Post by pbonomo on Jun 19, 2009 13:29:13 GMT -5
slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Hockey/NHL/Phoenix/2009/06/19/9851701-sun.html
Balsillie's ego runs amok
Wannabe NHL owner infuriating
By STEVE SIMMONS, SUN MEDIA
June 19, 2009
Today is Make it Seven Day in Hamilton. Yesterday was send a letter to Gary Bettman Day. We're not certain, at this time, what tomorrow may bring.
We do know this much: Every day seems to be Annoy the National Hockey League Day for Jim Balsillie.
It's as if he can't help himself. The harder he pushes, the farther away the NHL gets from him, and by extension, from southern Ontario.
He may not know this because he may not know the NHL people all that well: But I can tell you with almost certainty that they hate him. More and more with each passing day, they hate his publicity stunts. They hate his overt public relations campaigns. They hate the way he disregards whatever may be going on around the NHL -- like last night's award show, for example -- and continues in his bull-in-a-china-shop kind of way, blinded by everything but his own ego, hell-bent to bring a seventh NHL team to Hamilton.
You have to admire Balsillie's naive persistence. It is oddly commendable. But it also sounds a lot like those phone calls that disrupt your dinner, trying to sell you a vacation. After awhile, if you've heard one telemarketer, you've heard them all.
But where he is absolutely correct is in his passion that this market -- all of southern Ontario and not necessarily Hamilton alone -- is ripe for another NHL franchise. He isn't alone in that belief. It may be about the only thing he and the NHL agree upon, even if the NHL won't admit as much.
Where the two sides are ridiculously divided is in methodology. Two words that just don't go together in any of his dealings with the NHL are Balsillie and finesse. Too often, he has taken a look-at-me approach to buying a franchise, disregarding other owners and league policies.
Sometimes being the richest guy in the room doesn't always make you the smartest. Sometimes it's better to listen than talk. Sometimes it's better to play by other's rules if you want to get in the game than try to establish your own.
The truth is, the NHL has had it with Balsillie.
They tired of him long ago. This daily bluster only makes things worse.
Do I hope he succeeds in bringing another team to southern Ontario? Absolutely. Do I think he has any chance of success? One: Every other rich guy on the planet has to basically show no interest in an NHL team before the league would even think of turning to him.
The animosity in Bettman's "it's not personal" world is that extreme. This is all too personal. The most influential people in the NHL speak in the worst possible terms about Balsillie. They won't say so for the record but they are pleased to do so off the record.
In the online letter to Bettman, that Canadian fans were asked to click on and send, it read: "It is clear Hamilton remains the best location for the Coyotes versus letting it wither in the desert."
This may well be true, but it's no way of conducting business. For starters, Bettman can be miserably persistent himself. Ridiculous as it may be, he wants to make Phoenix work. Letting it wither in the desert, in Balsillie's words, is the best way to tweak a commissioner who already suffers from short man's disease.
Today's events in Hamilton involve raising money for minor hockey. That's a good thing. There's even a contest to win season tickets for a team that doesn't exist.
The team may exist one day, just not with Balsillie as owner. Not unless he changes his overt ways.
In Phoenix, the Coyotes have asked a bankruptcy judge to set a Sept. 15 deadline for the sale of the financially troubled team in a renewed effort to sell to Balsillie.
Balsillie's ego runs amok
Wannabe NHL owner infuriating
By STEVE SIMMONS, SUN MEDIA
June 19, 2009
Today is Make it Seven Day in Hamilton. Yesterday was send a letter to Gary Bettman Day. We're not certain, at this time, what tomorrow may bring.
We do know this much: Every day seems to be Annoy the National Hockey League Day for Jim Balsillie.
It's as if he can't help himself. The harder he pushes, the farther away the NHL gets from him, and by extension, from southern Ontario.
He may not know this because he may not know the NHL people all that well: But I can tell you with almost certainty that they hate him. More and more with each passing day, they hate his publicity stunts. They hate his overt public relations campaigns. They hate the way he disregards whatever may be going on around the NHL -- like last night's award show, for example -- and continues in his bull-in-a-china-shop kind of way, blinded by everything but his own ego, hell-bent to bring a seventh NHL team to Hamilton.
You have to admire Balsillie's naive persistence. It is oddly commendable. But it also sounds a lot like those phone calls that disrupt your dinner, trying to sell you a vacation. After awhile, if you've heard one telemarketer, you've heard them all.
But where he is absolutely correct is in his passion that this market -- all of southern Ontario and not necessarily Hamilton alone -- is ripe for another NHL franchise. He isn't alone in that belief. It may be about the only thing he and the NHL agree upon, even if the NHL won't admit as much.
Where the two sides are ridiculously divided is in methodology. Two words that just don't go together in any of his dealings with the NHL are Balsillie and finesse. Too often, he has taken a look-at-me approach to buying a franchise, disregarding other owners and league policies.
Sometimes being the richest guy in the room doesn't always make you the smartest. Sometimes it's better to listen than talk. Sometimes it's better to play by other's rules if you want to get in the game than try to establish your own.
The truth is, the NHL has had it with Balsillie.
They tired of him long ago. This daily bluster only makes things worse.
Do I hope he succeeds in bringing another team to southern Ontario? Absolutely. Do I think he has any chance of success? One: Every other rich guy on the planet has to basically show no interest in an NHL team before the league would even think of turning to him.
The animosity in Bettman's "it's not personal" world is that extreme. This is all too personal. The most influential people in the NHL speak in the worst possible terms about Balsillie. They won't say so for the record but they are pleased to do so off the record.
In the online letter to Bettman, that Canadian fans were asked to click on and send, it read: "It is clear Hamilton remains the best location for the Coyotes versus letting it wither in the desert."
This may well be true, but it's no way of conducting business. For starters, Bettman can be miserably persistent himself. Ridiculous as it may be, he wants to make Phoenix work. Letting it wither in the desert, in Balsillie's words, is the best way to tweak a commissioner who already suffers from short man's disease.
Today's events in Hamilton involve raising money for minor hockey. That's a good thing. There's even a contest to win season tickets for a team that doesn't exist.
The team may exist one day, just not with Balsillie as owner. Not unless he changes his overt ways.
In Phoenix, the Coyotes have asked a bankruptcy judge to set a Sept. 15 deadline for the sale of the financially troubled team in a renewed effort to sell to Balsillie.