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The NHL should just cut their losses and let them move the team already. If the Coyotes remain in limbo throughout the upcoming season, the few fans that they still have will not show up because of all of this bad PR. Who would want to support a team when they may leave next year or the following year?

Bettman and Daly do not deal in our Earth logic, they use some sort of alien logic. If they were fishermen there would be no fish in the sea, if they were hunters there would be no animals to hunt.

Its amazing that the midget's smugness can actually be seen in a photograph, and not just in person. I have a hard time believing that Balisillie is going to be winning this one, now that the other 3 major leagues have stepped up and presented letters to the court stating their concern over the precendent this rulling may set. In the end, it certainly looks like compromise is going to be the word of the day. The 'yotes stay in Arizona for next season, at least, to apease the NHL schedulers, and, barring another buyer stepping up, the team is moved the following off-season, to either Hamilton, where Balsillie wants them, or Winnipeg, where the league does. Or, by some other means of appeasement, Ballsillie ponies up the money for a new stadium in Hamilton (maybe with taxpayer assistance), and the team plays in Phoenix until that barn is built. Just my opinion on how this looks like it will pan out...

I have learned one thing through all this.... bettman is even capable of souring my liking of the nhl, not the sport just the league and how its run.... constantly lying to the fans about the stability of franchises and shutting the door on great ideas because it wasnt part of "the plan".... forget the plan and do what is right for the league...

QUOTE(#4):

Originally posted 09:10 AM ET  05.20 by sensfan

have learned one thing through all this.... bettman is even capable of souring my liking of the nhl, not the sport just the league

That happened to me long ago. How many compromises must be made to the NHL fan, how much must they screw with the game to attempt to lure in fringe fans who simply don't care and won't be converted?

Is this league for the established fans, or is it for borderline fans?

QUOTE(#4):

Originally posted 09:10 AM ET  05.20 by sensfan

I have learned one thing through all this.... bettman is even capable of souring my liking of the nhl, not the sport just the league and how its run.... constantly lying to the fans about the stability of franchises and shutting the door on great ideas because it wasnt part of "the plan".... forget the plan and do what is right for the league...

That's just the problem I think with Bettman. He is all business. To my knowledge, he never played the game when he was younger. Doesn't know the love of it, personally. Yes, you obviously have to have Commissioner of the NHL well-educated and know what he is doing on the business side of it. But he isn't thinking of the fans, because I am not sure ever was one. (Again, I can't be sure). It is just how it is going to be.

Something else DWI, I hate how the Commissioner (in all leagues) is basically just a hired gun by the owners. They are only interested in what is best for the owners, not what is best for the game, and the hell with the fans.

Have he Commissioner work for the league, and have the owners hire a head of their "union".

The article fails to point out that the other issue of 'relocation' will not be discussed in court until June 22nd by the Judge...That makes it pretty tough for the Yotes to play anywhere next season. The Judge sends them to mediation to try to decide who has control...Hahahaha...that's just plain out funny considering the parties involved & issues at hand. Of course the precedent issue for the sports leagues is at the heart of the matter.
Hamilton may not be as rosy a location as many imagine it will be...

QUOTE(#6):

Originally posted 09:25 AM ET  05.20 by PensFan-DWI

That's just the problem I think with Bettman. He is all business. To my knowledge, he never played the game when he was younger. Doesn't know the love of it, personally. But he isn't thinking of the fans, because I am not sure ever was one. (Again, I can't be sure).

Well if you wanted some clarity on the issue of Bettman playing the game or being a fan...
Someone handed Gary a puck once before he became commissioner and Gary tried to open it. :)

To paraphrase a cheesy ABC TV show, "Commisioner...Move That Team!" :P

Are we trying to turn this in to a golf concept? The team with the lowest revenue wins? Please, take my yearly 13 million operating loss, I wouldn't possibly want to be in the black, red is much prettier.

This season will be like the last season the Jets had in the Peg before moving to Phoenix. Then after the season, the Coyotes will be back in Winnipeg.

I have no problem with they 'Yotes moving, I have a problem with the way Moyes is going about it.
You can't sell your franchise without the governing bodies approval (just like McDonalds, you have to 'buy' the franchise from the parent company).

Hamilton, just like Phoenix, is a bad location for a hockey team from a league standpoint (the city lies within the 50 mile radius of both Toronto and Buffalo) and also a demographic standpoint. I did some research on this when I was in university and the Kitchener-Waterloo region is ideal for a hockey team as it fits well within the Carolina model (a regional team with larger fan base than the host city) and has a better financial demographic than Hamilton - KW is home to RIM, and the headquarters of some of the largest insurance companies in Canada. Also, Ontario is a hockey hotbed much larger than any of the failed experiments in football country (I also looked at this as well in the study). The simple fact is the NHL has some major dollars invested in these football cities (Tampa, Miami, Nashville, Phoenix) and to yank these franchises from those cities to other locations means failure and ultimately acknowledging hockey is a regional game, and not a truly national game in the vision that Bettman and the NHL view it to be. While I agree there should be another team in southern Ontario, I do disagree with how this is being done. Doing an end run around the NHL office does not win one friends within that office. But at the same time, the NHL has to admit its experiment in four these four heavy football cities has failed and has to come to a different way o thinking.
Oh and Winnipeg isn't an option for the simple fact the Jets/Coyotes originated in Winnipeg and to put them back there would be an even bigger embarrassment to the NHL because the NHL would have to admit Winnipeg was a perfectly acceptable hockey city all along and their talk of supporting struggling cities would be nothing more than lip-service.
From a financial and growing the game standpoint, it makes sense on all sides that at least one team from the aforementioned football cities relocates to Canada, and that first location being Kitchener-Waterloo.