Skatin’ the Web: NHL’s Bid to Buy The Phoenix Coyotes

Now that the NHL has put their hat in the ring with a bid to buy the Phoenix Coyotes, everyone in the NHL world is waiting and watching to see where the madness will end. Of course the NHL would presumably be content to have the Coyotes stay put in Phoenix until they can find a suitable buyer who is not going going to pull a “Balsillie” and try and uproot the team. But then again, what is the NHL really thinking putting in a bid on a team that is leaking funds faster than any sieve goalie the NHL has ever seen?

Here are some thoughts from some other blogs around the interwebs:

Yahoo’s Puck Daddy:

The Hamilton Spectator is reporting that the NHL’s bid for the Phoenix Coyotes is $140 million, which is lower than three other attempts to purchase the franchise: Those of billionaire Jim Balsillie ($212 million) and Ice Edge ($150 million), both of whom are formally in the auction for the team; and the Jerry Reinsdorf group’s now-aborted $148 million proposal.

The Globe and Mail:

Nominally, the NHL’s goal in trying to buy the Phoenix Coyotes out of bankruptcy is to keep them operating in that same unhealthy market by dishing the franchise off to a third party as soon as humanly possible. The reality is, the chances of some anonymous deep-pocketed gazillionaire doing commissioner Gary Bettman that favour over the long term is virtually nil – which brings up a delicious scenario for anyone hoping to see a seventh Canadian team join the NHL sooner rather than later.

From The Rink:

Yes, the Ice Edge boys remain one of the bids, but for how long remains to be seen. Their offer is contingent on negotiations with the city, and given they’ve been in the picture several months less than Jerry Reinsdorf and he couldn’t make any progress there, it seems doubtful they’ll get what they want by Sept. 10. In other words, they very well could be the next party to walk.

TSN:

A group headed by Jerry Reinsdorf has pulled out as a potential buyer of the Phoenix Coyotes just as the NHL and a partnership of Canadian and American investors filed separate bids in U.S. Bankruptcy Court to purchase the team and keep it in Arizona. The NHL announced its bid filing a few hours before word came that the investors’ group, known as Ice Edge Holdings, had met Tuesday’s court-imposed deadline. Ice Edge chairman Keith McCullough said in a news release that the plan was to “revitalize NHL hockey in Arizona and the southwestern United States.”

From the Rink:

The league is going to continue to fight the Canadian billionaire’s ability to bid in the intervening weeks, but it’s looking more and more like the NHL will have to put their number up against his and hope the judge rules in their favour on Sept. 10. The league obviously isn’t compelled to bid quite as high as Balsillie given the potential impact relocation will have on the size of creditors’ claims, but in theory, the sky’s the limit when it comes to the number he can put on the table.

Do you think the NHL is putting too much at risk by putting in a bid?

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