Hockey Trade Rumors

A hypocritical situation;
12 Sell-out crowds vs. Fans without a face;
175 Million Dollar Baby.Here we go, short form:

-Mario sells the team to Jim Balsillie, or so we thought, turns out it was just an agreement clause for 175 Million to be approved in December by the League. People believe he offered up more than the team was worth.
-Jim Balsillie hires the best attorneys he could find to discover whether or not he would have to keep the team in Pittsburgh if the Isle of Capri falls through. (Speculation)
-December 8, two months after the initial agreement, there are two final prerequisites brought up on behalf of Gary Bettman and other league management that were a part of this transfer. To this day, there is speculation as to what they were. Some say it was to keep the team in Pittsburgh at all costs, other say it had nothing to do with that.
-Balsillie pulls his bid after being denied by Mario Lemieux an extra 30 days to sort out the 2 new prerequisites to purchasing this team.
-Mario does a press conference in order to publicly criticize Balsillie’s withdrawal.
-League announces they will stand behind the Penguins decision on how they will now sell the team, including relocation. (This is key!)
-Balsillie decides to get back on the horse, and writes an e-mail he submits personally to the papers in order to make sure Mario reads it.
-Mario takes a trip to Kansas City for a “Plan B” meeting.
-January 8th, one month after Balsillie’s withdrawal.

If the league did in fact refuse to allow Balsillie to purchase the team and then move them to Canada upon the fall out of the Capri deal, then it is actually quite the contrary to believe that they even agreed to have a Canadian purchase the team in the first place. Maybe this is why they put the 2 new guidelines that Jim eventually withdrew his offer on. But if the team was not willing to move then, before the Capri fell short, then why are they willing to move now? Is it because someone doesn’t want to move them to Canada, where Jim already had an arena set up in case the Capri didn’t fall through, which would be extremely convenient for a team. Imagine losing a 200 million dollar arena while yours continues to fall apart. Your owner happens to have one fit “for the time being” as a backup plan, but the league refuses your team to relocate where there is already an arena in place? To refuse the team from relocating, and then having their main hopes on a string that eventually was cut loose when the Isle of Capri fell through; it seems almost idiotic on behalf of the league.

A few weeks later, the league announces that the team can relocate. Ahh… this raises new questions. Is it simply based on the fact that Pittsburgh no longer has the Isle of Capri holding them up, or is it simply not allowing the team to move to Canada? Sure, the league can come out and state that Winnipeg or Quebec are listed as possible destinations, but to not even visit either city in a “Plan B” meeting, kind of shuts the door on that whole comment. Lemieux himself visited Kansas City, but before, he called Balsillie ignorant for withdrawing his proposed purchase after what is thought to be “limitations on not moving the team”. I believe that makes Lemieux and Gary Bettman hypocrites. If Balsillie did not agree to keeping the team in Pittsburgh, and building an arena himself in order to keep the team there, and now the league is looking at relocating to Kansas… what would you think?

I’ve read and listened to discussions of why a team would not succeed in Peterborough, or Hamilton, but it’s all wrong. They say there isn’t enough of a fan base, are you kidding me? Half of the Sabers fan base is from Toronto because they can easily get tickets for a Buffalo game rather than a Leafs game. Other people will even travel to Detroit. I even last year there were authorities at the Sabers game trying to keep Leafs fans out in order for the home team (Buffalo) to actually feel at home! I also know for a fact that many Leafs and even Senators fans, hell probably even Canadians fans will still follow the Peterborough/Hamilton Whatevers. Lack of fan base is in no way a drawback from having the team in Canada; it is simply just an insult to the league that an American team would have to relocate to Canada, which has never happened before, other than the Atlanta Flames.

Crosby would instantly become the face of Canada if he played here. There is no doubt about it. Even people who hate Crosby know that he could easily sell out the crowd single handedly at any home game no matter where he plays in Canada.

Now, there are announcements of even Oklahoma pitching for a team. Canadians aren’t trying to disrespect Americans on their Tier 2 cities that are pitching for teams, nor are we saying that the Penguins fans aren’t good enough; all we are getting at is the Penguins have only sold out 12 games this season, while every other Canadian team is at capacity every night, and not only capacity, but our arenas hold approx. 6000 more fans than Pittsburgh’s arena. If the team is not moving to any Canadian city, then the team should not be moving.
So what is the problem? In my opinion, I lost a lot of respect after Mario traveled to Kansas City to look at a second option, when Balsillie literally placed more money in Mario’s hand without an arena in place for the team. Pittsburgh will not see that kind of money for that team again. A team without a home is not worth much more than their payroll, because whoever purchases the team now has to build the arena himself.

Gary Bettman did not need to be involved in this deal at all, and it was he himself who buried that deal for Mario and the Penguins organization. Good luck to the Penguins on their future considerations.

Mike