Can you SMELLLLLLLLL what the Schadenfreude is COOKIN'?

[bzarcher]

Local business may enter a competing bid for the Nashville Predators.

I hope they do. I hope it's on Leopold's desk the day Balsille's letter of intent expires (June 30th, with the NHL Board of Governors unlikely to meet to review the terms of the sale before July 1).

Balsille may be a technical and business whiz, but the way he's handled the Predators, especially the way he's talking up "making plans in case of moving the team" before he even has official ownership is disgusting and disrepectful, and I'd like to see it get rubbed into his face -again-, just like it was when he tried to buy and move the Penguins.

Comments

[chaoticgoodnik.livejournal.com]

Mixed feelings. I'm glad the dude wasn't able to buy the Penguins and move them. I'm not sure he isn't kind of a jerk. But at the same time, until now there hasn't been much of a community effort to keep the team there. And that's a good freaking team whose ticket sales have been lackluster, IIRC.

I have relatives in TN. It's not exactly prime hockey territory. Sure, keeping a team where it is is good for stability, but having a team in a solid hockey market (which I tend to see most sufficiently populated areas of Canada as) is good too.

[bzarcher.livejournal.com]

Oh, I understand the mixed feelings, but I think the fans are there - remember, even Leopold said that they had a strong fan base, it's the corporate support that's not been there.

My biggest complaint isn't even that Balsille wants a team in Hamilton. I totally understand that.

I thought that this was a great plea for getting a team into Hamilton.

My problem is that Balsille is basically acting like he has total control of the Franchise, and that he has no intention of listening to any fans, businesses, or leauge members who might make a good case for keeping the Preds where they are, before he actually owns the team. Add to that he's being extremely two-faced about it. Sending people down to Nashville to placate the fans there, and then meeting in person with the Mayor of Hamilton about the hockey team he plans to bring there sends a pretty clear message, and not a very nice one.

If he was going down to Nashville (and to the best of my knowledge he's yet to even visit the team offices down there, let alone meet with the Mayor or other city worthies), meeting with the GM and trying to put some signs in that he was actually interested in the team as a team, or even at least giving some personal lip service to the idea that he will keep the team in Nashville if the lease is upheld.

[bzarcher.livejournal.com]

Er. Didn't finish my thought here:

If he was going down to Nashville (and to the best of my knowledge he's yet to even visit the team offices down there, let alone meet with the Mayor or other city worthies), meeting with the GM and trying to put some signs in that he was actually interested in the team as a team, or even at least giving some personal lip service to the idea that he will keep the team in Nashville if the lease is upheld. I think that he'd look much better in the eyes of the fans AND the various league governors and representatives.

I think it says a lot about how Balsille has handled this that the Board of Governors is delaying meeting on the purchase, let alone the move, and that the general comments from the owners and league hierarchy when about asked about Balsille seem to come down to "Fucker."

[tattermuffin.livejournal.com]

I have my own personal reasons for waiting with impatient glee to see the team moved ... but yah, I agree that selling season tix in a town when he hasn't even finalize the purchase of the team (or the approval to move) is a bit much.

[bzarcher.livejournal.com]

*nod*

And if he was sponsoring an expansion team? I'd have no worries at all (unless he sniped someone like Veebs or Nash from the Jackets in the Expansion draft!) but this...it feels like he thinks that if he throws enough money at the leauge, Hamilton, the PA, and the rest, that we'll do whatever he wants.

That's the kind of attitude that generally leads to Bad Things, and I'd really like to see it brought up short.