Maybe someone from the NHL should have asked John Kerry to explain what happens when you talk out of both sides of your mouth.
The most recent failed U.S. presidential candidate suffered the fallout for saying he supported going to war until he didn't. Now the NHL finds itself potentially facing similarly negative consequences because it tried to guarantee something it has always insisted it could not.
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| Jim Balsillie takes his $175 million and goes home. (AP) |
Balsillie, a self-professed hockey fanatic and the billionaire co-owner of the southern Ontario company that produces Blackberry devices, has long been interested in getting an NHL franchise for his home region, a non-starter for a league with television network and sponsor partners uninterested in adding a Canadian precinct at the expense of an American one.
That wasn't an issue back in October when Balsillie agreed to buy out Mario Lemieux and his partners for $175 million. Now apparently it is.
When Balsillie emerged as the Penguins' white knight, he professed a willingness to have the team remain in Pittsburgh provided the team got a new arena on "the right economic terms." In other words, a building paid for by someone else.
It wasn't an unreasonable expectation since the Isle of Capri gaming company promised to foot the entire bill for a new $290 million arena in exchange for being awarded a slot machine license from local officials. But it wasn't a foregone conclusion either because the license was being sought by two other companies widely considered better fits for the intended regional economic development initiatives, neither of which had expressed a similar level of magnanimousness toward the free arena concept.
That's why Bettman has been feverishly lobbying the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board in recent weeks to give Isle of Capri the nod, insisting that was the only way to guarantee the Penguins would remain in Pittsburgh after its lease at 45-year-old Mellon Arena expires next June.
But at the same time the commissioner was telling local officials they had to step up to save the franchise, the league's governors were sending decidedly contrary signals to Balsillie. In essence, they informed him that to get their seal of approval, he would have to ensure that the team would remain in Pittsburgh regardless of the slots decision, which is expected this Wednesday. Moreover there was a proviso that would force him to relinquish ownership of the team before trying to move it.
Balsillie balked at the terms, which made it clear the league was determined to have the Penguins stay put under any circumstances. It was a mixed message, one that effectively has undermined whatever dubious ability the NHL had to pressure the local politicians and might have actually hurt the Isle of Capri bid more than helped it.
It didn't do much for the league's credibility either, although that's certainly not a first for an outfit prone to shooting itself in the foot, by doing things like, oh, say, shutting down the business for an entire season.
The bottom line though is that by telling the decision-makers one thing and Balsillie another, the NHL has managed to put the future of big-league hockey in Pittsburgh in even greater jeopardy than it was and, at least for now, prematurely.
Had the league waited until Wednesday's decision was announced before trying to back Balsillie into a corner, it would have made the situation far more tenable. First of all, if Isle of Capri does in fact get the license, all concerns would have been moot.
Beyond that, however, the league would have a better opportunity of salvaging a deal for Pittsburgh regardless of which gaming company is chosen because local officials have proposed alternate plans for building a new arena using some public money. And there are several other suitors who remain interested in purchasing an emerging young team led by budding teenage superstars Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.
Some of them, of course, would like to move the franchise as well, and places like Kansas City, Seattle, Portland and Houston have all expressed more than passing interest in acquiring a new tenant for the ready-made facilities now available in their cities. But once the slots decision is finalized, the league could pursue negotiations with those who have clear understanding of what it will take to have the Penguins stay put.
The league says that's the primary goal. That is, until it's not.
