Nashville sale thread--Leipold PULLS OUT of sale, Balsillie's bid OUT

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Rob

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i think flop is fine with ballsilly. saw on another board, what happens if the team doesnt move there in 09. your looking at easily 20 million dollars to return. do those people get that interest that ballsillie is making on their money in the meantime? doubt it. got to give it to him he is definitely a genious, albeit an evil one.

The comment was regarding "if" the team were to move to Hamilton.
 

MAROONSRoad

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I beg to differ. I think all of the casual fans would notice, beginning with all the empty seats - as it would be lucky to average Manitoba or Chicago sized crowds for AHL hockey, in addition to the constant changes in player rosters and the relative lack of "polish" that many AHL players have.

Even the "casual fans" in Nashville are not stupid, they are just inexperienced, but used to Nashville Predators NHL hockey.

I'm not saying the "casual fans" in Nashville are stupid. I think people discount the skill level of players in the AHL and even the ECHL. The problem is those leagues have hardly any teams in Canada and get almost zero coverage, i.e., less than the major juniors or local teams. In cities like Houston, the AHL is very popular and gets some media coverage. The cost of an AHL team is a fraction of an NHL team even including travel costs. Are you saying Nashville would not even consider an AHL team if it lost the NHL?

GHOST
 

Seth Lake

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I'm not saying the "casual fans" in Nashville are stupid. I think people discount the skill level of players in the AHL and even the ECHL. The problem is those leagues have hardly any teams in Canada and get almost zero coverage, i.e., less than the major juniors or local teams. In cities like Houston, the AHL is very popular and gets some media coverage. The cost of an AHL team is a fraction of an NHL team even including travel costs. Are you saying Nashville would not even consider an AHL team if it lost the NHL?

GHOST
Being a season-ticket holder in the AHL for 7 seasons, I think that there are many players in the AHL that could play in the NHL, but lack one thing or another...mainly it is a lack of consistency in their game, which I contribute to mental toughness. For other players factors such as size or skating ability have held them back. That's not the point and I know that major junior gets much more media attention than the AHL in Canada. I've never said anything remotely close to "Canadians don't like hockey because they don't sell out their AHL teams". That is just plain wrong.

As for would the AHL consider Nashville or vice-versa...I really don't know. I think that the Sommet Center is too big for minor league hockey and much like in Minnesota with the IHL coming in and in Quebec and in Hartford with the AHL coming in it would be considered a slap in the face to be offered a lesser alternative and be expected to support it.

I for one would purchase season-tickets, but that is because I'm a hockey fan first and foremost. I don't look down on those that wouldn't though because I have had to make that decision previously while growing up in Hartford and can understand both sides. I don't ever regret my decision to purchase Wolf*Pack season tickets, but I was also very swayed early on by the commitment to putting a winning team in Hartford where the Whalers hadn't made the playoffs in what six seasons prior to leaving? I think it is a very different situation here as many locals have grown up with the franchise having endured through the expansion years to see us become a great young team on the verge of being a perennial Cup contender. We have made the playoffs the last three seasons and had incredible on-ice success during the regular seasons. Even I would have a hard time accepting an AHL or other minor league team coming in here now and being expected to support it while Weber, Suter, Hamhuis, Radulov, Vokoun, etc are competing in the NHL for another city.

Just my thoughts as a current Predators and former Wolf*Pack season-ticket holder.
 

Respect Your Edler

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I don't understand how people are still against a team in southern Ontario. Regardless of if Nashville moves there or it's an expansion team, there needs to be a team there. The NHL is a good, and there is a huge market waiting for them in southern Ontario, why not give the people what they want? The NHL needs to stop acting like a monopoly (even though it is) and start selling the good based on the profits and losses of individual teams.
 

Jazz

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Some of the Canadian apologists here are amazing. The Habs had TV audiences in the 1 million to 600,000 range for regular season games. The Oilers, 157,000. The Canucks, 300,000 plus. Yet cities like Atlanta had 8.800 households watch there first ever playoff series against the freaking NY Rangers. Deny reality all you want.

GHOST
You honestly think it is a fair comparison to put established Canadian hockey markets vs a city that is making a playoff appearance for the first time in almost 30 years, with no team for about 20 of those years? Nice attempted spin.....

Oh, and you still have not answered my question about comparing Dallas's TV audiences in their first playoff years in '94 and '95 vs the healthier numbers they now.

POINT - you need to have the markets develop and also experience playoff success. Casting them aside before this is short-sighted.
 

