Deja Vu? Balsillie buying Preds: Report

[KrazyGangsta 79]

We should all be happy to bring a team to Canada lol I didn't read the whole thing I'll be honest I got lazy. Think of it this way anyways, most of the biggest revenue in the nhl is from canadian teams so my point is :

More canadian teams = More revenue for nhl = Cap goes up = Detroit has more cap to keep zetterberg / hossa / franzen / hudler

I know, I know, it won't be done in one night but I'm just thinking of it

[Donaldjr2448 43]

I heard this rumor this morning also, and it was discussed at length on XM Home Ice.....The source of this story is a respected writer from the Toronto Globe, (that was the paper they used for the quotes) and they did tell his name and all the guys on the show said he was a very credible source, so we'll see.. Needless to say both Nashville and Balsillies people have denied it, but there was no talk of any possible prosecution during the conversation. The Predators had another telethon type party, they had a rookie game , followed by a high school game, but they only sold just under 11,000 individual tickets. They have admitted publicly that the season ticket sales are down, but they won't give an exact amount, which was compared to last year.... The ticket number I just posted was quoted from their General Manager, David Poile who said it on Channel 5 from Nashville. (Thats in case Legionairre wants to make another appearance saying I don't know what I speak of)

Yeah I can back you up on the Channel 5 thing. I live 40 minutes south of Nashville, things have been pretty shady about this team. The owners of the team have been lying to the fans of the club down here ever since they got the team. It had taken 10 years, but the fans are finally getting it. The Radulov thing had alot of people pissed, I also believe that with the Titans at 4-0, people I think now are going to focus more on football and then wait and see what the NHL club is going to do. October through January maybe a very interesting point in the future of Nashville hockey!!

[Rick 42]

I hate to break it to you guys, but this one doesn't appear to be credible.

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=251309&amp...s=headlines_nhl

[eva unit zero 271]

Bettman's probem is that Jim's plans do not involve keeping a team in the US long term and Bettman is dead set against a team moving from the US to Canada. MLSE ownership wouldn't be thrilled about Jim becoming an owner because they figure he'd end up trying to move the team to southern Ontario and eat into a bit of their revenue (not sure how big a deal that would actually be).

It's pretty incredible all the things I have heard about how the Nashville deal went down (shady if you ask me).

The NHL bylaws state there must be a good-faith effort to keep a team in its current market before any attempt to relocate. This bylaw has been around since before Bettman worked for the NBA.

It means any team, not just teams in the US that might move to a Canadian city.

Also, Bettman doesn't control such things; the BoG does. The BoG will not rule on a potential move until a sale is approved. The BoG will not rule on a sale until there is a binding agreement. The pro-Balsillie crowd likes to talk about how "Bettman nixed the deal" but ultimately, what happened is that Balsillie was never willing to enter into a binding agreement with Leipold. He wanted the Bog to approve the sale and the move without a binding agreement; he wanted a yes answer that he could move the team before he paid a cent for the team.

People who feel that non-traditional markets don't "deserve" hockey because they didn't have pro teams 100 years ago conveniently ignore the fact that Balsillie doesn't own the Preds because Balsillie wasn't willing to play by the established rules. If he had entered into a binding agreement, he'd likely be the owner of the Preds and be moving to Hamilton within a couple years. It's that Burger King mentality I guess. He wants it his way, right away. Damn spoiled brat.

[soultrain 43]

the jets need to come back.

[toby91_ca 620]

The NHL bylaws state there must be a good-faith effort to keep a team in its current market before any attempt to relocate. This bylaw has been around since before Bettman worked for the NBA.

It means any team, not just teams in the US that might move to a Canadian city.

Also, Bettman doesn't control such things; the BoG does. The BoG will not rule on a potential move until a sale is approved. The BoG will not rule on a sale until there is a binding agreement. The pro-Balsillie crowd likes to talk about how "Bettman nixed the deal" but ultimately, what happened is that Balsillie was never willing to enter into a binding agreement with Leipold. He wanted the Bog to approve the sale and the move without a binding agreement; he wanted a yes answer that he could move the team before he paid a cent for the team.

People who feel that non-traditional markets don't "deserve" hockey because they didn't have pro teams 100 years ago conveniently ignore the fact that Balsillie doesn't own the Preds because Balsillie wasn't willing to play by the established rules. If he had entered into a binding agreement, he'd likely be the owner of the Preds and be moving to Hamilton within a couple years. It's that Burger King mentality I guess. He wants it his way, right away. Damn spoiled brat.

