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Archive for July 30th, 2008

The Impression That I Get

30 Jul 2008 @ 1:09 PM

Conspiracy. or Incompetence? You be the judge — Tennessean.com

Well isn’t this a fine kettle of fish? The NHL is so hell-bent on not allowing Jim Balsillie to have a team, that they’re willing to give a team to the second coming of John Spano.

Yep, it turns out that “Boots” DelBiaggio (who makes me ashamed as hell to be Italian) is…well, let’s be blunt: he’s a full-force foursquare fraud. Does he have money? NO. So what’d he do? Borrow money from the outgoing owner of the Predators (one Craig Leipold, who now owns the Minnesota Wild) and the owners of the Los Angeles Kings (that would be Peter Anschutz’s Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG)). Not only that, but the League decided not to perform the “required” due diligence to make sure that the unctuous little bastard actually had the cash to hand to be able to run the team.

As much as I dislike the smarmy git, I am starting to get in line with NHLPA boss Paul Kelly: give Jim Balsillie a team. Seriously. He may be a douche, but at least he’s been up front about wanting to buy an existing team, gut it, drive away all the fans and drive down the team’s value so that he can yank it up and put it in freakin’ Hamilton. We know that’s what his game is, because he’s made no secret of it. But the owners–not the Commissioner, but the owners who put him in charge and keep him in charge–are so against this guy getting involved that they’re willing to approve sales to people of questionable financial stature just to keep him away.

Let’s just avoid future dramaz–just give Jim Balsillie any team without a Cup under its belt and let’s just get it the hell over with, because in the long run he’ll be a far better owner than “Boots”.