Jazz

Registered User
Here's an even better question, how does this stop the Preds from losing money in Nashville?
Because they weren't losing a whole lot more than most teams(Even the Sabres, for example,) because up until he sold the team, Leipold would include his income from Powers Mgmt, the OTHER holding he had which ran the arena, parking, etc and was actually fairly profitable. It wasn't until AFTER the sale(something many Preds fans have noticed and are frustrated by) that he started bemoaning the losses of the TEAM, because it was a well-known fact that the income of PM softened the blow substantially. The team itself, in his words, was losing "12 million dollars a year," when in truth...when his income from PM was included, he was losing at most about 3-4 million, which in the NHL's sad reality, isn't that far outside the norm.

Not to mention, as has often been pointed out, it's not like the Predators attendance\corporate support was EVER declining, in the past 4 years. It's steadily increased, and this year will see the team get naming rights payments to the tune of nearly 5 million dollars...something that wasn't there the past two seasons. Things were on the upswing when all of this happened, no matter how Leipold pandered for sympathy from the fans when he commented on the sale.
Thanks for the specifics nomorekids, but there is also another answer to LeafErikson's question.

The league has a mandate to grow the game by putting teams in non-traditional markets and hoping these markets eventually develop into hockey markets. Since it is likely that some of these teams are going to lose some money in the short term, then the league should have instituted more comprehensive revenue-sharing to help subsidize these franchises while their markets grow.
 

triggrman

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Here's an even better question, how does this stop the Preds from losing money in Nashville?
Well, selling the arena naming rights is a huge part, which was done 2 months ago. The next step is get corporate backing which is happening now as well and the final is raising ticket prices which they also did this offseason. The Predators didn't lose money the first 2 years.
 

GSC2k2*

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Actually, this may set up a best case scenario for all involved. And right after I finished explaining how the WHL had the same scenario play out just two years ago, and that all was missing was a local owner.

The league rejects Balsillie with a promise of an expansion team. The new, local Nashville group takes over. Leipold is compensated somehow for getting less money on the sale. KC gets the other expansion team, since an odd number of teams is unruly.

Everyone wins. With luck, it will play out exactly as the WHL situation did.
Incidentally, Res, while some are making a big dfeal out of the fact that the other NASH bid was $45 million less, if the NHL wanted to make up the difference, that would be a relatively paltry $1.5 million per owner. That would be a small price to pay to retain control over one's business.
 

GSC2k2*

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Yup Copps Coliseum is right down town Hamilton...plenty of places to eat....It's also near the West side of the City...which is closest to TOronto as the Crow flies ...+ near to quick highway access etc...

BLS, you are clearly not interested in actual information exchange. There is exactly one restaurant (roadhouse-type) in the mall to which Copps is attached. There are two restaurants about 15-20 minutes walk from downtown. That is it. Do you understand? THAT'S it. The restaurants are all on the mountain. Hamilton downtown has nothing. Shocking, perhaps, but true.

PS - there is a 10 establlishment food court with a BK, KFC and assorted holes, but that is not what people talk about when they talk about going to "dinner".
 

GSC2k2*

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This can't be happening. According to 'carpenter' the NHL would be a "huge flop" in Hamilton. :sarcasm:
Hey, if I am wrong i am wrong. I have been mistaken before, but unlike many others on this board (like you) I admit it. See, the difference between me and you is that i know that, even if I am wrong about something, I still know tons more and have tons more experience about business than the vast majority of the posters on this board; being wrong doesn't change that to me. For that matter, no one on this board has the balls to admit when they are beaten in terms of logic (although I have conceded points to posters many times and am upfront about it, unlike you or GHOST or countless others). In any event, at the end of the day the facts will be the facts, won't they? The world will keep spinning.

But ... I don't think I will be wrong. You go ahed and count your chickens. I will wait and see. Deposits of $5k on a $250k suite are just talk. As is the case with one poster here, I would expect a lot of depositors are ticket brokers and speculators. No harm for them to plunk down some $ on deposit.

To me, the number is surprisingly low. With speculators and brokers, I would have thought they would have reached that mythical 14,000 figure in 24 hours like they suposedly did in the early 90's.

BTW, for money in trust, the depositors will get the interest.
 

