From the Tennessean in Nashville...



Not a good day at all. I don't want to hear this press conference. I don't want to believe it.

If the league gives the go-ahead and lets Balsillie buy the Preds, there's no doubt that he'll move the team after the season. No doubt.

The Nashville Predators have been losing money for a decade, and averaged less than 14,000 fans per game this year. As part of their deal with the City of Nashville, if the team averaged less than 14,000 fans per game, it would trigger a clause that could cause the team to move.

The team can now approach the City and tell them to purchase enough tickets that the team averages 14,000 per game next season (at the taxpayers expense obviously). Should the City say no, then the team is free to leave at the end of this upcoming season (The Preds would have to pay an exit fee).

Even if the city would agree to pay for the tickets (a minimal price for the economic impact on downtown Nashville that 41 home dates has... this can be proven by businesses that had to close during the lockout), I don't really think it would stop the billionare from moving the team. Anyone who thinks he's buying the team to keep it in Nashville is nuts.

This is a lot of people's fault (the city gov't of Nashville, Preds' marketing, Nashville media, Nashville corporate businesses), but I say shame on you Craig Leipold. He has so many times said he wouldn't move the Preds and/or sell the team to someone who would move the team.

Section 303 at the Sommet Center (yeah, exactly, we just secured naming rights LAST WEEK! which we all thought was a great sign about the medium-term future of the orginization in Nashville) does a chant after every Preds' goal that consists of saying the opposing team's goalie's name three times followed by "you suck!" I hope next year there's a lot of...

"Leipold! Leipold! Leipold! YOU SUCK!"

I'm sure he didn't want to sell the team to someone who would move the franchise... but at the end of the day, if you're consistantly losing money, you gotta do something.

According to the attendance figures here at ESPN.com Nashville averaged 15,259 per game in 2006-07. But in the article at ESPN.com it says they averaged 13,815. I don't know where the disparity comes from.

TSN.ca says there's a 3 pm ET press conference to announce the deal, which would still have to be approved by the league. Balsille is the guy who was trying to buy the Penguins before their deal fell apart because the NHL was setting conditions on it, because they didn't want the Penguins to be moved. I wonder if the league would be so against a move from Nashville?

15,259 is announced (people actually through the doors... comps and whatnots)... 13,815 is PAID.

I'm not sure if the league would want to prevent it or not. Gary Bettman LOVES the Nashville market, but does he love us that much? I'm really not sure.

if it has to happen, and the Preds do go north....I'd much rather it be Winnipeg.....

I don't another Southern ONtario team sending thousands of fans over here to cheer for them in my building

What is the problem with adding some more teams to Canada? It's a Canadian sport. There's more interest there than the American South. Maybe Winnipeg or Quebec City getting their teams back would be preferable to another team going to Southern Ontario. But if the New York metropolitan area can support three teams, why can't Ontario too?

I heard on XM today from the owner said he has been looking for local ownership since 2002 and not a single person or group stepped up to purchase the team. He had one offer to purchase a small minority stake in the team, but he is interested in selling the team outright.

With Nashville in the final year of revenue sharing next year, things are only going to get worse financially and in a hurry. If Nashville can't support or won't support the team, the owner should have the ability to move him to a city that can make them profitable.

To bad for Nashville fans, I attended a game there and the building was loud loud loud. Of course, this was in the first few years of the team starting up.

No NHL team will be added in Southern Ontario as both Toronto and Buffalo would strongly object to it. It'd be too much of a hassel I'd say. If a team is coming to Canada, Winnipeg is the likely destination.

The building still is loud loud loud.

It's really an unfortunate situation. The corporate community has never stood up while Joe and Jill fan have. That being said, there were some very positive articles in the Tennessean this morning (that's a first!). Let's not forget that the city can MAKE the team stay just be spending the few extra dollars it will take to get to the 14,000 threshhold. The economic impact of the team is WELL BEYOND the money it would spend to buy those tickets (apx $1 million for every thousand tickets needed). Also, there was an article about businesses currently sponsoring the Preds that will make a BIG push to get other businesses involved (finally). Even if the out clause does get envoked, we're only talking about another 150 tickets per game sold. As long as Balsillie doesn't come in and tank on the team, that shouldn't be TOO hard.

