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It's a magic trick even Houdini himself couldn't have pulled off in his prime.
So who's in line? Most prominent is Jerry Reinsdorf, owner of the Chicago White Sox and the Chicago Bulls. Next up are Howard Sokolowski and David Cynamon, the owners of the CFL's Toronto Argonauts. A third group is headed by Coyotes minority owner John Breslow, while a fourth group has decided to remain anonymous for now.
To get to the point in business where you have enough money to purchase a professional sports franchise takes smarts, guts and a lot of luck -- and I don't want to minimize how much business savvy and hard work have to do with it. With that mind, here's my question: What do the members of these four groups know about hockey in Phoenix that the rest of us don't, and what can they possibly do to sell the game in a market that hasn't already been tried?
I'll be waiting. In the meantime, Jim Balsillie, a man who you would think could be an ideal NHL owner, is still on the outside looking in.
This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.
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This sudden group of buyers is pretty much B.S. to me. The toronto group at least just wants a foot in the door and then guess what they want to do….have some tough years in glendale…then move the team to toronto. I’ll bet everybody else is looking to move the team too…just not as fast as Jim B.
The whole thing is a P.R. nightmare for the league and it ain’t going away soon.
by Meaford on Jun 8, 2009 11:36 PM EDT reply actions
This is simply about one potential owner being upfront/direct with intentions (Basille), 3 possible owners sucking up to GB and losing $$ short term to get his insider "ok" to move team in a year/two. The 2nd Toronto group clearly has no intent on keeping this team in Phoenix, while rumours continue to fly around that the annonymous group is from Vegas.
As for Reinsdorf—he is just doing Bettman a favour and trying to keep Basille out. No one would seriously invest in this money loser w/o a long term plan to bail on Phoenix. Amazing—when the league "took over" this team months ago, there was no interest shown anywhere—now that Basille shows up and again ruffles feathers, suddenly there are 4 bidders…..sure Garry, sure.
So who get’s the shaft:
a) Fans in Phoenix. This club appears to be dead man walking, so just how much support can you expect
b) Hockey fans in Hamilton. Quite possibly, they are jilted at the alter.
c) Owners. Only in the NHL could adding revenue to the league be hurtful! Hamilton would add revenue (while Phoenix subtracts)—but this may raise the floor of the cap, and hurt Nashville/Florida etc-nice business model.
It would be very interesting if the 4 "interested groups" all had to put a downpayment that would be held in escrow until all is sorted out—then we would seperate the men from the boys.
by Goknight on Jun 9, 2009 8:48 AM EDT reply actions
down with bettman. i am sick of watching him twitch and spasm his way thru sweaty upper lipped interviews where the truth seldom is heard. balsillie should take out a contract on the incompetent bstard.
bettman reminds me of george bush jr.
DOWN WITH BETTMAN
by scurds on Jun 10, 2009 1:12 PM EDT reply actions
Did these four buy some swamp land off buttman too. Phoenix is the second worst market in the NHL. Give it up man your gamble on expanding hockey in the south is a failure. buttman sucks
by nicholas50 on Jun 12, 2009 11:57 PM EDT reply actions
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