Northern Dancer

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I find it rather amusing that Balsillie has not only obviously and understandably up-sept the NHL but has also up-set Leipold

I cannot figure out for the life of me what his real motive is, surely as a CEO he knows this is NOT the way to win friends and influence people. (his tactics are truly suspect)

I still have a very wild conspiracy theory and his real motive is to spook MLSE and what he really wants is to buy out Ontario Teachers who may not want to fight a political and emotional battle about turf wars. The only reason I think this is, nothing else makes sense. (and the cost would roughly be the same as Hamilton adventure)
 
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toastman344*

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gscarpenter:
There are two restaurants about 15-20 minutes walk from downtown.

Look this from the guy that said ' no way' Hamilton would support a team. That it would be a ' huge flop'. That there was ( paraphrasing here ) thin to nada corporate support ...So now you're trying to tell me there are ' only two restaurants within 15-minutes walk from downtown ?' Really ???... You're batting exactly .000 here...Furthermore, Ur such an obvious Hamilton basher it's not even funny...

I'm sure Hamilton City Hall would have a list of nearby restaurants...Heck look in the yellow pages ? It's not rocket science...There are ‘ free' city entertainment guides , which would be full of restaurant adverts...MyHamilton.ca would probably give u a list...Sure there are businessmen's association lists also...Heck the Hamilton city Library would have one as well...here's the website for that ‘ hpl.ca ' ...

If ur seeking fine dining ( and a pretty expensive/ exclusive place...As suits ur anti-Hamilton haughtiness/ ostensibly refined tastes ‘ The Shakespeare Tavern' is I dunno...maybe an 11 minute walk from Copps...There are plenty of less expensive restaurants even closer...

I'm not gonna do ur homework for you...But ' only two restaurants within 15-20 minutes of downtown ?'

SORRY, BUT NICE TRY...
 

Fourier

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Dec 29, 2006
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To answer your valid question, fourier, the correct answer would of course be Mississauga. I remain thoroughly unconvinced that corporate Ontario will be able to convince their clients to go to a game in Hamilton. I have on this board repeated the example of what happens when the Canadian Open is played in a barely decent golf course in Oakville instead of a legendary golf course in Hamilton; for the former, the tickets are a hot commodity for us folks who get comped a fair bit, while for the latter I could have my pick of several people offering me tickets. THe only reason? Hamilton was too far a drive.

It is a solid 75-80 minutes from downtown TO to Copps in rush hour, in good weather. Anywhere in the north end of TO? An even more horrible commute. And that is now, without five thousand extra cars going to Copps on top of the traffic now.

There is no corporate base (by pro sports standards) in Hamilton itself. It is that simple. It is a paper thin layer of companies that are big enough to even consider dropping $100-300k on a box (which does not exist as of now).

Here is the thing that escapes people which I find most surprising. IF you are going to violate Leaf territory and either win in court or else pay a territorial fee, why would you position yourself out of range of two third of TO's 8 million people? IF you believe you will get away withotu a territorial fee, and you are going to pay $150 million anyway to upgrade a decrepit arena to merely make it barely standard, why not build a spanking new arena in Mississauga? Companies will take their clients there. Then you will be drawing on more like 6.5 to 7 million of the 8 million in the area, instead of the 2-3 million within an hour of Hamilton (not 8 million as some suggest). If you dont have to pay the fees, then you are really marketable. IF you do, at least you are paying for something tangible.

I asked this question of you specifically because as you know we disagree on the
logistics of Balsillie moving a team to the area. However, with respect to
Hamilton, we may disagree somewhat on the details and whether the city might
in theory have enough support for a team, but we certainly agree on the big picture. Much of what is happening right now leaves me puzzled. I find it very hard to imagine that Balsillie would risk the territorial fees or the battle to challenge them to insist on Hamilton and then have to turn around and invest $100 million plus on someone else's building. Now he is raising the stakes even more by his recent actions
which certainly put even the purchase of the Preds in a more precarious position.

Individual parts of the deal can easily be explained. But it seems clear to me
that he has something specific in mind for how this will all play out
I stated in a previous post and agree with Resolute that the best situation for all could be for a strong local ownership group to surface in Nashville a la Edmonton's EIG and for Balsillie to be awarded an expansion franchise which he could manage
more or less on his own conditions and time table though outside the territory of Buffalo and perhaps Toronto. More and more, I can't help but think that
Balsillie has been intent on pushing the NHL towards rejecting his purchase in favour of an expansion team.
 

william_adams

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You honestly think it is a fair comparison to put established Canadian hockey markets vs a city that is making a playoff appearance for the first time in almost 30 years, with no team for about 20 of those years? Nice attempted spin.....
.

pretty sure the toronto blue jays in 1985 drew more than 8000 fans to watch them play horribly against the kansas city royals... give me a break. either you support hockey or you don't. making the playoffs for the first time in a while should INCREASE viewership, no?

interesting times with mr. crackberry... not sure about his methods here, but i think he's proved that he's pretty serious about a team in hamilton, has plenty of cash, and demand is there... i hope he gets a team somehow... i;ll have to hate that team if it ever scores a goal on the leafs, but that's another story...
 

william_adams

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I find it rather amusing that Balsillie has not only obviously and understandably up-sept the NHL but has also up-set Leopold.

