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Send the to Canada. They will make plenty of money there.

I can see Jim Balsillie coming in again.

QUOTE(#2):

Originally posted 10:23 AM ET  10.31 by Argos: Lets Go Packers!

I can see Jim Balsillie coming in again.

The NHL can't buy every team in the South that's hemoraging money. Atlanta will be the next team on the market once their ownership situation is sorted out in the courts.

I wouldn't be surprised if they fold a few teams then do an expansion process, they'd raise a lot more money that way.

Good. He's cheap. I hate him.

QUOTE(#4):

Originally posted 11:26 AM ET  10.31 by mattyice91

Good. He's cheap. I hate him.

every franchise in south Florida is cheap except the heat

QUOTE(#5):

Originally posted 11:31 AM ET  10.31 by Legacyy84

every franchise in south Florida is cheap except the heat

So. Fla. is such a fairweather fan town. When their teams win, they're all aboard. When they suck, well, what else is there to do? lol

Whole lot of courtiness yet to come

QUOTE(#1):

Originally posted 09:36 AM ET  10.31 by Ctrathen27

Send the to Canada. They will make plenty of money there.

Canada awaits the return of their National Treasure!

No! No! Not the Panthers! I'm talking about NHL hockey!

QUOTE(#2):

Originally posted 10:23 AM ET  10.31 by Argos: Lets Go Packers!

I can see Jim Balsillie coming in again.

Read my above post.

.

Time to free up the franchise movement provisions. The Nat Ho league's 'conditions' aren't legal in any country - time for all good owners, to come to the aid of their franchise - 86 the evil gnome ( henceforth referred to as, 'small e little g' or, e-g for short).

That's for short, Ward.

QUOTE(#4):

Originally posted 11:26 AM ET  10.31 by mattyice91

Good. He's cheap. I hate him.

Matty...its about the Shekels......Sorry DC....

Alot of these guys were heavily leveraged outside of the teams they own because the leagues control the leverage...ie Moyes and Hicks and on and on....

There will be more...I don't disagree that there should be some relo("re-expansion" for the fees) back to FrostLand...there will never be a fan base for the TV dream the owners had...the networks won't touch it with a 110 yard pole(or was it 303 feet Old T?)...because they could lose a couple of cities during the contract term....

They need the midget to go...for a stronger, more dynamic advocate of the sport...like the guy who got stuck with the Magic as GM after the Solar Bears folded... Bright Guy...good operator...Not just an attorney without operating experience...Im sick of guys who are attornys that have no operating experience...might as well get a parliamentarian...

QUOTE(#13):

Originally posted 09:49 PM ET  10.31 by TedC44

They need the midget to go...for a stronger, more dynamic advocate of the sport...like the guy who got stuck with the Magic as GM after the Solar Bears folded... Bright Guy...good operator...Not just an attorney without operating experience...Im sick of guys who are attornys that have no operating experience...might as well get a parliamentarian...

Ok, I'm certainly not the chairman of the GB fanclub, but I think he gets way too much flack than he deserves. He's done a ton of good for the game in the last 16 years that he doesn't get credit for.

Expansion- People hate that he went into Nascar country and the desert, but, these were the cities that were willing to build arenas and where men with more money than brains wanted the teams. When they jumped from 26 to 30, the Canadian dollar was about 60 cents, Winnipeg and Quebec City left, and Edmonton and Ottawa were on life support. Even the Habs had a real rough go of it when they moved to the MC because of taxes (It went up 1500% from the Forum!!). Each owner pocketed about $12M each from the whole process, money that the Canadian teams desperately needed and other struggling owners could use. ABC was at the time paying over $500M for tv rights (Along with ESPN) also had something to do with it.
TV Deals- First he got them on fox, then espn and abc. Yes he's giving away the tv deal now to NBC but it's also given them fantastic exposure with two straight finals featuring their poster boy and one of the best supported teams. What's funny is no one talks about the huge tv deals he's squeezed in Canada, TSN and CBC pay a fortune given the population base.
Canadian teams- He doesn't hate Canada but you can't just plop teams everywhere just because. What he's done for Phoenix is exactly what he did for Edmonton who were within a whisker of becoming the Houston Oilers (it would have been like St. Louis lol). He also worked to keep the Sens alive but couldn't help the Nords or Jets. For the record he also did what he could to save the Pens from Portland (remember that?) and the Sabres when the Rigas boys went to jail. I respect him for trying to salvage the existing markets.
-Currency relief- He was also the champion of the Canadian currency subsidy. Cdn teams that qualified for the plan based on ad boards sold, ticket sales etc... were eligible for the program which protected them against their group II FA's being handed huge offer sheets. They could match and pay it cdn dollars with the subsidy program picking up the difference.

He helped the game go national and not just some Cdn niche sport. It'll never be as big as baseball, football or basketball in the US, but it is what it is. It's a multi-billion dollar business today, something that can't be said 16 years ago. I personally dislike him and think he's past his best before date, but, he's not the moster and anti-Canadian a lot of people think.

Go walk a gnome.

... and don't forget to pick up after it.

Rico... oh Rico... come 'ere Rico.

RD-99...Great Post...

I personally dont think GB is anti-Canadian...I think he has played his hand with TV strategy and lost...that is the driver of all Caps in professional sports and the provider of profitability to marginal franchises, not the re-distribution of revenues through big/small market revenue sharing or "Luxury Taxes" etc.

Originally he sold the owners on the NBA model(similar # of games and season) but really didnt think through the issues that gave us "Peter Puck"...

As posted before, I have lived in the Desert and Sunbelt NHL cities and it boils down to thin incomes from service jobs against escalating ticket prices, difficulty and time necessay to understand the game of hockey, the expense associated with starting youth hockey programs with thin demographics and too many choices, indoors and outdoors for the recreational dollar.

These issues are not going away.

Guys, you sound an awful lot like BigBoy and and the E-gnome. Incogdumb-****.

QUOTE(#19):

Originally posted 04:11 PM ET  11.01 by oldtom in Japan

Guys, you sound an awful lot like BigBoy and and the E-gnome. Incogdumb-****.

O-T-J...are u **** the Saki again?!?!?!?