My problem with what you are saying is that you present it as fact. Not only is it not fact, I don't believe it to be true at all. From a technical perspective, I would agree that no binding agreements have been entered, etc., etc., but if you really want to state facts, you'd have to admit that you truly do not know the facts and neither do I, but I would be willing to bet that Leipold and Basillie were happy to make a deal....it never got finalized, but I think there was some fishy stuff going on that caused that not to happen. That deal gets nixed for someone else to come buy the team, which somewhat guarantees a future in Nashville and Leipold ends up owning another team very, very quickly.

Also, I highly doubt Basillie was holding off signing a binding agreement until he got assurances he'd be able to move the team. He's smart enough to know that if he completes the transaction and he's the owner, he could do whatever he wants with the team. Yes, there are NHL bylaws, etc. that woudl require approval to move and various other things that would get in the way, but at the end of the day, I believe Basillie, in consultation with his legal team, are pretty confident they would be able to move the team regardless of what the NHL tried to do (they'd likely win the court battle if it came to that).

[eva unit zero 271]

My problem with what you are saying is that you present it as fact. Not only is it not fact, I don't believe it to be true at all. From a technical perspective, I would agree that no binding agreements have been entered, etc., etc., but if you really want to state facts, you'd have to admit that you truly do not know the facts and neither do I, but I would be willing to bet that Leipold and Basillie were happy to make a deal....it never got finalized, but I think there was some fishy stuff going on that caused that not to happen. That deal gets nixed for someone else to come buy the team, which somewhat guarantees a future in Nashville and Leipold ends up owning another team very, very quickly.

Also, I highly doubt Basillie was holding off signing a binding agreement until he got assurances he'd be able to move the team. He's smart enough to know that if he completes the transaction and he's the owner, he could do whatever he wants with the team. Yes, there are NHL bylaws, etc. that woudl require approval to move and various other things that would get in the way, but at the end of the day, I believe Basillie, in consultation with his legal team, are pretty confident they would be able to move the team regardless of what the NHL tried to do (they'd likely win the court battle if it came to that).

Yes, and as I stated...Balsillie never filed an actual binding agreement. He sent a non-binding letter of intent. Then he proceeded to act as if he had filed a binding agreement and the NHL's approval of his previous attempt to purchase attempt was still valid. There was unanimous approval by the BoG of his attempt to purchase the Penguins before he pulled out, did you know that? As there was no sale in place and no appearance that it was moving towards one, Leipold asked the BoG to disregard further requests from Balsillie until a binding agreement had been reached. A binding agreement never was reached, and the team was sold to different prospective owners.

A common example I use is this:

If you are selling a car for parts and hope to get $1000, and need to sell it by the end of the day, and at 10:00 a.m. someone says "I will give you $1,500 for that car, I just need to make a couple phone calls to be sure that a friend needs that kind of car" you listen. Well, if at 5 p.m. they say "Well, I can't get in touch with my friend." and then someone else says "Hey, I'll give you $1,000 cash for that scrap car right now." What would you do?

Do you wait on the chance that maybe, just maybe, the guy with the bigger offer MIGHT decide he is going to buy it, or do you sell to the buyer who WILL buy it right now?

[2probert4 8]

Yeah I can back you up on the Channel 5 thing. I live 40 minutes south of Nashville, things have been pretty shady about this team. The owners of the team have been lying to the fans of the club down here ever since they got the team. It had taken 10 years, but the fans are finally getting it. The Radulov thing had alot of people pissed, I also believe that with the Titans at 4-0, people I think now are going to focus more on football and then wait and see what the NHL club is going to do. October through January maybe a very interesting point in the future of Nashville hockey!!

If you check their attendance figures, the majority of their larger crowds have been AFTER the NCAA Basketball seasons are over for Vanderbilt and Tennessee. Do you remember when they told the public they were in contact with Theo Fleury, only to have Fleury's agent call 99.7 and tell them that they have not heard from the Predators? Same thing happened this year with Mark Parrish, they claim "We're close to signing him" but Parrish gets quoted in the paper (Pioneer Press) that he hasn't had an offer from the Predators. The Titans get the corporate backing that the Predators gripe about not receiving, but my question is this......

DelBaggio's 27% of the Predators ownership is currently in the bankruptcy case, which is in Federal Bankruptcy Court.... Those banks obviously want their money back, and if someone comes forward and says "Hey, I would buy that and you get your money" who is to stop them from selling to Balsillie or anyone else? Would that trump anything that Gary Butthead could do? As you stated, it will be interesting.