I cannot figure out for the life of me what his real motive is, surely as a CEO he knows this is NOT the way to win friends and influence people. (his tactics are truly suspect)

I still have a very wild conspiracy theory and his real motive is to spook MLSE and what he really wants is to buy out Ontario Teachers who may not want to fight a political and emotional battle about turf wars. The only reason I think this is, nothing else makes sense. (and the cost would roughly be the same as Hamilton adventure)

i like your theory, but me i think he just wants a team, and wants one in hamilton. i think he's trying to prove that he's going to make a bid on every weak team that surfaces and attempt to move them to hamilton until the league lets him or gives him an expansion franchise.

http://www.hamiltonspectator.com/NA...2&call_pageid=1020420665036&col=1112101662670

did you read this article in the hamilton post about harold ballard wanting to buy the penguins and move them to hamilton (selling the leafs to his son!?)... thot you might have got a kick out of it, given your leaf ownership posts in the past...
 

stan17

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Just to clarify a few things that are in the works for Downtown Hamilton:

At the corner of Bay and King the old Hamilton Motor Products … will be a new Hilton Hotel;
The existing surface parking lot at Main and Hess is going to be converted into a Shoppers Drug Mart/ LCBO with retail component along George Street from Hess to Caroline;
Hess Village is going to expand from Hess to Bay Street with the future development;
Holiday Inn just submitted a proposal for the south side of King Street just west of Caroline,
The House of Blues is looking at the property at King and Hess;
The old Federal building at the corner of Caroline and Main is to be converted into a 160 unit residential condo;

I could go on but this is only a small indication of what is already on the books.

This is all been planned in an approx 300 meter radius from Copps;

The Grad Connaught Hotel is going through a 65 million dollar renovation,

These development proposals have been on the books, lets see what happens when the NHL relocation is confirmed.
 

toastman344*

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gscarpenter:
To me, the number is surprisingly low. With speculators and brokers, I would have thought they would have reached that MYTHICAL 14,000 14,000 figure in 24 hours like they suposedly did in the early 90's.

Look the 24 hours isn't even up yet...Ticket Master only began sales yesterday...7,700 season ticket deposits sold in a matter of hours , is the last figure I heard being bantered about ...So now ur calling this ' surprisingly low'...& somehow alleging that a lot of it would be ' speculators and brokers ? ' Boy talk about arguing both sides against the middle...huh ?

Even...IF IF IF...It is all ' speculators and brokers' ...Which does seem a tad silly ...Since we dont even have a team yet...At least, they know a good Hockey related ' business op'/city when they see one eh ? Unlike...oh I dunno ?...You , for example :)...No worries...It's not like the NHL brass/brain trust knew better...After all, they once suffered under the delusion that Nashville would be a more lucrative ( long or short term ) place for a NHL franchise than Hamilton ... Notably, Those ' Tennessee-ans ' would probably take all summer to peddle that many season tickets...Course, if I turn out to be wrong...More power to them..Cuz that means they get to keep their team...& deservedly so...

BTW...Vis a vis those ' 14,000 ' season tickets deposits sold within 24 hours of Hamilton being on the NHL's short list for possible expansion ...back in the early 90's ...This time Ur alleging this was a ' Myth' ???... U mean to say that Ron Joyce...the former majority share holder for ' Tim Horton's Donuts' was lying ? And nobody called him on it ? ...Conspiracy theorist are we ? :)

gscarpenter
Hey, if I am wrong i am wrong. I have been mistaken before, but unlike many others on this board (like you) I admit it. See, the difference between me and you is that i know that, even if I am wrong about something, I still know tons more and have tons more experience about business than the vast majority of the posters on this board

Hmmm...Unlike Ron Joyce ...I guess if u say so it must be true eh ? By the way, since u know so much about business, then the rest of us lackeys...Why didn't u know that Corporate support for a Hamilton NHL team would be swift and massive...Just wondering ?

