Balsillie is back, and he's bringing it on Mr. Bettman...

Ah yes, the telltale sign of spring, when Canadian billionaire Jim Balsillie makes his annual pilgrimage to the NHL offices, cheque book wide open and bid in place for yet another of Gary Bettman's troubled franchises.

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Will it be third time lucky for Balsillie? Time will tell, but if ever there was a team that should be had for a song it's the Phoenix Coyotes, but at over 200 million dollars in an offering price, the Coyotes are going for more than a song.

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The Ontario billionaire has once again given cause for Gary Bettman to reach for the Tums, as he once again makes his attempt to gain a franchise for the lucrative Southern Ontario market.

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Tuesday's drama played out late in the afternoon after it was announced that Balsillie had tendered an offer for the bankruptcy bound Coyotes, an offer that was light years ahead of what any tire kickers may have offered in the past, but an offer that had about as much appeal for Gary Bettman as a bowl of cold soup, left to be eaten in a pouring rain.

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Bettman was quick to his talking points to rebut the possibility of any relocation, sticking for now to the NHL line of wanting to help build the brand in Arizona, blah, blah, blah.

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That quick update apparently was needed upon the release of the Balsillie press release, that detailed the particulars of the Coyote bid and how he hoped to make hockey more successful in Southern Ontario than the situation that the current owner in Phoenix has had to endure in the last few years.

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In fact as the Coyotes prepare for their date with the bankruptcy judge later this week, the tantalizing prospect of being offered more money than they are worth must surely be something that will catch the attention of the judge. After all his role is to try and gain as much fair compensation for the debtors as can be found, and with Balsillie ready to write some cheques, it would appear that he could have finally found his way into ownership after such a long hard past.

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Coming as it does during the NHL playoffs, Ballsillie will once again find himself at odds against the head office in New York, where we imagine his name is greeted with looks of daggers and curse words normally heard on a New York city pier. Just imagine the symphony of foul notes coming out of New York when they turn on their computers on Wednesday morning and find makeitseven.ca, a portal devoted to gaining support for a seventh NHL franchise in Canada, one which we gather would be owned by the Blackberry King of Southern Ontario.

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His last attempts to purchase teams, whether it be the Penguins or the Predators, came up short after the NHL put in place a number of roadblocks to his plans to move a team to Southern Ontario.

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But that was in a period of time where the NHL seemed to still be able to attract investors, that isn't necessarily the case anymore. The Coyotes have been officially on the block for most of this season and perhaps unofficially for long before, and yet despite the Commissioner's best efforts no one, (other than Balsillie) has made an offer to take over the team, especially if it involves actually having to operate the team in Arizona.

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But now with the economic situation across North America continuing to cause distress, one has to wonder how long Bettman can keep saying No to the only billionaire seemingly willing to invest in this corporation known as the NHL.
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In a week where the Islanders Charles Wang outline how he's paying over thirty million dollars a month just to keep his Islanders alive. And you get the feeling that if they were to hold a vote amongst the current owners, the prospect of letting someone with Ballsillie's financial security get away would be quickly acted upon.
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It has been a season which has seen a number of flash fires break out across the NHL's franchises, from Tampa Bay to Atlanta, Nashville and even to a degree the surprise announcement that even the Canadiens may be for sale, having someone with cash ready to purchase and turn around a franchise should be an empty net goal, yet somehow you just know that this is going to be a long drawn out soap opera with no winners in the end, especially hockey fans looking for a little leadership from the NHL head office.
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If Mr. Bettman needs to get a hold of Mr. Balsillie, we're sure he can be contacted quickly, perhaps through his blackberry.

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National Post-- Bettman calls Coyotes bid 'challenge' to league rules

National Post-- Balsillie bids to buy bankrupt Phoenix Coyotes
National Post-- The Brantford Coyotes -- Gary Bettman's worst nightmare
Globe and Mail-- Balsillie offers to buy Coyotes
Globe and Mail-- Balsillie's offer shows he's back with a vengeance
Toronto Star-- NHL takes control of Coyotes, Balsillie steps in with offer
Toronto Sun-- Balsillie aims to relocate Coyotes
CBC-- Balsillie offers $212.5M to bring Coyotes to Ontario
CBC-- Balsillie faces tough legal battle
Arizona Republic-- Coyotes may be moved to Canada

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The above item first appeared in the HockeyNation blog.

Jim Balsillie stand by your Blackberry!

The Globe and Mail reveals an interesting twist in the never ending quest of Jim Balsillie to lasso himself an NHL franchise. And this one places Mr. Balsillie as the prospective owner of a second team in the Metropolitan Toronto area.

David Shoalts recounts the informal ruminations of a few of the NHL's Governors who it seems are getting a little tired of the troubled franchises of the south and seek a little stability in a more welcoming environment.

The basic gist of the story is that Balsillie will help to stabilize the Nashville franchise in the short term and then it seems will be rewarded with his own long desired franchise, right in the heart of the most hockey crazy market that the league has to offer.

The idea is to award Balsillie an expansion franchise, but some of the deep throat like executives are apparently shifting the focus away from that (suggesting the league would be a laughing stock to go the expansion route at the moment) and instead to relocate one of the more dire franchises of the south back up into Southern Ontario.

While the sudden infatuation with Mr. Balsillie would be an interesting twist in the long running soap opera, it would be one that will apparently spell doom once again for the folks in Hamilton who have aspirations of joining the NHL through the gracious spending of the Blackberry billionaire.

In Shoalts' article, the idea of Hamilton being allowed into the NHL is almost dismissed out of hand by the secretive sources, with one governor suggesting that Hamilton is nothing but a minor league town and would never be sold to the big boys of New York and Chicago as a legitimate franchise.
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The governor apparently not noticing the attendance figures from the "big markets" of Raleigh, Atlanta, Phoenix et al, most of which could only dream of the kind of support that a Hamilton franchise might generate.

They also fear for the Buffalo franchise, outlining a scorched earth scenario where former Buffalo fans turn north instead of south when they get on the QEW from Niagara and send the Sabres into an attendance death spiral, Toronto it seems is bullet proof when it comes to attendance in their opinion, more than capable of taking on the Balsillie squad head on.
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If even some of the trails from this story pan out, it marks a remarkable change of thought when it comes to Balsillie, who at times seems to have been treated like a pariah by the NHL ownership class.

That of course was before the new economic reality hit America, an event that has left former millionaires and billionaires rich in paper only and wondering when the next shoe will drop.
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Suddenly the bumpkin from Ontario with his fancy communicatin' machine might be a good fit after all.
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Leading to a situation where everyone will win!
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Well everyone but hockey fans in Hamilton we guess, who once again wander down the path only to find out that it may end in a dead end yet one more time.

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Picture above of Jim Balsillie is taken from a Financial Post sketch found on the media.canada archive site

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Above Item cross posted from my HockeyNation blog.