It comes down to dollars..specifically Canadian ones....It is still harder for Canadian teams to compete, because of it...plus the tax situation up there is worse than here.
I bet they would move to either KC or Houston....possibly Portland...
Don't get me wrong, I love the Canadian teams, and my brother lives in Hamilton. I just can't see the NHL moving a team there or to Winnipeg again...

The New York metro area doesn't really support 3 teams. They support the Rangers. The Islanders' attendance is more up-and-down (more down in recent years) and the Devils...don't get me started on them again.

Finally - some great news!!!

The lease agreement "out" clause states that it must be two consecutive seasons of less than 14,000 tickets... however, our friend the lockout helps Nashville out again!


This is fantastic news... in a way. Balsillie can still go down to Nashville and pull a Major League, but if he did that, I don't believe the NHL would approve a move.

Ontario Predators? Hamilton Predators? KW (Kitchener-Waterloo) Predators? I'm willing to bet within a couple of years - that is what they will be if the ownership change goes through.

Simply put Southern Ontario is WAY OVERDUE for another NHL franchise. Now that the Sabres have a 6,000 person waiting list for season tickets - the Sabres will undoubtedly be sold out for the entire 2007 - 2008 season by November - just like they were this past year. The Leafs are sold out for the ENTIRE SEASON within hours of tickets going on sale. The only local TV games we get here are Toronto's. The Sabres are strictly on MSG which is a cable station - not available in Ontario - so this has zilch impact on Sabres TV money. The Leafs just signed a multi-year deal for $750,000 per game for their local TV rights. A new Southern Ontario team having games on either Rogers Sportsnet Ontario and maybe a handfull on Global or CH-TV Hamilton is not likely going to diminish the value of the Leafs contract. Leafs will still rule and MLSE know that. Look for the team to play a few years at Copps Colliseum in Hamilton until a new rink is built - likely in Cambridge - between Hamilton and KW - RIM bought a 45 acre parcel of land there last year - and it wasn't for building more Blackberries.

This is a hockey crazed market of over 6 million people within a 1.5 hours drive of Hamilton or KW and there won't be an available ticket - other than through scalpers - after November for the entire year at either the ACC or HSBC. And I bet you the CBC would love this - because it means Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver will have more games against an eastern based Canadian team - that will be playing in the Western division. I think a Hamilton or KW Preds game versus Vancouver/Calgary or Edmonton in the second half of the Hockey Night In Canada double header following the Leafs early game - will help the CBC hold on to more of the 1.5 million viewers they get for that first game. The second game usually comes in at below 1 million every Saturday night because a lot of Ontario tunes out. If the Preds are in some of those second games - they hold on to more viewers.

And Detroit will now have a natural Southern Ontario divison rival again - which I assume can only help interest there. The old Leafs-Wings rivalry was fantastic. I remember there being hundreds - if not thousands of Wing fans up at Leaf games when we used to be in the same division. The Preds being in Southern Ontario will make for a better division rivalry for the Wings.

The NHL tried in Nashville and failed. Move the team to where millions of hockey fans who can't get tickets are located - Southern Ontario!

Pat, you make some good points about the Predators relocating to southern Ontario. Personally, I'd prefer to see them in Winnipeg, which is certainly more 'western' than Hamilton or Kitchener. But like you said, even if they move to southern Ontario they would still be in the Western Conference, and thus the Flames, Oilers and Canucks would have another Canadian team to play more than just once a year. Although Winnipeg and Hamilton are virtually the same size (700,000), southern Ontario is much more densely populated than southern Manitoba, so the fan base is larger. Thus, I can see some sense in moving to Hamilton. However, I don't see K-W as being viable right now without an arena.

The NHL isn Nashville has NOT failed. You don't put a new team in a market and let it sit there for not even 10 seasons and say "yep, you've failed." It's people my age who grew up with the Predators... who love the Predators... that are soon to be the ones who can buy the season tickets... be the business owners that provide corporate support. Rising attendence since the lockout does not a failure make. A failure for Mr. Leipold? Unfortunately, yes. A failure completely? Not yet.

