Kukla's Korner Hockey
Balsillie A Wanted Man
by Paul on 06/04/08 at 10:22 AM ET
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from Theresa Tedesco of the National Post,
As many as eight National Hockey League teams have been in discussions or made overtures to Jim Balsillie in recent months about a possible sale or minority partnership with the Canadian billionaire, sources say.
A struggling U.S. economy, strong Canadian dollar and weak hockey markets south of the border have combined to make the deep pockets of the 47-year-old co-founder of the BlackBerry device too irresistible to some NHL owners, despite Mr. Balsillie’s tempestuous relations with the league’s head office in New York.
Update 1:26pm ET: (alanah) The ‘war of words’ continues via TSN,
NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly was quick to address the quote from Balsillie’s camp, maintaining that the league’s decisions on the matter are based from what the owners want.
“That certainly is inconsistent with anything I have ever heard the commissioner say,” Daly told TSN on Wednesday. “Ultimately, Mr. Balsillie’s ability to be an owner in the NHL will depend on his ability to find an existing owner who wants to sell him a team, and his ability to persuade the 29 other team owners - his prospective partners - that he would be a good owner and good partner in the league venture. That’s not something the Commissioner decides. Maybe Mr. Rodier would be better off confining his comments to subject matters as to which he might have some small level of knowledge; this subject isn’t one of them.”
Filed in: NHL Talk, | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: jim+balsillie
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Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.
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