Dear Balsillie, Thomson, Chipman and Quebecor: Wake Up!

It's too bad the four named people/organizations listed in the title, plus Ice Edge, and any other potential new National Hockey League Canadian franchise owner (and "honorary Canadians" Hartford), won't read this article because it is addressed specifically to them.

For those readers who are unfamiliar with the above, Jim Balsillie is a Canadian billionaire who unsuccessfully tried to get an NHL franchise for Hamilton, Ontario. Dave Thomson (the richest man in Canada) and his partner, Mark Chipman, are brides in waiting should the NHL ever desist from its current fight-to-the-death policy about keeping the Phoenix Coyotes in Arizona and allow them to return to Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Canadian media giant Quebecor is the up-front bidder, eager to provide the new Quebec City arena with a returned Nordiques and Ice Edge is also a failed wooer for the Phoenix Coyotes that wanted to play some of their games in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

Will the above people please note that NHL Commissioner, Gary Bettman's contract was extended five years.

That means the NHL owners strongly believe in his policies.

Those policies have meant relocation of teams from Canada and the northern United States and no return of franchises by either expansion or relocation.

His contract renewal means that the existing Canadian NHL franchise owners don't want to share their Canadian television revenue with you.

His contract renewal means that the American franchise owners and their Canadian counterparts are pinning all their hopes and dreams on getting a rich American television contract like Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association and the National Football League. They don't want anything (like expanding or relocating to a Canadian city) that might be perceived by American television as an admission that hockey is failing in the United States and doesn't deserve to be treated like a "big four" sport.

His contract renewal means that the NHL still prefers to expand to even more markets that know nothing about hockey instead of placing teams in profit making environments.

Specifically to you, Mr. Balsillie, the NHL doesn't want Buffalo and Toronto to lose their monopoly on the rich southern Ontario market.

Bettman and the NHL are perfectly content to keep rich suitors like Thomson and Chipman dangling and to encourage marginal franchise bidders like Ice Edge with inflated hopes, when no hope really existed.  Bettman and the NHL want to encourage mayors and premiers to spend taxpayers' dollars to "comply" with their terms about building expensive arenas, only to retreat when they do exactly that.

If the NHL really wanted you, what's stopping them now? Quebec has fully complied with Bettman's terms and Winnipeg has an arena (I still think it is too small) that Bettman publicly said was acceptable to the NHL. Hamilton has always had a first-class arena.

You gentlemen all have more than enough money to operate an NHL team successfully.

Yet there has not been even a sniff of expansion or relocation. Bettman was also quick to distance himself when the new Quebec arena was announced. This, after hobnobbing with the Quebec mayor and premier.

Now he says he wants to see the shovels in the ground.

The NHL, under Bettman, was quick to place or relocate teams to strange hockey places like Miami, Raleigh, Nashville, Phoenix, Atlanta and Columbus.

But apparently it's extremely difficult to expand or relocate teams to Canadian markets that have first-class, NHL-size arenas.

My how difficult things have become since the John Ziegler days when Atlanta was shifted to Calgary without so much as a murmur.

So gentlemen, please do Canadian fans a favor and take off your blinders and remove your ear plugs.

Because some Canadian fans will then be able to scream at you, "WAKE UP!"

As long as the NHL continues to endorse Bettman and his policies, and his contract extension is an unmistakable sign of that, there will be NO expansion or relocation to Canada.

But you can do something and that is join together to form a new league, like the World Hockey Association did in the 1970s.

You certainly have enough money to steal a few top NHL players like the WHA did when they signed Bobby Hull, Gordie Howe and allowed Wayne Gretzky to play one year as an underage player.

You've got something the WHA never had—three first-class arenas to play hockey in. Also, if the province of Saskatchewan rallies around its hockey team the way they rally around the Canadian Football League Saskatchewan Roughriders, Ice Edge will probably get a fourth arena in Saskatoon.

So your league's chances for survival will be much better than the old WHA.

Try and get a Canadian television deal with Global.

Get Prince William and his new bride, Kate, to donate the championship trophy.

As for American franchises, certainly Hartford rates a nod. They might even finally get around to addressing their own arena problem, if they are awarded a team.

Seattle, Milwaukee and Portland are excellent prospects. Seattle was the first American city to win the Stanley Cup. You could be tempted to gamble with cities like Rochester and Providence.

Maybe with franchises in American cities that really want hockey, you might get lucky and get a television deal with ESPN, while the NHL lingers on VERSUS.

Don't forget to place teams in Toronto and Montreal and consider other potential Canadian franchises like London, Kitchener, Oshawa and Halifax.

And if you want to rub it in a bit on the NHL, why don't you extend invitations to Jerry Moyes, Jerry Reinsdorf and current Phoenix bidder Matthew Hulsizer? Tell them they can have a franchise in the city of their choice, not flawed Phoenix.

But please wake up about the NHL. That would be a good start.