CHEERS
 

Levizk

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pretty sure the toronto blue jays in 1985 drew more than 8000 fans to watch them play horribly against the kansas city royals... give me a break. either you support hockey or you don't. making the playoffs for the first time in a while should INCREASE viewership, no?

You just compared baseball to hockey, and you managed to do so in a time period where baseball was the number one sport in North America to boot. Wayne Gretzky has mentioned several times that his first love was baseball, but I doubt you'll see Michael Jordan admitting that his first love was hockey. The reality is that the average Canadian is more familiar with baseball than the average American is with hockey, and besides baseball games are more affordable and have easily twice the capacity of a hockey arena. So comparing the Toronto Blue Jays in 1985 to a post lockout Atlanta Thrashers team in 2007 is a great example of comparing apples to oranges.
 

toastman344*

Guest
Shrempcoctail :
You just compared baseball to hockey, and you managed to do so in a time period where baseball was the number one sport in North America to boot.

I dont know when baseball was the number one sport in the USA...And I dont care...I Do Know that HOCKEY has always been.... and will always be... the number one sport in Canada...Since ur rather arbitrarily linking the two Sovereign nations here...and since Southern Ontario is the number one Hockey Market in NA, by far...Will the Yankee dominated NHL finally grant Hockey mad Southern Ontario the second NHL franchise , it so obviously deserves ?...Hey give us an expansion team instead of the Preds...We dont care which...But since were all one happy united sports family here in North America...Will Bettman and company finally stop treating the good folks from Southern Ontario...Like Second/ Neigh Third Class Citizens ?

Tongue in cheek Paraphrasing of Bettman :
No Dice Hamilton, K-W, London, Burlington , Misssasauga, Oakville etc etc...remember ur place lowly Canucks...back of the Bus...Back of the Bus ! :(

Sad but true...Not that many Yanks understand, or even care about our years of unrequited NHL Hockey Passion/ Frustrations...

Save the Preds Nashville if u can...more power to you...But understand that Southern Ontario produces a huge share of the NHL's ( neigh the Worlds ) Hockey Talent...We gave to the NHL our Native sons...For decades and decades...So now their millions of brothers and sisters/ uncles and aunts...yadda yadda.... here in S. Ontario ....who can't possible garner Leaf Tickets...Want a fair return...

We want to see our HomeGrown NHLers in Action...Isn't the demand blatantly obvious ? Haven't Ballsillie and thousands of others...Put their Money where their Mouth is ? So Why Never any Love for Hamilton Bettman/ BOG's ?...WHY WHY WHY ??? Millions of Canadians Not Want...WE DEMAND AN ANSWER !!!
 

Ted Hoffman

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Dec 15, 2002
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Shrempcoctail :

I dont know when baseball was the number one sport in the USA...And I dont care...I Do Know that HOCKEY has always been.... and will always be... the number one sport in Canada...Since ur rather arbitrarily linking the two Sovereign nations here...and since Southern Ontario is the number one Hockey Market in NA, by far...Will the Yankee dominated NHL finally grant Hockey mad Southern Ontario the second NHL franchise , it so obviously deserves ?...Hey give us an expansion team instead of the Preds...We dont care which...But since were all one happy united sports family here in North America...Will Bettman and company finally stop treating the good folks from Southern Ontario...Like Second/ Neigh Third Class Citizens ?

Tongue in cheek Paraphrasing of Bettman :

Sad but true...Not that many Yanks understand, or even care about our years of unrequited NHL Hockey Passion/ Frustrations...

Save the Preds Nashville if u can...more power to you...But understand that Southern Ontario produces a huge share of the NHL's ( neigh the Worlds ) Hockey Talent...We gave to the NHL our Native sons...For decades and decades...So now their millions of brothers and sisters/ uncles and aunts...yadda yadda.... here in S. Ontario ....who can't possible garner Leaf Tickets...Want a fair return...

We want to see our HomeGrown NHLers in Action...Isn't the demand blatantly obvious ? Haven't Ballsillie and thousands of others...Put their Money where their Mouth is ? So Why Never any Love for Hamilton Bettman/ BOG's ?...WHY WHY WHY ??? Millions of Canadians Not Want...WE DEMAND AN ANSWER !!!
:clap: That is a fantastic emotional argument. It does absolutely nothing to help Southern Ontario get a team (much like any emotional argument won't help bring a team back to Winnipeg, Quebec City, or Hartford nor will it bring a team to Houston, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Portland, Seattle or any other interested city) ... and honestly, fairness isn't an issue here at all.

