Trying to make sense of the messy situation surrounding the Hamilton, sorry, Kansas City, excuse me, Nashville Predators.
We pause for a moment -- or perhaps even for weeks on end -- in trying to make sense of what's being portrayed as the battle between the ultimate forces of good (those who are said to be aligned with the Jim Balsillie bid to bring a National Hockey League team "home" to Canada) and those who are lined up against it (currently being portrayed as the evil empire dominated by American NHL leaders Gary Bettman, Bill Daly and Jeremy Jacobs) to ask a simple question:
Can the proposed sale of the Nashville Predators get any uglier than this?
Let us explain. Craig Leipold, as you've all read and heard by now, is an NHL owner trying to divest himself of a once interesting little bauble known as the Preds.
When last we saw the team on ice, they were a first-round disappointment in the Stanley Cup playoffs, but a thoroughly entertaining hockey team that garnered 110 regular season points and boasted the likes of Peter Forsberg, Paul Kariya and Scott Hartnell up front. They had an exciting, puck-rushing defenceman in Kimmo Timonen anchoring the back line and an NHL All-Star in goalie Tomas Vokoun who was just coming into his best years as a No.1 netminder.
When last we looked at the Predators on paper, Timonen and Hartnell were sold off to the Philadelphia Flyers in a desperate attempt by general manager David Poile to obtain at least a draft pick for players that were once thought to be the core of his very entertaining team for years to come but were a certain loss once free-agent bidding opened July 1. Vokoun was dispatched to Florida for a pick in a fire-sale deal seemingly designed to do nothing more than get payroll down to what eventually will be the NHL's floor figure.
And while it was pretty much a given that the oft-injured and now aging Forsberg was strictly a rental player and not likely to return, today we learn that Kariya, having sized up the events of recent days, is going into the free-agent market and Nashville won't be high on his sign-up list.
Which means if you're a Predators fan -- and for the record, there are more then a few of them in Nashville -- you have to ask: just what did I do to deserve this?
On one side I have an argument that says Mr. Balsillie may have spoken out of both sides of his mouth when he told Leipold that he was perfectly aware that he was buying the Nashville Predators and that they had a lease that -- if certain conditions were met --meant the team could be bound to that city for a long term and then turned around and did seemingly everything within his power to start a process to move the team out.
It's difficult to accept at face value the early statement that you intend to ice a Stanley Cup contender in Nashville when you're taking ticket applications in Hamilton.
At the same time, it's also difficult to accept that Mr. Leipold didn't know exactly who he was selling to, exactly what the buyer had attempted to do with regards to his failed attempt to buy and relocate the Pittsburgh Penguins and exactly what he would attempt to do with the Predators. Leipold entertaining a bid from a man determined to move a team to Southern Ontario, coupled with invoking a mechanism for an escape clause regarding the lease while he was still the sole owner of record doesn't exactly spell commitment either.
Then I've got the argument that says commissioner Bettman is acting in the best interest of the people he's paid to represent, the 30 current NHL owners and that his job is to defend the current Nashville lease, the perceived territorial rights of the Buffalo Sabres and the Toronto Maple Leafs and the integrity, as shaky as it might be, of the NHL's by-laws in terms of franchise sales and relocations. That has merit, but what about the argument that says commissioner Bettman is taking it to the extreme at least in part because Balsillie won't play by his rules? And exactly what leaks am I suppose to believe, the ones that say the NHL Board of Governors is outraged by Balsillie's actions or the ones that say the members are enchanted by the reported $238 million offer from a businessman who seems to have more money then most of them and are actually incensed that they weren't allowed to consider it? It's not like the Board has stepped up to set the record straight.
And how do I come to grips with the argument that Leipold has every right to get out of what's been a losing operation, especially in light of the fact that he's pumped millions into trying to make the Predators a success on the ice (job well done) and at the gate (hey, it just isn't happening)? That's fair, but then how much of that loss was offset by revenue sharing and how much was actual red ink? It's not like the fans get to look at the books.
But here's where it gets really dicey.
Once it became apparent that Balsillie's hugely inflated purchase price (one that apparently included sending some $18 million that could reasonably be assumed to be Leipold's cut of an upcoming expansion pie, wasn't going to be enough to convince Bettman to roll over and allow Balsillie to put the team where he wanted, who is ultimately responsible for the decisions that may well have gutted the franchise?
Add to that, what does it mean for the future sale of the team?
It is fair to say that an NHL team without Forsberg, Kariya, Timonen, Hartnell and Vokoun simply is not as desirable a property as a team with them, but does that hold true if you're eventually looking to keep fans in Nashville from buying in excess of 14,000 season tickets next season? Clearly if you want out of Nashville, you don't want the fans to embrace your team.
And isn't it fair to assume that the people of Nashville know that and that prospective new owners would think that?
And isn't that why we shouldn't be swayed by reports that Balsillie is out of the running and that parties that want to buy the team and move it to Kansas City are now back on the scene?
Simply put, this is a mess, a humongous mess and one that Leipold, still the bonafide owner of the Nashville Predators, has to deal with.
The given is that he will sell the team.
No matter what anyone says, how, when, to whom and at what price are all still to be determined.