[2probert4 8]

We should all be happy to bring a team to Canada lol I didn't read the whole thing I'll be honest I got lazy. Think of it this way anyways, most of the biggest revenue in the nhl is from canadian teams so my point is :

More canadian teams = More revenue for nhl = Cap goes up = Detroit has more cap to keep zetterberg / hossa / franzen / hudler

I know, I know, it won't be done in one night but I'm just thinking of it

Bettman has high hopes of the NHL landing an NFL sized TV deal, and he is afraid that more teams in Canada the less teams shown on TV. Got news for him, any deal would be comparible to the way ESPN2 and Versus have done, the larger markets in the US get the air time. NBC does it the same way. If I have been told correctly, the NHL can not have a national broadcast in the States on Sat night, that is the HNIC CBC exclusive. I know thats tradition, but it sounds silly to me.

Bettman is also afraid that the canadian dollar will fall again....

[eva unit zero 271]

Bettman has high hopes of the NHL landing an NFL sized TV deal, and he is afraid that more teams in Canada the less teams shown on TV. Got news for him, any deal would be comparible to the way ESPN2 and Versus have done, the larger markets in the US get the air time. NBC does it the same way. If I have been told correctly, the NHL can not have a national broadcast in the States on Sat night, that is the HNIC CBC exclusive. I know thats tradition, but it sounds silly to me.

Bettman is also afraid that the canadian dollar will fall again....

As far as TV revenues go...Bettman wanted a deal from ESPN similar to the one he squeezed out of ESPN in the mid 90s that was worth $120m per season. When ESPN tried to go to a revenue-sharing format that would have resulted in NO GUARANTEED REVENUE for the NHL, Bettman went to Versus, then known as OLN, which had offered a better deal than the previous ESPN contract.

Bettman's job as Commissioner is to ensure the health of all league franchises. To do that, he has to do what is best to ensure that the highest percentage of them can have fiscal stability; this means things like a salary cap and higher guaranteed shared revenues. The NFL is a stable league because the salary cap is below the TV revenue; in other words; the club's share of the TV revenue pays every cent of the player salaries. Team staff is all that tickets have to pay for. As long as the concessions break even, the team is fine. In the NHL, ticket revenues pay a huge portion of player salaries

So to criticize Bettman because he did what provided the best stabilitity for the most league franchises is like saying to a burger flipper at McDonald's "you know, you effectively flipped all of those burgers with that spatula, but next time you might want to try using chopsticks. I hear they're great."

[egroen 384]

Bettman may have effectively put out some fires during his tenure, but they were fires largely of his own making. I will never be able to forgive two work stoppages.

[eva unit zero 271]

Bettman may have effectively put out some fires during his tenure, but they were fires largely of his own making. I will never be able to forgive two work stoppages.

Yeah, because it's not like there was a player's strike less than a year before Bettman was hired. He certainly wasn't hired into a league that already HAD a tense labor relations environment...yep, it was all Bettman.

[CdnWingsFanEh 2]

Yes, and as I stated...Balsillie never filed an actual binding agreement. He sent a non-binding letter of intent. Then he proceeded to act as if he had filed a binding agreement and the NHL's approval of his previous attempt to purchase attempt was still valid. There was unanimous approval by the BoG of his attempt to purchase the Penguins before he pulled out, did you know that? As there was no sale in place and no appearance that it was moving towards one, Leipold asked the BoG to disregard further requests from Balsillie until a binding agreement had been reached. A binding agreement never was reached, and the team was sold to different prospective owners.

A common example I use is this:

If you are selling a car for parts and hope to get $1000, and need to sell it by the end of the day, and at 10:00 a.m. someone says "I will give you $1,500 for that car, I just need to make a couple phone calls to be sure that a friend needs that kind of car" you listen. Well, if at 5 p.m. they say "Well, I can't get in touch with my friend." and then someone else says "Hey, I'll give you $1,000 cash for that scrap car right now." What would you do?

Do you wait on the chance that maybe, just maybe, the guy with the bigger offer MIGHT decide he is going to buy it, or do you sell to the buyer who WILL buy it right now?

Yeah, but it sucks when the cops come to you a month later, and seize the $1000. the buyer gave you for the car b/c it was stolen... In hindsight, waiting for the $1500 would seem like the better idea.

