Carpet-Bagging Distasteful and Un-Canadian
May 8, 2009, by Homme De Sept-Iles
To steal a franchise, ailing or otherwise from another city in order to get back (at America) or get in (the league) or for purely financial or egotistical gain whatsoever is repugnant.
It’s the point that is missing in most of the current discussion around the potential move of the Phoenix Coyotes to Southern Ontario.
The Canadian desperation for franchises has seeped into and obscured our media’s critical faculties when it comes to the perceived unfair road-blocking of Jim Balsillie’s attempts to take a US franchise into the Southern Ontario area.
How quickly we forget. Winnipeg and Quebec City lost their franchises amidst much Canadian upset and angst.
The history of franchise moves leaving fans who invest greatly in both emotional and financial ways has far too many examples in both Canadian and American sports.
Howard Cosell, in his 1984 book, I Never Played the Game (Avon Books) addresses the issue of carpet-bagging over two chapters. These two exerpts resonated with this writer and might give pause to those who would happily see Nashville’s loss become Hamilton or Canada’s gain.
“My intention here is not to document the agonizing legal maze that accompanied the Raiders’ exodus from Oakland to Los Angeles. What interests me is the human dimension of this story – how the spirit of countless people is dashed and their loyalty subverted by wealthy owners who skip town to become even wealthier, and how the mere threat of franchise removal continues to bring great cities to their knees as they scramble to mollify owners with new stadiums and other expensive perquisites and maintain their big-league image. In almost every case, it’s the fans who get ripped off. Either they lose their home team to another city, or they end up paying additional taxes that keep an owner in limousines and Acapulco vacations.”
“That’s terrific! You don’t even intend to give a single thought to the harsh realities of the situation, do you? You’re distressed and your fans are upset, and you want to rectify matters by stealing another team from another city and the hell with their fans. That really makes a lot of sense.”
Jim Balsillie and his so-called right-hand man Richard Rodier have floated like vultures near three NHL franchise near-deaths or moves over the past few years.
Despite Bettman’s perceived short-comings, (he is no saint), the beleaguered commissioner’s stand in working to keep the team in Phoenix is the right move for a league that does not need the destabilzing impact generated when a franchise relocates. Stronger leagues (NFL, NBA) can deal with the ripple effect in shorter time and with less damage when a team relocates but in all cases, it is a difficult situation. It would be moreso for the NHL who are still struggling to regain a medium-sized foothold in US sports market. It’s a foothold they lost when both ABC and ESPN ended their relationship with the NHL earlier this decade.
Bettman is allegedly dead-set against allowing Jim Balsillie into the NHL. Bettman has been criticized and questioned for taking this position. Let’s look at the CFL as an example that supports Gary Bettman. Over the decades, the CFL has suffered such ownership luminaries as Nelson Skalbania, Horn Chen and, (twice!) the Glieberman group.
There is a far longer list. The point is that the adventures (or misadventures) that may result as a consequence of allowing a maverick owner (or worse) are not to be taken lightly. Granted the NHL has its share of those. And perhaps a few are there because of Bettman’s own oversights, purposeful or otherwise. But Bettman is not the only man involved here. In reducing this situation to a personality conflict of individuals, the media is overlooking the fact that the owners employ Bettman and that as a group (perhaps not unanimously) they have their own reservations about Balsillie.
Balsillie is painted as a white knight by some in the media but his ledger as a sports personality is not all checkmarks. Neither is his history as CEO of Research in Motion (sometimes derisively known as Lawsuits in Motion).
There is a right way to go about entering a league. And there is a wrong way. Is Jim Balsillie right for the NHL? Maybe in the short term. But in the long term, maybe not. These are the questions that Bettman and the league governors are answering. And thus far they seem to be saying that, like it or not, Jim Balsillie is not their idea of the right guy for their club.
It is even more complex as Phoenix may have claimed bankruptcy on questionable grounds. This is the reason for legal action being taken by Bettman and the NHL at the moment. Conversely, the Coyotes have filed a suit of their own contending that the NHL is blocking the Coyotes from moving freely.
Through it all, we must remember that there is a core of fans, about the same number as in the Jet or Nordique cases who do continue to support their team. Whose fault is it that those numbers aren’t higher? The fans? The league? The Coyotes? Or some other entity or some other combination?
Let’s not be too hasty.
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[...] about Balsillie and the Coyotes. The story that won’t go away and the story that brings Canadian jingoism to the forefront more easily than most other stories of [...]