Jim Balsillie Getting Blackballed By NHL Again

The drama surrounding the bankrupt Phoenix Coyotes and RIM CEO, Jim Balsillie, has had its fair share of twists and turns. A bankruptcy judge ruled last week that the Coyotes will be auctioned off, and that all bids are welcome – including Jim Balsillie’s. However, the NHL has stepped in and asked the judge to vote Balsillie off the island before the show even starts. This is getting more ridiculous as time goes on. Just give him the team already.

Balsillie has claimed that the league, its owners and commissioner Gary Bettman hold a “personal grudge” against the Canadian billionaire after his attempts to claim the Nashville Predators and Pittsburgh Penguins backfired. In a 26-page motion to discern Balsillie, the owners of the league said that Balsillie lacks the integrity and character to be worthy of an NHL franchise.

To those idiots I say this: he may not be “your kind of guy”, but he’s also a hockey fan willing to burn money to give Canada another franchise after Phoenix aptly stated that they don’t want a hockey team in town.

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Of course, it doesn’t take much digging to see why the owners are scared of Balsillie. His company, Research in Motion, was off by $250 million in reported stock earnings in 2007. The error forced Balsillie to resign as chairman of his own company, though he stays on as CEO. It’s also questionable as to why Nortel, a Canadian funded public company that folded traumatically in the recession, is being sold to Ericsson instead of the Canadian based RIM company. After all, it’s Canadian dollars that built Nortel. Wouldn’t it be in the best interest of Canada to retain the technology patents in Canada after tax payers funneled so much money in to the development of those technologies? Something has to be amiss about RIM and Balsillie.

What isn’t off, however, is Balsillie’s dedication to bringing a second team to Southern Ontario. He has essentially laughed at any threat given by the NHL. The Coyotes are on sale for about $212 million, and the league added another $200 million to scare Balsillie from purchasing them, citing relocation taxes as part of the increase. If anyone else wanted the Coyotes, they wouldn’t have to deal with the $200 million price hike. That’s how much the league hates Balsillie. It’s tragically hilarious.

This is the damn problem with the NHL. They have a great product that is completely marketable, but they’re run by a guy who is more evil than Bug Selig. Hockey fans (what’s left of them) are true fans, and the fact that they boo Gary Bettman every time he sets foot in public shows you just how much they despise the guy who’s running the league. He’s a scam artist and a clown. In no other sport will you see a band of brothers like this. They’ve been tail spinning this league in to the dirt and they’re calling Balsillie untrustworthy?

That’s absolutely ludicrous. The fans have trusted the owners with a game that they love, and try to support. Ticket prices have sky rocketed, pushing blue collar hockey fans out the door and ushering in corporate white collars. Cities like Winnipeg and Hartford have lost their clubs to absurd destinations like Phoenix. This team ripped a club out of Minnesota and move it to Dallas only to replace it a few years later. The current brethren of NHL owners has a notoriously bad track record. How much damage can Jim Balsillie inflict?

Not much more than the current NHL owners. More and more as this story goes on do I see that Jim Balsillie is good for the NHL. We need more guys who are committed to a determined passion for the game, and fewer Gary Bettmans in the league.