[2probert4 8]

The NHL bylaws state there must be a good-faith effort to keep a team in its current market before any attempt to relocate. This bylaw has been around since before Bettman worked for the NBA.

It means any team, not just teams in the US that might move to a Canadian city.

Also, Bettman doesn't control such things; the BoG does. The BoG will not rule on a potential move until a sale is approved. The BoG will not rule on a sale until there is a binding agreement. The pro-Balsillie crowd likes to talk about how "Bettman nixed the deal" but ultimately, what happened is that Balsillie was never willing to enter into a binding agreement with Leipold. He wanted the Bog to approve the sale and the move without a binding agreement; he wanted a yes answer that he could move the team before he paid a cent for the team.

People who feel that non-traditional markets don't "deserve" hockey because they didn't have pro teams 100 years ago conveniently ignore the fact that Balsillie doesn't own the Preds because Balsillie wasn't willing to play by the established rules. If he had entered into a binding agreement, he'd likely be the owner of the Preds and be moving to Hamilton within a couple years. It's that Burger King mentality I guess. He wants it his way, right away. Damn spoiled brat.

Apparently the current Preds ownership has defaulted on a 40 million dollar loan payment, thus the lawsuit against DelBaggio has been issued, with the group blaming it on DelBaggio's bankruptcy. It was also said in the Globe and Mail that if someone wants to bid on DelBaggio's shares they have the right to do so, regardless of what Bettman or the BOG or the Predators ownership thinks they can do about it. This goes over the NHL's head, so it wouldn't be surprising if we hear that Balsillie is partial owner of the Nashville Predators.... I seriously doubt that the current Nashville ownership can afford to buy out Balsillie at this point. Ev, your comment about someone deserving or not deserving a team, well this team is struggling financially and its worse than they are saying. Not sure if KC or Vegas or somewhere else is the answer, but this is not a hockey area.....Its sad for the fans that they do have, but sometimes the truth hurts eh ????

[Donaldjr2448 43]

If you check their attendance figures, the majority of their larger crowds have been AFTER the NCAA Basketball seasons are over for Vanderbilt and Tennessee. Do you remember when they told the public they were in contact with Theo Fleury, only to have Fleury's agent call 99.7 and tell them that they have not heard from the Predators? Same thing happened this year with Mark Parrish, they claim "We're close to signing him" but Parrish gets quoted in the paper (Pioneer Press) that he hasn't had an offer from the Predators. The Titans get the corporate backing that the Predators gripe about not receiving, but my question is this......

DelBaggio's 27% of the Predators ownership is currently in the bankruptcy case, which is in Federal Bankruptcy Court.... Those banks obviously want their money back, and if someone comes forward and says "Hey, I would buy that and you get your money" who is to stop them from selling to Balsillie or anyone else? Would that trump anything that Gary Butthead could do? As you stated, it will be interesting.

Yes, you are correct that the attendance is typically down in the first half of the year, however I fell that it will be down even more this year. The Preds sell at lot of tickets at the door and if the team isn't playing well then I feel that they won't get more than 8,000 per game if their lucky!! Ticket sales are already down this season with the team, and I just don't see the fans of the here putting up with this "pulling the wool over our eyes" BS that the Preds do. I almost feel sorry for some of the fans that shelled out alot of money to watch this team and the team can't even be upfront with them.

[eva unit zero 271]

Apparently the current Preds ownership has defaulted on a 40 million dollar loan payment, thus the lawsuit against DelBaggio has been issued, with the group blaming it on DelBaggio's bankruptcy. It was also said in the Globe and Mail that if someone wants to bid on DelBaggio's shares they have the right to do so, regardless of what Bettman or the BOG or the Predators ownership thinks they can do about it. This goes over the NHL's head, so it wouldn't be surprising if we hear that Balsillie is partial owner of the Nashville Predators.... I seriously doubt that the current Nashville ownership can afford to buy out Balsillie at this point. Ev, your comment about someone deserving or not deserving a team, well this team is struggling financially and its worse than they are saying. Not sure if KC or Vegas or somewhere else is the answer, but this is not a hockey area.....Its sad for the fans that they do have, but sometimes the truth hurts eh ????

If Nashville loses their team, fine. But I think it's despicable for people to be ROOTING for anyone to lose their team. Especially people who then turn around and say 'It's horrible that Winnipeg and Hartford lost their teams." as those cities supported the teams less than Nashville does in terms of attendance, despite having better "hockey tradition" in the area.