Last week, Balsillie hired former Columbus Blue Jackets general manager Doug MacLean as an adviser. Should Balsillie get his gloves on the former Jets, MacLean--who has experience with a new club from his days as the Jacket's first GM--will presumably evaluate the team's hockey operations and make recommendations to his boss.
Not everyone is a fan of Doug MacLean. As regular readers might remember, I follow the NHL's Columbus Blue Jackets--the team MacLean used to run. And the Columbus media, which I read pretty much daily, think he came close to wrecking the franchise. Actually they seem to think he's an egomaniacal, two-faced weasel and a sleazy opportunist.
Here's a dryly-scathing opinion piece by the Columbus Dispatch's Michael Arace on Balsillie's hiring of MacLean:
MacLean talked his way into the wallet of Tampa Bay owner Oren Koules and was the short-lived president of the Lightning -- until Koules realized he was being played and jettisoned MacLean (and MacLean's real-estate agent) from the group. MacLean sued Koules, who was compelled to cough up a tidy sum to settle out of court. What a deal. MacLean threw a few bucks into the pot, lined up a millionaire as a front and came away with some serious bank -- for doing nothing. And now MacLean has talked his way into Balsillie's camp. Does he really think Bettman is still his buddy? Can he really believe that the NHL Board of Governors wants anything to do with him?
Not a reference I'd want on my resume.
What's this got to do with anything?
I'm probably one of the few Canadians who doesn't like Balsillie's legal power-play to land another Canadian NHL team. I think if a billionaire hockey fan wants a team, the NHL will get him one sooner or later--but by basically attacking the league he's showing that he's a bad business partner. And ask yourself this: what if a billionaire used the courts to try to move a Canadian team to Kansas City? Or what if he found a way to legally challenge the salary cap, which keeps small market teams afloat?
My point is, Balsillie is reckless and dangerous to the league's stability. People are being blinded by the fact he's trying to land a team in our hockey-mad country, which as all we Canadians know the NHL has crapped on time and time again.
The fact Balsillie hired Doug MacLean does not allay my concerns.
I don't necessarily judge people by the company they keep. But when someone who already seems kind of sketchy hires a guy with the qualities MacLean appears to have, I definitely keep a more suspicious eye on 'em.
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3 comments:
I don't see what the big deal is about MacLean joining Balsillie's bid. Is it so bad that professional people have people in the organization who aren't Yes-Men, lackeys, and an echo chamber? If the guy has good ideas, then you listen, not dismiss them out of hand. Maybe Balsillie has been chastened.
And re: "And ask yourself this: what if a billionaire used the courts to try to move a Canadian team to Kansas City?"
Hasn't that happened? Where are the Nordiques and Jets? If Canada can't support a franchise, then perhaps they deserve to lose it. Wouldn't be the first time. One thing I know is that the Coyotes are a failure, and we're going to see the collapse of Bettman's southward drive. They are teetering on the brink, and NHL just admitted Hamilton (yes, dinky Steeltown) would be a Top 5 franchise.
Makes better business sense to locate an ice cream stand in Los Angeles than Baffin Island, and so too better hockey sense to put a team where fans are begging for it instead of playing before tumbleweeds.
All this because Bettman has a massive ego, his grand strategy is flaming out, and to protect Maple Leafs exclusive right to gouge area fans.
Well, no actually. A billionaire hasn't used the courts to move a Canadian NHL team to the States. The two Canadian franchises were sold by their not-wealthy enough owners in the pre-salary cap era. If Winnipeg or Quebec had a Balsillie in the mid-90s, they'd still have teams.
Yes, Hamilton should probably have a team. Balsillie would've been the perfect guy to run it. Except he's going about it in an idiotic way. And hiring Doug MacLean makes me think he doesn't know what he's doing.
I think you're right about Bettman, the Leafs and the Canadian market. I KNOW Phoenix is a disaster and that team's gotta move.
But that doesn't change the fact that Balsillie's reckless and has sketchy judgment--and if I were an NHL owner I wouldn't want him in the league at this point.
That's all I'm saying.
I can attest that Jim Balsillie was quite a character when I knew him at school. However, the greates threat to the stability of professional hockey in North America is Gary Bettman. The man couldn't manage a bad smell out of a skunk's ass.
His misbegotten strategy of expanding the NHL into areas with exactly zero interest in hockey while denying any consideration of new franchises in places where people can actually tell a puck from a piledriver is driving the league into financial chaos.
Bettman should have been fired years ago. I wouldn't hire him to clean toilets.
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