August 13, 2009

Reinsdorf up, Balsillie down in Coyotes chase

Another week, another dip in the rollercoaster that is Jim Balsillie's bid to buy the Phoenix Coyotes and move them to Hamilton, Ontario. Last week, you'll recall, the bankruptcy court judge overseeing the team's sale said Balsillie would be allowed to bid at the September 10 auction, while the team's biggest creditor came out in opposition to Jerry Reinsdorf's lower bid, which would keep the team in Glendale but would rely almost entirely on public subsidies.

This Tuesday, all that changed. First, the creditor, SOF Investments, announced that it had cut a deal with Reinsdorf — no one's saying what exactly, though apparently it involves some cash and some debt — and now approved his bid. Then, Judge Redfield Baum declared that he'd set a September 2 hearing to determine whether Balsillie would be bounced from the auction, as the NHL wants, on the grounds that the league has already rejected him as a prospective owner. The two sides are already wrangling over who will be deposed for the occasion, so the hearing itself is likely to bring fireworks galore.

Among Balsillie's gripes, notes Hamilton Spectator writer Steve Milton, is that he's being unduly discriminated against by the NHL:

Balsillie's rejection was the first the NHL has ever applied to a prospective ownership transfer or relocation on the basis of the proposed owner lacking "good character and integrity."

Everywhere but in NHL legalese, the character and integrity issue is, of course, a ridiculous joke, considering what Balsillie has accomplished in his working life and some of the scoundrels whom the NHL has approved as owners during Bettman's tenure alone.

What, you mean like inmate number 48605-053?