NHL Expansion To Canada is Bogged Down in Stagnant Water

In a recent series of Globe and Mail videos about NHL expansion to Canada, Commissioner Gary Bettman urged Canadian fans to be patient.

They had better be.  More Canadian teams in the NHL will be a long time coming.

Supposedly this summer decisive events were to occur.

Ice Edge, a group of Canadian and American businessmen, was supposed to buy the Phoenix Coyotes and keep them in Arizona with five games in Saskatoon.

The investment team of David Thomson and Mark Chipman was supposed to bring back the Winnipeg Jets.

And Quebecor, which is fronting a bid to bring back the Nordiques, was supposed to unveil a business plan based on a commissioned feasibility study that would explain how a new $400 million arena and team purchase would occur.

But nothing is happening, and, in fact, things seem to be going in the opposite direction, as it has just been reported that Ice Edge has lost its exclusive right to deal with the city of Glendale because it failed to provide certain satisfactory financial documents.

The video series analyzed the pros and cons of four Canadian candidates for new NHL teams—Quebec, Winnipeg, Hamilton, and Toronto—and if the NHL is reluctant to return to Canada. They couldn't have written a better plot.

To start with, Bettman won't consider Hamilton and Toronto at all, claiming that the NHL wants to re-establish itself back in Quebec and Winnipeg before trying someplace new.

So the best two places for NHL expansion in Canada can be conveniently shelved.

Of course, the usual lies and myths about Hamilton's arena were trotted out, ignoring the fact that both the city council and ex-bidder Jim Balsillie were prepared to upgrade the facility.

Hamilton, with an acceptable investor, and a suitable compensation package for Toronto and Buffalo, could start playing next season, but Bettman's excuse places the city into the indefinite mothballs it's been stuck in since the 1990s.

Even the nobility of Bettman's argument can be questioned.

If Houston or Las Vegas put in credible bids for an NHL team, as opposed to Kansas City, you can bet they would get a team first before a return to Missouri.

On behalf of Winnipeg, Thomson and Chipman are content to play the part of fallback role.

If the Coyotes are not established in Phoenix by the end of the year, supposedly Thomson and Chipman are at the head of the line for buyers to move the team.

But what will they do if a bidder finally settles with Glendale, or if another suitor for another city puts a better offer than theirs for the Coyotes in 2011?

There has been no attempt by Thomson or Chipman to consider any alternatives than Phoenix, like another financially troubled American franchise or an expansion team.  It's Phoenix, or nothing.

Meanwhile, the wait continues for the Quebec business plan, which supposedly includes substantial donations of taxpayer money from all three levels of Canadian government.

Most of the current Canadian NHL teams' arenas were financed privately, so Quebecor is following a politically explosive path.

Giving taxpayer money to rich, fickle sports franchise owners is extremely unpopular in this day of high unemployment, and in Canada no money will be given for facilities unless they are for major international events like the Pan Am Games, Olympics, etc.

Quebecor is trying argue that a new arena is for a future Winter Olympic bid, but taxpayer money is not granted until after a successful bid is made, and Quebec has yet to make even a sniff of a bid.

Of course, all this is mere camouflage to disguise the fact that Quebecor does not have enough capital finance for both a bid and a new arena.

Ex-Nordique boss Marcel Aubut estimates that it will take about six months for everything to be settled.  That's a far cry from a city ready to make a formal bid before an expansion committee.

The most sensible decision (which I proposed in another article) would be for Quebecor to reach out to other interested Canadian NHL investors like Ice Edge, Thomson and Chipman, Balsillie, etc., and form a partnership to finance a bid and an arena.

That would be a formidable combination that the NHL couldn't ignore.

There wouldn't be any need for government money or devices like "feasibility studies" then.  Shovels for the new arena would probably be already in the ground.

Meanwhile, thanks to excuses covered with nobility, bidders willing to play subordinate roles, territorial compensation issues, and lack of faith and capital, the NHL can put its feet up and put the issue of more teams in Canada on the back shelf.

All Canadian fans can do is follow Bettman's advice and have "patience."