of the bankrupt Coyotes.

"This conclusion effectively is the end for the efforts of PSE (Balsillie's company), Balsillie, (Jerry) Moyes and the Coyotes to force a sale and relocation of the hockey team," Baum wrote in his 31-page ruling. In earlier years, Balsillie had attempted to purchase the Pittsburgh Penguins and Nashville Predators, each time with the intent of moving them to Ontario.

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

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Canadian Competition Bureau Has Eye on Coyotes Puck

As the hockey world awaits the reserved decision of Arizona Bankruptcy Judge Redfield T. Baum on Jim Balsillie's auction bid to buy the Phoenix Coyotes, the Toronto Star reports that the Canadian Competition Bureau may investigate and intervene if the Toronto Maple Leafs veto a subsequent relocation of the NHL franchise to Hamilton:

The Canadian Competition Bureau is keeping an eagle eye on Jim Balsillie's fight to buy the Phoenix Coyotes, and is ready to swoop in if the Maple Leafs veto the franchise's move to Hamilton.

..."We are seized by the matter, and we are monitoring it very closely," Richard Taylor, the deputy commissioner of competition, civil matters, told the Star yesterday.

"We are concerned," Taylor said. "We are looking at all the paperwork that's coming out of the proceedings and we will take action if we believe that the veto that Toronto thinks they have is exercised and blocks a team. The exercise of the veto that effectively blocked a team from moving would raise concerns for us and would be something we would investigate."

...Taylor would not go so far as to say the Competition Bureau would definitely investigate the Coyotes case.

"We have to be presented with an anti-competitive act, not the possibility of an anti-competitive act," he said.

"We can't go off pre-emptively and stop something that hasn't happened yet just because it may happen, just because the Leafs say they have a veto, and just because many people believe they will exercise it. We have said and continue to say that if a veto is exercised that effectively blocks a team coming into another team's territory, we will look at it and that includes using all our powers to investigate it and determine whether it violates our act."

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

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Phoenix Coyotes Bankruptcy Decision: "Monumental Repercussions" for Professional Sports

As Gary Bettman and Jim Balsillie prepare to take the stand on Friday, the experts weigh in on the outcome of this week's auction of the Phoenix Coyotes in an Arizona bankruptcy court:

..Yet at the core of the Phoenix Coyotes bankruptcy auction is whether the NHL controls its own properties and whether its bylaws can legally determine who can and can not own them.

In essence, Judge Redfield T. Baum is going to tell us if Gary Bettman and the Board of Governors must bow to a higher authority, now and going forward, regarding one of the one of the most seemingly inalienable rights of pro sports leagues.

Richard Powers, dean of the Rotman School of Business at the University of Toronto, told Damien Cox that"the repercussions on professional sport could be monumental." But Stephen Ross, a law professor at Penn State University, told David Shoalts of the Globe & Mail (in a great column) that Jim Balsillie's bid for the Coyotes should win, and that the NHL should have its bid knocked out and no longer be a gatekeeper for franchise ownership.

See the original article from Puck Daddy at Yahoo News: Experts opine as Coyotes auction arrives; future of Gretz cloudy

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

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Balsillie Back in Coyote Hunt

Research in Motion owner Jim Balsillie appears to be very much back in the game after a ruling Wednesday by U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Redfield T. Baum.

Judge Baum held that all bids to purchase the Phoenix Coyotes will be considered in a September 10th auction of the team, including bids by prospective owners who intend to move the team outside the Phoenix market.

If successful, Mr. Balsillie seeks to relocate the hockey club to Hamilton, Ontario.

Hockey Buzz' writer Steven Hindle argues Jim Balsillie Will Outbid Everybody For the Phoenix Coyotes:

Balsillie really will do everything and anything he can to make sure no one else gets the Coyotes. Now that he is legally allowed to bid, what is going to stop him?

He is by far the most hungry of all potential owners and he will have no problem increasing the amount he is already willing to pay, if he must.

The Board of Governors have sent Balsillie their seal of disapproval many times, yet this time around, Judge Baum has truly given Balsillie's 'Make it Seven' campaign some serious life.

The Globe and Mail's take - Smart lawyer is Balsillie’s ace in the hole:

It isn’t tough to find someone to malign Richard Rodier, chief counsel to Jim Balsillie in his quest to secure an NHL franchise for Hamilton.

He has been described as a “rogue” lawyer, has been blamed in some circles for Balsillie’s failure to make friends among the NHL’s governors, has rubbed people the wrong way, has been accused of leading the billionaire down a quixotic path that can’t possibly end in success.

Bankruptcy law is Rodier’s world. When it became clear that there was no direct route to NHL ownership for Balsillie – or at least NHL ownership in Hamilton – the entire strategy shifted to finding a club teetering on the brink, to find an owner who had lost faith, who needed to get out and get out fast.

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

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