Coyote Phugly: NHL's $140 Million Bid For Bankrupt Desert Dogs, Pure Jokes!

Admittedly, I am a little late getting my two cents in on the announcement the NHL has put forth an offer to purchase the woeful Phoenix Coyotes, but here it goes.

On Aug. 25, the NHL formally submitted a bid to purchase the Phoenix Coyotes. The NHL’s bid is for $140 Million, which is the lowest offer any group has offered to date. Hmm...seems as if the NHL is not all that confident that the Coyote's would be profitable.

It's laughable really, the NHL's offer is not even in the ballpark of Jim Balsillie’s $212.5 million offer, we're talking a difference of $72.5 Million here! Something that may attract the bankruptcy court is the fact that the NHL’s bid comes with no conditions, something the NHL believes will work in their favor and put them at a decided advantage.

NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly released a statement: "Today, the league filed its own bid to purchase the Phoenix Coyotes’ franchise out of bankruptcy in an effort to maximize the likelihood that the club ultimately will be sold to an acceptable purchaser who is committed to operating the franchise in Glendale.”

So, what happened to Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf’s bid?

Reinsdorf, who had submitted a bid of $148 million for the bankrupt Coyotes and was the preferred bid of the NHL, has pulled out of the bidding war citing the unwillingness of Jerry Moyes (the current majority owner of the Coyotes) to sell the team.

Reinsdorf’s bid included a list of concessions that demanded, among other things, huge concessions be made by the city of Glendale, which owns the leasing rights to the Jobbing.com Arena, where the Coyotes play. Reinsdorf also lamented that he was fed up with all the negative press and the sideshow the bidding process has turned into.

In the end, he decided all the B.S. simply made the deal unbearable.

Given his decision to drop out of the bidding war, one might label Reinsdorf as the only sane person involved in the situation. Perhaps Reinsdorf knows what is becoming painfully obvious to many—this is a no-win situation.

Look, if a multimillionaire who knows a thing or two about sports ownership drops out of the bidding process because he is "fed up" with the whole process and does not see the franchise as being viable...I gotta think he is on the ball.

Which leads me to this question—why does the NHL feel the need to come to the rescue of the Coyotes? After all, there is a perfectly good bid on the table from none other than Canada’s own Jim Balsillie...oh yeah, the NHL and its cronies hate Jim Balsillie, that’s why.

Now, with Reinsdorf out of the picture and the group known as Ice Edge Holdings LLC  putting forth a laughable offer that includes the concession that some Coyotes home games be played in Saskatoon, the bid for the Phoenix Coyotes has become a two-horse race, the Jim Balsillie vs. the NHL. Or, in other words, Dumb vs. Dumber...

OK, that was kind of harsh. Jim Balsillie is no dummy. Overly aggressive? Yes. Dumb? No. To use another movie analogy, the whole situation reminds me of the movie Groundhog Day, and I am not alone in making this comparison.

Ever since it became public knowledge that the Coyotes were headed for bankruptcy, the whole situation turned into a turd-throwing competition. And everyone knows there are no winners in a turd-throwing competitions, just losers.

Forget for the moment the NHL is bidding on a bankrupt franchise with the intention of flipping it to a third party. Forget for the moment that the bid that the NHL once supported—Jerry Reinsdorf’s bid—was more than $60 million less than Jim Balsillie’s, which would shortchange the creditors and NHL owners alike.

Forget about the fact that if the NHL wins the bid to own the Coyotes they will once again ask the “have” franchises to pay into the Coyote’s debt. None of this matters.

So much damage has been done to Phoenix and the city of Glendale, the Phoenix Coyotes franchise, their fans, the Jobbing.com Arena, lost advertising revenue, you've p-ssed off all of your season ticket holders, damaged the integrity of the NHL, all the subsequent negative debate stemming from the ownership process and the all-too-public feud between the NHL, its owners and Jim Balsillie, the damage is tenfold and it’s irreconcilable. And for what?

The arrogance of both Jim Balsillie (whom I have endorsed through the whole process) and the NHL has conspired to make the Phoenix Coyotes' bankruptcy proceedings into a three-ring circus. If only the two sides had managed to put aside their differences and tried to keep these proceedings behind closed doors...well, it’s too late for that now, isn’t it?

Clearly, the NHL is hoping to hit a home run, regain control of the franchise, hope that a third-party owner that wants to keep the franchise in Phoenix steps up and sell the franchise to them. In the event that the Coyotes continue to flop, the NHL would then allow the new owners to consider moving the team to a site that the NHL selects.

Essentially all the NHL is trying to ensure is that Jim Balsillie does not get his hands on the Coyotes'. The NHL's bid will do nothing to change the long-term future of this franchise, which looks to be all doom and gloom.

The Phoneix Coyotes' are the sexiest girl at the dance and Gary Bettman and his gang of business thugs are, for a lack of a better word, "Rooster" blocking...They don't want her, they just don't want you to go home with her, you dig?

In the end, the Phoenix situation will end in a negative fashion. If the NHL wins the bidding war, they will be right back where they started. A franchise without a legitimate owner and in debt up to its eyeballs, not to mention a fan base that is sure to turn its nose up at tickets this season.

The debts will continue to rise, the fan base will surely dwindle, the players will grow tired of the whole situation, no legitimate free agents will come to such an unsteady situation, Wayne Gretzky will be gone—along with his pretentious salary—and it will all come to a likely conclusion: relocation.

If Balsillie wins the bidding war you can be sure the NHL will do its damnedest to tie the matter up in loads of red tape. The NHL’s stance is clear, they do not intend to lose a fight to Jim Balsillie no matter what the cost is to the NHL, the Coyotes, the city of Glendale, the players or the 29 other owners.

In the event that Jim Balsillie makes an early exit and bows out of the bidding process, there will be disappointment from many fans in Canada. Particularly in one of the strongest markets outside of the NHL: Hamilton, Ontario.

And what about the players? How disgusted are they with the way things have been handled? How do they feel that their beloved team has been hung out to dry along with their fans? I can see it now, after all the B.S. the players have been put through you can bet your butt that—no matter what the final outcome is—they will be asked to smile for the camera and come to work for training camp as if everything is OK.

It kinda reminds me of the movie Slap Shot, when, under huge protest from his troops, the owner of the Chiefs has his players participate in a fashion show. Well, all I can say is it would serve the NHL right if, collectively, the Coyotes players decided to go out on the ice with their “Bits and pieces” hanging out on opening night!

Gary Bettman might get his precious franchise back. The Coyotes may very well remain in Phoenix for the 2009-10 season, perhaps they will last through the 2010-11 season as well, but the damage done to the franchise is overwhelming, probably irreversible, eventually they will have to be folded or relocated, to think otherwise is asinine.

It could have been different. Cooler heads should have prevailed. Sadly, a league that needs every fan it can get will likely find itself short another 20,000 or so this year, and for what? Yes, in this case, no matter what the outcome, nobody wins...

Until next time,

Peace!