Balsillie The Drama Queen (Blames Leafs)

Jim Balsillie is a fantastic businessman and it’s not really hard to figure out why he’s adamant on bringing the Coyotes to Hamilton. I don’t really care which way this battle goes because I will only be cheering for the Leafs. If this means more chances for me getting tickets to Leafs’ games then that’s great cause this new team could prove to be a filter to get rid of the wannabe fans.

I don’t have a special interest in Balsillie’s attempts although I don’t like his continuous blame game approach to this whole deal. This whole process should have been handled in a much more professional manner then it has and Balsillie is fully to blame. There was no need of going public with his ideas and in fact I think he’s ruined his chances by bringing so much publicity to this whole deal. Bettman perhaps wouldn’t have been so rough with Balsillie if Jim had been more private in his approach and rather less forceful then he’s been. The deal is a fantastic one in terms of the financial value for the current Coyotes’ owner Jerry Moyes. He obviously doesn’t care if the team gets moved cause he has debt to take care of and that’s his first priority.

The recent blame game that caused me to write this article is him saying Richard Peddie is holding him down from getting the team. I think we all know that Peddie is trying his level best to convince Bettman and the other owners that Jim is not worthy of being an owner. It’s typical of any businessman to do this because he wants to protect his business which would be hampered by a new team and in business every cent counts. I don’t care if the Leafs are a rich team, Peddie knows that he will lose severe business to Hamilton and Balsillie if this deal goes through. As fans a new team would be a good move cause it would get Peddie and his boys off their butts and cause them to actually try and create a winning team. The fact that irked me about Balsillie’s blaming display towards Peddie is the fact that yet again he’s gone public to sell his case to the fans and everyone else related to this case. I think he’s being quite childish and to those that will say if Peddie can do what he’s doing then why not Balsillie? Well, because Peddie isn’t going to the media and saying everything. This stuff should stay behind doors and he definitely hasn’t won any points from MLSE after his comments. They will probably not even talk to him anymore and this certainly won’t help his chances.

I love his intentions and it’ll be great to have two teams in this market, but he needs to retool his approach and make this slightly easier on the fans and stop blabbing to the media whenever he thinks someone is cheating him. He’s a gossip queen in my eyes and he needs to stop with his behaviour of blaming others to spice up the game.