I made this saying up a few weeks back: "Life isn't fair." If life was fair, people who do bad things would always get caught and receive the appropriate punishment; there would be no suffering, and the world would be full of joy and harmony. It's not - I want to work full-time in hockey. Doctor No wants to play in the NHL. GHOST wants a team in Winnipeg. Fugu wants .......... whatever it is that Fugu wants. However, because we want something doesn't mean we should get it - so talking about how "their millions of brothers and sisters/ uncles and aunts...yadda yadda.... here in S. Ontario ....who can't possible garner Leaf Tickets...Want a fair return" is a completely fallacious statement.
 

Fugu

Guest
Incidentally, Res, while some are making a big dfeal out of the fact that the other NASH bid was $45 million less, if the NHL wanted to make up the difference, that would be a relatively paltry $1.5 million per owner. That would be a small price to pay to retain control over one's business.


It is a lot of money, GC. Maybe from your perspective, it's akin to the peanuts that get shuffled around in the shell game when those multi-billion dollar projects are quoted out. If Leipold paid $80 MM for a franchise, and the city of Nashville came up with...(?)... $25 MM of that....it's almost the franchise fee alone for Leipold.

Now having the NHL pony up and cover the difference is an option. I don't know how that plays out legally, to say 'No' to Balsillie then subsidize another guy's offer who also wants to move the team? IF the league were to do that, I think it just proves that $45 MM is a significant sum of money-- which erodes the case you're trying to make that it shouldn't matter.

The BOG would have to be pretty convinced that not only is it worth the price to retain said control, but also realizing that the revenue sharing picture might look different in the two cases. Ergo... $1.5 MM may not be the only money they'll have to put up.
 
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Levizk

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Feb 12, 2007
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Monroeville, PA
Shrempcoctail :

I dont know when baseball was the number one sport in the USA...And I dont care...I Do Know that HOCKEY has always been.... and will always be... the number one sport in Canada...Since ur rather arbitrarily linking the two Sovereign nations here...and since Southern Ontario is the number one Hockey Market in NA, by far...Will the Yankee dominated NHL finally grant Hockey mad Southern Ontario the second NHL franchise , it so obviously deserves ?...Hey give us an expansion team instead of the Preds...We dont care which...But since were all one happy united sports family here in North America...Will Bettman and company finally stop treating the good folks from Southern Ontario...Like Second/ Neigh Third Class Citizens ?

Wow did you actually read my post and the one it was responding to, or are you just looking for any opportunity to spout off about Southern Ontario regardless of whether it's relevant? Would you like me to go back and edit my post so that I can create comments that say Southern Ontario doesn't deserve a second team, because I'm failing to see where that was mentioned? The point, since I doubt you'll get it if I don't tell you, was comparing baseball to hockey doesn't work because they run under completely different models and assumptions.

On a side note I was arbitrarily linking three sovereign nations because Mexico is still in North America, and I noticed that you didn't deny that the average Canadian knows more about baseball than the average American knows about hockey. Hence my point still stands comparing the 2007 Atlanta Thrashers to the 1985 Toronto Blue Jays is not a good comparison.
 

Fugu

Guest
I asked this question of you specifically because as you know we disagree on the
logistics of Balsillie moving a team to the area. However, with respect to
Hamilton, we may disagree somewhat on the details and whether the city might
in theory have enough support for a team, but we certainly agree on the big picture. Much of what is happening right now leaves me puzzled. I find it very hard to imagine that Balsillie would risk the territorial fees or the battle to challenge them to insist on Hamilton and then have to turn around and invest $100 million plus on someone else's building. Now he is raising the stakes even more by his recent actions
which certainly put even the purchase of the Preds in a more precarious position.

Individual parts of the deal can easily be explained. But it seems clear to me
that he has something specific in mind for how this will all play out
I stated in a previous post and agree with Resolute that the best situation for all could be for a strong local ownership group to surface in Nashville a la Edmonton's EIG and for Balsillie to be awarded an expansion franchise which he could manage
more or less on his own conditions and time table though outside the territory of Buffalo and perhaps Toronto. More and more, I can't help but think that
Balsillie has been intent on pushing the NHL towards rejecting his purchase in favour of an expansion team.



To chime in with your discussion with GC....

In negotiations, some people prefer to throw out as much as they can so that in essence they later look like they're really giving up something. I wouldn't put it past Balsillie, as the real end game is to get an NHL team in Southern Ontario.
 
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