Text of Jim Balsillie's letter to Mario Lemieux

SlapnutsV1

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Nov 28, 2005
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I find it comical that we Penguin fans, the Penguins as a franchise, and Mario are being made out to be the villians here...

Apparently it's perfectly alright to kick Mario while he's down, but the second he tries to move along, he's the bad guy.
 

Hunter Gathers

The Crown
Feb 27, 2002
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I find it comical that we Penguin fans, the Penguins as a franchise, and Mario are being made out to be the villians here...

Apparently it's perfectly alright to kick Mario while he's down, but the second he tries to move along, he's the bad guy.

Who's making you or Mario out to be the villains? The only villain here is Bettman. The 11th hour terms he brought up were disgraceful and it's clear as day to anyone that he was not negotiating in good faith.

Maybe you should grow some thicker skin if you think everyone here is blaming you guys or Mario or whatever else here.
 

Emule Richard

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Feb 28, 2002
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Canada
Seconded. Sounds like he wants to get Mario on board to pressure Bettman into the sale w/o conditions, and then will declare the offer 'inadequate' at first opportunity, even if it was a free arena which the City is virtually offering now, and then move the team. Isn't this the same guy who stole the idea his whole company was based on, and use the legal process to wait out the actual inventors of the Blackberry and steal their idea from them for peanuts 'settlement' dollars? Yeah, he is as trustworthy as they come.

The idea he "stole" was only one element of the product he created. Also, the patent was being held by "patent trolls" - do you know what patent trolls are? Your answer might change... (but that probably depends on your position on current Patent law)

Emule
 
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SlapnutsV1

Registered User
Nov 28, 2005
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Denver, CO
Who's making you or Mario out to be the villains? The only villain here is Bettman. The 11th hour terms he brought up were disgraceful and it's clear as day to anyone that he was not negotiating in good faith.

Maybe you should grow some thicker skin if you think everyone here is blaming you guys or Mario or whatever else here.

All I ever read here is "You Penguin fans don't do enough" or random comments about how Mario conducts his business. It gets old, dude. The fans can only do so much. The thicker skin has worn thin.

I commend Gary Bettman for refusing to allow the Penguins to move. I just don't understand why so many fans make the statements "move to Winnipeg" or "move them to Kansas City." It doesn't help the NHL as a whole. At best, you're replacing a strong hockey market with a similar one. If they go to KC, the situation is much weaker as there is no following there.
 

GernerPSU

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Jun 4, 2006
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State College
I find it absolutely comical that Pens fans can somehow make JB out to be the bad guy after the 11th hour conditions imposed on him.
I agree. He is the most likely new owner in my mind and I believe he will eventually buy the team once Mario secures a lease for a new arena here. I have a hard time seeing how anybody could possibly blame Basille for dropping out when he did. He had to extend his offer to buy the team with no negotiating power because of NHL restrictions.
 

Hunter Gathers

The Crown
Feb 27, 2002
106,463
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parts unknown
I commend Gary Bettman for refusing to allow the Penguins to move. I just don't understand why so many fans make the statements "move to Winnipeg" or "move them to Kansas City." It doesn't help the NHL as a whole. At best, you're replacing a strong hockey market with a similar one. If they go to KC, the situation is much weaker as there is no following there.

Please. You commend Gary Bettman for not negotiating in good faith? That's absolutely laughable. If he didn't want the team to be moved, than flat out tell someone the conditions prior to a few nights before the purchase. Bettman comes off as a complete slimeball for what happened here any way you put it.
 

GSC2k2*

Guest
Please. You commend Gary Bettman for not negotiating in good faith? That's absolutely laughable. If he didn't want the team to be moved, than flat out tell someone the conditions prior to a few nights before the purchase. Bettman comes off as a complete slimeball for what happened here any way you put it.
You have no basis for what you are suggesting happened other than Balsillie's leakage to the National Post. Bill Daly has in absolutely certain and clear terms stated publically that Balsillie had been presented the conditions months ago and, (what 's more) had agreed to them. Daly gave out explicit details in his interview. Yet you seem SOOOOO certain as to who is displaying "good faith".

As you said yourself - please.
 

GSC2k2*

Guest
The idea he "stole" was only one element of the product he created. Also, the patent was being held by "patent trolls" - do you know what patent trolls are? Your answer might change... (but that probably depends on your position on current Patent law)

Emule
Actually, "he" didn't create ANY product. He is a finance guy, not an IT guy.
 

Wetcoaster

Guest
Please. You commend Gary Bettman for not negotiating in good faith? That's absolutely laughable. If he didn't want the team to be moved, than flat out tell someone the conditions prior to a few nights before the purchase. Bettman comes off as a complete slimeball for what happened here any way you put it.
According to the detailed story that ran in the National Post, Bettman earlier tried to impose these same conditions on Balsillie at an earlier stage and they were rejected out of hand by Balsillie. The deal was then put together and presented to the BOG who gave their approval to the prospective new owner.

At that point Bettman then sought to impose the same conditions that Balsillie had rejected earlier and that was the deal breaker.

So technically Bill Daly's claim that these were not "new conditions" unknown to Balsillie is correct but misleading as they had already been rejected earlier in the negotiation process.
 

SlapnutsV1

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Nov 28, 2005
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Denver, CO
Please. You commend Gary Bettman for not negotiating in good faith? That's absolutely laughable. If he didn't want the team to be moved, than flat out tell someone the conditions prior to a few nights before the purchase. Bettman comes off as a complete slimeball for what happened here any way you put it.

You wouldn't feel the way you do if it were YOUR favorite team in this situation.
 

donelikedinner

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Jan 25, 2003
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-He pulls out after NHL doesn't want him to move the team for a long time. Deal is dead.
-Penguins miss out on slot licenses and have to look elsewhere. Balsillie is silent.
-Mario comes out and says they may have relocate the team. Balsillie writes a letter to get back in.

I think his intentions are pretty clear.

whats wrong with what happened? the nhl is a business first and if the gov't in Pittsburgh chose to ignore the Penguins (and Isle of Capri), maybe its time to move the team.

Balsillie is a business man and is looking to make good business decisions for his investor group. if the nhl did add a restrictive clause about moving late in the deal, he was right to pull his offer to await clarification of the nhl's intent and scope of their demands.
 

Jaded-Fan

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Mar 18, 2004
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Pittsburgh
whats wrong with what happened? the nhl is a business first and if the gov't in Pittsburgh chose to ignore the Penguins (and Isle of Capri), maybe its time to move the team.

Balsillie is a business man and is looking to make good business decisions for his investor group. if the nhl did add a restrictive clause about moving late in the deal, he was right to pull his offer to await clarification of the nhl's intent and scope of their demands.

That is one interpretation. Only he, and none of us, know his true intent. Throughout this process and now. Many of us are legitimately reading into his actions am intent to move the team at the slightest opportunity given. We may be wrong but you can see why he seems awfully slick to many of us, and given his longstanding desire to bring a hockey team to his hometown, his initially secretly vastly outbidding everyone else and then backing out when he found out the team was not easily portable early in the process, then doing so AGAIN - for the same god damn reason. Well, none of us know for sure, but we sure as hell can make an educated guess as to his real intent. Now for his letter. 'Let us go to Bettman together Mario' it says and tell him we want to negotiate on Plan B. Right. Once he uses Mario to get Bettman's unconditional approval the moving vans will be at the mellon arena gates. I call ******** on Basilli and his actually not so slick ways. He is too clumsy about it to even be called slick.
 

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