Secret Lovers: Leipold Cheats On Balsillie
The National Post (of Canada, of course) is now reporting that Predators owner Craig Leipold has dropped Blackberry tycoon Jim Balsillie's offer to buy the team in favor of a bid from William DelBiaggio. But the Predators will still be moving. Instead of going to Hamilton, Ontario like Balsillie wants, the team will likely find themselves next in the hockey hotbed of Kansas City, where "Boots" DelBiaggio seeks to bring them.
What a brilliant move by the NHL and Gary Bettman, who are obviously pulling Leipold's strings on this one. Why move a current NHL team from a weak market to an extremely strong one? Just send it to another unproven, non-traditional American hockey wasteland and hope for the best. That's a sure recipe for success!
However, that will stop plans to grant an expansion team to Kansas City, so Bettman will have to find another new market to plop a brand-new NHL team nobody really wants to see (other than Las Vegas, which is a sure bet---sorry). I suggest Nashville, which will obviously "need" a new team once the Predators ship off to the Great Plains.
Oh, and Hamilton ticket buyers, sorry about your luck. Good thing they're giving refunds.
6 comments:
"Good thing they're giving refunds."
after Ticketmaster takes their requisite surcharges and convenience fees, of course.
Of course.
Bettman needs to be fired!
http://mebreathing.blogs.com/this_is_me_breathing/2007/06/okaynow-im-fuck.html
Why does Bettman need to be fired? Leipold did the right thing by not selling the team to Balsillie. All we need now is for Balsillie to disappear from hockey altogether, and the world automatically will be a better place.
Well, Bettman needs to be fired for many reasons, regardless of what Jim Balsillie does or does not do. Clearly, Balsillie is not a great guy to buy a hockey team, but then who really is? Somebody who would move a struggling team to a strong market like Ontario or someone who would buy the same team and move them to a city with little or no interest? Sure, it's POSSIBLE that KC will be a great hockey town, but really, the odds are against it.
I'm not thrilled with anybody involved with the Predators sale. The NHL included.
The best solution, I think, is just to contract Nashville and Florida and quit kidding ourselves.
Damn, I want that Las Vegas expansion team to happen. Justified trips to the wife....
Please, please, please?
tdr
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