Quote:
Originally Posted by Resolute 14
Absent some changes... like the league pulling the rug out from beneath him a couple years later with regard to the Predators? Or like how he tried to utterly destroy all major sports' control over where their franchises were placed when he brought forth the Coyotes bankruptcy scam?
Don't get me wrong... I would have loved to have seen Balsillie own a team in Hamilton. It would have been one amazingly entertaining gong show. But stop fooling yourself. By the time they went to court, the league wanted nothing to do with him. 2006 was a very long time in the past, even when this saga began.
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The way I see it, is that Balsillie tried going through the front door twice and when that didn't work out, he decided to play hardball.
Whatever the attitude of the NHL BOGs, it made sense to deal with Balsillie and move the team to Hamilton, even the Phoenix judge ( who you would think would want to keep the team in Phoenix) told them to make a deal and Bettman should have been practical and done it. What it ended up being is a pissing match where most everybody lost.