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August 03, 2009
Balsillie sues again over Coyotes; new bidder mulls Saskatoon time-share
The Phoenix Coyotes sale saga drags on, with jilted bidder Jim Balsillie filing still more court papers before a bankruptcy hearing today, claiming that the NHL has "attempted to sabotage the sale process" because "[Commissioner Gary] Bettman and a number of the governors have a personal grudge" against him.
Balsillie had bid $212 million to buy the team and move it to Hamilton, Ontario, though the NHL disagreed that his bid was actually worth that much. With Balsillie's bid shelved, at least for the time being, that leaves two bidders who claim that they'd keep the team in Phoenix: Chicago White Sox and Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf, who bid $148 million; and a consortium that bid $150 million with the intention of boosting the team's value by — I am not making this up — having it play five games a year in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. If you're wondering why the NHL encouraged the team to move from Winnipeg to Phoenix in the first place, yeah, so is Gary Bettman.
