What is Bettman's problem with the Blackberry guys?

Answer 1

Bettman has no problem with Balsillie whatsoever. The League owners have a problem with losing a potential expansion market.

1. Balsillie and Lemieux had an agreement to allow Balsille to purchase the Pittsburgh Penguins. The NHL voted in favour of the sale. Once that was done, Balsillie started to engage the people in Hamilton. Once Lemieux found out about that, Lemieux asked Harley Hotchkiss and the Board of Governors to amend the sale agreement to prevent Balsillie from moving the team. Balisillie balked at these changes and threatened to sue the NHL and Lemieux. Balsillie's legal advisors advised him that he wouldn't win. Balsillie walked away from the deal.

2. Balsillie agreed to an offer sheet to purchase the Nashville Predators from Leipold. Harley Hotchkiss, and then Gary Bettman eventually sent Leipold e-mails asking him not to sell the team. Balsillie made these emails public, and US and Canadian jusdges have informed Balsillie that the NHL was within it's rights to do so. (The NHLPA and the NHL are currently looking at suing Balsillie for damages caused by the intentional email leaks).


The bottom line is that if a team is moved to another location, the NHL owners are out money (roughly $12MM each). It is the expansion fees that they are after. It isn't an anti-Balsillie movement so much as greed.

Answer 2

I'm pretty sure he means, Jim Balsillie, the billionair CEO of Research in Montion (Blackberry makers) and the fact that he's tried to buy the Penguins and the when that failed the Predators.

The reason that Bettman doesn't like Jim is the simple fact that Jim wants to move a team to Canada, southern Ontario to be specific. While that may be great for Canadian fans, the fact remains the game doesn't need to grow in Canada so there isn't enough financial upside to that. Also the fact that when Gary put many restrictive conditions on the Pens accqusition, Jim just walked away, basically saying "F' you and your conditions"

I said all that from the point of view of Bettman, I'm Canadian and know that it's incredibly stupid to place a fanchise in the sunshine belt and expect it to thrive instantly. Most people don't understand hockey down there and you think some poor schulb is going to fork out 400$ to take his family to a game they don't get? I don't think so. If they want to make it successful down there they're going to have to go in with 40-50 year comitments and plans to grow the sport locally and build the fanbase through youth involvement. Not the 5 year see-if-it-works or we move elsewhere mentality that seems to be in place now.

Personally I would love to see at least 3, possibly 4, more teams in Canada. Quebec City, bring the Nords back! Winnepeg, gotta have the Jets, South Ont, because they cheer for the Leafs, which is really sad, and I think Montreal could support another team as well.

Answer 3

Mathieubg, Bettman is the worst thing to happen to the NHL. The American south is about College Football, College Basketball, and NASCAR not the NHL. Why do you think the Atlanta Flames moved to Calgary? Hockey does not have a home in the south. The only reason it is doing decent in Florida is because all the old retirees from Canada and Michigan moved down there. BETTMAN NEEDS TO BE FIRED AND HUNG FROM THE STAKE.

Answer 4

It occurs each and every so often with BBs, once you're working low on memory, your provider ought to lag or you need to not acquire some messages and stuff. merely take out the battery, wait like 30 seconds or a minute and then positioned it returned in and turn the telephone returned on. frequently once you are trying this, each and all the messages you ignored will tutor as quickly by means of fact the telephone activates, while you're memory is low the community ought to sorta "carry" the messages for you. yet once you don't get the messages then that's a difficulty with your community and not your telephone maximum probably. additionally, as a replace of a battery pull in case you do not want to consistently open up the returned and take out the battery, you're able to do a tender-reset. This works on my Curve, i'm undecided if it extremely works on the worldwide version additionally, yet you may attempt. Press and carry the Alt+proper Shift+Del button on a similar time and the telephone will reset itself.

Answer 5

I was having trouble understanding the resistance to Jim Balsille's purchase as well, so I went to the top and asked for an interview, these are some of the excerpts:

Cme; Good morning sir, thank you for coming.

Graybutt Man; Good morning to you too. I have to say it's not often I get interviewed by a dog. Can we hurry, I 'm getting my nails done at 2:30.

Cme: Yes, of course. I'll cut right to the chase. Jim Balsille, the owner of Research in Motion, the Blackberry people, are you familiar with them?

Graybutt Man: Yes of course, they are the guys who wanted to buy the Maple Leafs and move them to Toronto, Canada. As an ice hockey league, we can't allow that since we already have a team in New Jersey, I believe in Buffalo.

Cme: Actually sir, it was the Nashville Predators.

Graybutt Man: Yes, of course. Putting the Maple Leafs in Toronto would have have a negative impact on our ice hockey franchise in Nashville. You know Nashville is one of our oldest morkits and is one of the original handful of teams to pioneer the game of ice hockey. To take away from their long standing fanbase is just wrong.

Cme: Sir, uhh no, the Blackberry people want to buy the Nashville Predators and move them to Hamilton or put up a new building in Kitchener.

Graybutt Man: That's in Canada? Of course. You know, George Hamilton is a very close friend of moine. You say he's growing raspberries in his kitchen, I didn't know that. (looks at his hands) Fushia, with the little smiley faces, I think. Did I tell you I was getting my nails done at 1:30? What time is it now?

Serge (Graybutt's assistant): It'th 10:15, love.

Graybutt Man: I gotta go, last week I was out there trying to cross that street. Waited over 2 hours for the stop sign to change, stayed red the whole time.

Don't miss the interview in its entirety, this Satuday, on Ice Hockey Noight in Canda, immediatly following Dawn Cherry's Crochet Corner.

Answer 6

No financial upside to a team that will always make money, have a guaranteed TV contract and won't be one of the leeches that needs to draw extra support to survive?
It's not his madness, it's his method. Apparently they don't like the idea of you buying the team and planning to move it in the same motion unless you move it to a US market. The problem with Balsillie moving the team to Ontario is that MLSE won't let it happen because should Hamilton get a real team, Leaf fans may finally demand that Toronto get one too. I'm sure IF he sweetened the deal by offering MLSE $100 Mil the obstacles would disappear.
One of these days the league has to stop trying to sell air conditioning to eskimos and realize you put teams where they'll make money and not where there are potential TV audiences.

Answer 7

"Batman" has other "friends" in the US that want a team. He is doing nothing but catering to them. If I was Mr. Blackberry...I'd find a way to block The Bettman BB signal! LOL

Answer 8

I think it's fair to say Ballsile was kind of arrogant the way he went about things with the ticket sales and all. I think he is still trying to move a team Hamilton, but with a more low key approach going forward. Word is he has hired new advisors who aren't so in your face in their approach. Ballsile is likely to still be a multibillionare after Bettman retires, so he just has to bide his time.

Answer 9

Probably because Bettman is too stupid to see the upside of having another Canadian hockey team.

Answer 10

Jim Ballisalie wants to move any team he buys to Hamilton, Ontario, Canada (just outside of Toronto). A NHL team would do very well there, but the leauge does not want to lose a US team to a Canadien city, since they are still trying to establish a dominate national TV audience in the US. Losing a US team to Canada would jeopardize that chance. Sounds like politics to me.