With Gary Bettman a guest at the HSBC Arena on Monday, there were quite the fireworks, in more ways than one.
Despite perceptions to the contrary, it’s never dull in Buffalo and Monday was a case in point.
For starters, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman came to town to be a part of the announcement that the city had been awarded the 2011 World Junior Championships. It was a major coup for the city and, by extension the Sabres, who did a world of work to help make it happen. But in an aside, Bettman sizzled when asked by a reporter about persistent reports regarding the possibility of a second team in the Toronto market place.
Showing that occasional flash of anger that is now legendary among those who regularly see the commissioner behind closed doors, Bettman at first issued the standard stump speech denial ("I’m not going to speculate on something that hasn’t been discussed as a possibility," he said.) But when a reporter persisted, did a little dressing down and objected to media pursuing a story that he says simply has no basis in fact.
The commissioner is right, this story is a nonstory (for now at least), but what is not being addressed is the seeming interest among members of the board of governors regarding making it happen.
It’s not so much that the governors are enamored with one of the few potential suitors to the league, Jim Balsillie and the mega billions that come with his company, Research In Motion. That exists and there would appear to be more then middling interest from the governors in having him (or his cash) on board.
But the bigger concern seems to be related to something else that the commissioner repeatedly declines to discuss, the somewhat shaky financial condition of his league.
Nobody is speaking on the record, but your humble correspondent has been told by a variety of sources that the trouble spots in the game -- Atlanta, Phoenix, Nashville and others -- are becoming more troubled by the day.
Phoenix’s cash-flow problems are very real and the same is being said of the finances of team owner Jerry Moyes, whose trucking empire has felt the two-fisted hits -- first of rising fuel prices and now a sudden and dramatic slowdown in the economy. It’s one thing to have fuel prices ease, but it is of no real impact if manufacturers aren’t moving goods. The economic slowdown is very real for the trucking industry so it’s not just a ticket-selling issue in Phoenix; it’s also one of throwing a shrinking pile of owner cash toward underwriting significant operating losses at the rink and now at the primary source of the owner’s income.
It’s a similar situation in Atlanta where, partly because of poor attendance and partly because of a fractured ownership, there are a steady stream of rumours that the franchise may be in danger of not making payroll down the road. Payroll issues are not uncommon for the U.S.-based teams at certain points of the season (football has an impact in terms of gate attendance early in the season and money is often tight late in the year), but it’s doubly difficult to arrange for letters of credit during a banking crisis and it’s especially difficult in Atlanta where lenders are concerned as to who is responsible (read liable) for paying back any loans that might be granted. There is fractured infighting in the ownership group there and the banks and others have taken note.
Nashville’s problems are well documented what with minority owner Boots Del Biaggio in bankruptcy and the principal owners said to be in default on some of their obligations, but there are similar concerns in Tampa as outgoing team owner Bill Davidson and a New York-based investor are holding a total of about $100 million as the new ownership struggles to find bank financing. Davidson, who owns Palace Sports and Entertainment, has some $70 million of that debt but at some point will want his cash. Reportedly he’s willing to extend the terms of the loan to OK Sports, the Len Barrie-Oren Koules owners, but there is a question as to how long. According to reports in the St. Petersburg Times it will be as long as necessary, but at some point OK needs to find new financing (not particularly easy these days) or Davidson might be forced to take back the team (not something he wants to do).
Rest assured that the govs are troubled by all of this AND the sinking Canadian dollar and the impact it will have on the six franchises in Canada.
The view from here is that one of two things is likely to happen. Either Balsillie buys into one of these teams and moves it into the Toronto marketplace against Bettman’s wishes but with some tacit support from governors or Bettman and the govs cut a deal with the RIM billionaire and the purely speculative nonstory inches closer to becoming a reality.
That wasn’t the only interesting event in the HSBC Arena Monday. Caught on tape was a hallway altercation between Sabres forward Adam Mair and Ottawa forward Jarkko Ruutu which may draw the attention of the commissioner’s prefect of discipline, Colin Campbell.
Mair, ejected after an on-ice melee involving several members of both teams, took a walk, in full gear, down the hallway to the entrance of the Senators locker room. He was reportedly looking for Chris Neil but instead got into a verbal altercation with Ruutu, who chose to answer Muir’s call at the locker room door in Neil’s place. At one point Mair grabbed the Finn by his undershirt but a quick-thinking member of the Senators PR staff stepped between the two and separated them.
There didn’t appear to be enough of an altercation to warrant any major discipline, but then the league doesn’t seem to like this sort of thing when it shows up on tape, especially when the commissioner is in the house, so stay tuned.
Oh and did we mention there was a hockey game in which the Sens knocked the Sabres from the ranks of the unbeaten -- engaging in a physical battle in which Mair, Neil, Ruutu and Sabre Patrick Kaleta all were ejected -- and beat the Sabes 5-2, ending a four-game losing streak of their own.
My colleague in this space, Mike Brophy, reports there’s an uptick in fighting in the NHL these days. Must be true if the Sens are getting physical.