There Once was a Man From Nantucket

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

I had to try:

There once was a man named Jim
who made billions selling his RIM
he wanted to move a team to Copps
but Judge Baum kicked him in the chops
and now we will laugh at him!

Yeah yeah, I know…I’m no poet and I know it.

Local news won’t let it drop, saying that Balsillie’s lawyers are saying that its not over and they’re expecting the NHL to get back on them on their relocation application and also expecting to work with the league to bring the team to Hamilton…

LET IT DROP MEDIA

I am so sick of hearing about this day in and day out

Yesterday. Spent 24 hours roughly in Denver visiting the coaching staff, some players, and touring the city and hockey facilities. The local press didn’t catch wind of it until he had already left town.

Here’s more.

I posted this on the MLHS post, but I thought I would post it here as well:

[The MHLS post is] not quite accurate, though, in terms of what the judge said.

The judge did NOT say that the NHL rules did not violate anti-trust law. He said that he could not rule on that point because PSE had not tried to move the team. So the rules of relocation were not in play. The ruling comes down to the arena agreement. JB can’t buy the team under the terms he wanted to because he has to buy the team and all of its contracts, which include the agreement to stay in the arena in Glendale until 2035. So the clause in the purchase agreement that said he could move to Southern Ontario is what invalidates the sale, not because of NHL rules but because of contract law.

He would have been smarter to buy the team as is, and then try to negotiate out of the arena agreement after. The price set for that is something like $795 million minus whatever profits Glendale has already made…but he probably could have bought them out for less if he hadn’t gone hardball from the start. Once he’d done that, he probably could have gotten away with moving the team to Hamilton, as most of the precedent the judge cites says that there is nothing wrong with owners moving franchises (it’s not a danger to the league, or something along those lines). That would be when the anti-trust law would be challenged.

Dirk Hoag has a good recap of the decision as well.

There once was a man from Ontario
Who wanted a hockey team (in theory-o)
But he made others mad
Handling rules bad
Were his bids for real or just auto-fellatio?

There once was a team from Arizona
But nobody was sure who could own her
Then a judge known as Baum
Tried to insert some calm
And ruled that Balsillie could not be the owner

Sadly Hamilton fell for the prank
That hockey could reduce their stank
Judge Baum said "too bad"
But Balsillie’s not sad
And Gretzky laughed all the way to the bank

Hey folks, I updated the Montreal Invasion post with an itinerary for the main PPP Events, go check it out:

http://www.pensionplanpuppets.com/2009/6/5/900256/ppp-montreal-invasion

The Coyotes filed Chapter Eleven;
Thought Jim B. “’Tis a gift straight from heaven”.
But the judiciary balked,
And now I know legal talk
’Stead of hockey, I speak of replevin.

There once was a man named Balsillie
Who chased teams aggressiv-a-lilly
His bizarre business plans
Involved actual fans
But Bettman just said “don’t be silly!”

furcifer just got his email about his draft tickets.