In theory, Pittsburgh fans should be delighted with the man who just bought their hockey team.
First of all, Jim Balsillie is shelling out $175 million for the Penguins. You want folks with the inclination to spend that kind of dough.
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| The new Penguins owner is a big-time hockey enthusiast. (AP) |
Not only does Balsillie plays in men's league twice a week, he named a corporate boardroom after the legendary Gordie Howe and has said one of his greatest thrills was a goal Guy Lafleur set up for him during a charity game a decade ago. Heck, Balsillie is probably already about thinking about ditching his rec team so he can skate with Crosby and company in practices.
And if all that weren't enough, the dude says the right things too. After the deal was announced, Balsillie talked about the "the incredible tradition of success and fan support" and how he looks "forward to owning this team for a long time in Pittsburgh."
So really, what's not to like the franchise's latest savior?
Maybe nothing, but a little leeriness couldn't hurt in Pittsburgh now that the Penguins is in the hands of someone who has been actively campaigning to bring another NHL team back to the motherland. You know, Canada, otherwise known as the place they don't count in the Nielsen ratings.
Balsillie, for the uninitiated, comes from Peterborough, Ontario, his Research in Motion company is headquartered in Waterloo, and he has a monetary stake in the under-utilized Copps Arena in Hamilton. All are within sneezing distance of the Air Canada Centre and the hotbed Southern Ontario market centered by Toronto, where you could sell out an NHL old-timers' game.
In fact, no NHL area is better suited to supporting a second franchise, especially the kind Balsillie now controls. The Penguins have so much young talent, they could become a dynasty in short order if he keeps them together.
That's what Mario Lemieux has been doing for Pittsburgh for the past two decades, saving the franchise initially when he arrived as an 18-year-old in 1984 and then again in 1999 when he purchased the team to keep it from dying in bankruptcy. But the reality is that Lemieux has only been a caretaker in his reincarnation as an owner, and while he was always the impetus for keeping the team in Pittsburgh, Balsillie seems more likely to be someone to give it life someplace else.
That's not in the plans yet, at least not publicly. Lemieux and Balsillie both insisted their desire is to keep the team where it is, and NHL commissioner Gary Bettman repeated this week that the league's preference is for the team to stay put.
"Why would we want to leave a hockey hotbed like Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh has always been a great market for us," Bettman said in a conference call. "We don't want to see that team go anywhere."
Of course, Bettman suggested he couldn't guarantee the Pens would stay but would exhaust every option to make sure it did.
"The only thing that could drive us out of town would be the inability of those in charge of governmental entities to provide a new building," Bettman said.
They are trying in Pittsburgh, desperately some would say, but the best shot at making it happen is tied to a gambling company whose odds seem to be getting longer by the day. The Penguins reached a deal several months ago with Isle of Capri Casinos, which promised to build a $290 million arena if it wins the state license for slot machines.
But Isle of Capri isn't considered the frontrunner among the three finalists vying for that license, which will be awarded in December, putting plans for a free building for the team in jeopardy.
State and local government officials have created a backup plan that would involve a monetary outlay by the Penguins, numbers that seem manageable on the surface, but aren't as appealing as not paying at all. Balsillie, who is 45 and has earned a reputation for being a hard-driving businessman, could find those terms to be the perfect excuse to leave.
"We are a heck of a lot closer to having an NHL team in Hamilton than we were yesterday," city councilor Terry Whitehead told the Hamilton Spectator.
No doubt that's something the people in Pittsburgh probably don't want to think about right now.