All this talk of the new owner and a possible move and whatever has really inspired the ENTIRE city. Sometimes it takes being this close to having something taken away from you for you to realize what you've got. We're not just gonna lay down and let someone take OUR franchise. Pardon the bad cliche, but it's not over until we decide it's over.

It would be nice and this city would go crazy if it happened, the betting is on Southern Ontario. Even though we do have a new state of the art building already here.

A team that loses money in every one of its 10 years of existence - and even though they were one of the best teams in hockey the last two years - still reportedly generates the least revenue in the entire league! If that is not a failure - it certainly is very close to being one.

This sort of thing happens two ways. Either a city genuinely rallies around a team and it stays and thrives. Or a city makes an attempt to rally around a team and either fails completely and the move immediately goes through - or it seems to succeed short term but a few years later is right back in the same boat. Time will tell what happens in Nashville.

But regardles of what happens in Nashville - Southern Ontario is still the IDEAL market for an NHL team. That the league perhaps does not realize this I find incredible.

NHL - in big chunks of the USA - you are a side show sport - sort of like lacrosse up here. Fun - some fans but few die hard fans. Canadians live and die with the game. So stop trying to kowtow to US interests by holding conference final games on a Saturday afternoon to make NBC happy - a network who paid zero to you - when they leave the game for a horce racing preview show - . Worse yet they put the overtime on Versus - a station many people watching do not get! Having that game in the afternoon instead of Saturday night likely cost the CBC over 500,000 viewers. NHL - you know the CBC - don't you? Its that network up in the country north of the border - where people bleed hockey - you know that network that actually pays you millions of dollars for the rights to show your games!

I know its been posted a number of times on message boards regarding NBC's decision to transfer the overtime for the Eastern Conf. Finals to versus, but they had not choice. NBC was contractually obligated to show the Preakness stakes in its entirety, so would you rather they transfer to Versus or show you nothing? They did keep it on the local channel in Buffalo.

True Todd - but it was also NBC that insisted on the start time for that game - knowing full well they would not be able to stick with it if the game went into overtime. That the NHL would actually agree to that is a disgrace!

The latest from the possibility of the Preds moving to Hamilton from today's Toronto Star.
http://www.thestar.com/Sports/article/219835

Two possibilities if the move happens.
1 - The team moves to Hamilton permanently with Balsillie given the naming rights to Copps Colliseum, 100% of revenues from the arena and possibly operating control over the nearby Hamilton Place theatre complex and Convention Centre.

2 - The team moves temporarily to Hamilton until a new arena is built somewhere in the Kitchener-Waterloo region - perhaps Cambridge. That way the permanent location of the team would be more than 50 miles from Toronto which would limit the indemnification fees the Preds may have to pay the Leafs. (Hamilton is about 40 miles from Toronto whereas Cambridge - whnich is about 25 miles from Hamilton is about 60 miles from Toronto).

Blah blah blah... the Predators aren't going anywhere. If the "cure" clause is enacted, I have no doubt that average attendence next year will be over 14,000.

There is a mayoral campaign right now in Nashville, and every candidate realizes the importance the Preds are to the city. They all have pledge to be active in the corporate arena in pressuring folks to support the team, especially people downtown who benefit so much from the team. This is different from the current mayor who has been pretty lame about sports in general (we're about to lose our AAA baseball team...).

Attendence has been on the upswing and just a little tick in the same upwards direction keeps the team in Nashville. Mayor Eisenberger's gonna be waiting a long time for that team.

New spin to the Nashville to Hamilton scenario in today's Star. Nashville to Hamilton - add one Canadian team. But at the same time - add 2 American expansion teams in KC and Vegas, so the league can say each country is gaining a team. Then there would be 32 teams in total.
http://www.thestar.com/Sports/article/222714

The Vegas team likely going to Jerry Bruckheimer of Pirates of the Caribbean fame. How about the Las Vegas Pirates?

That would require Nashville actually moving to Hamilton... which isn't giong to happen.

More GREAT news!!!



Tennessean article

$$$ does not always = championship. The Preds' don't have all that many pressing needs, so there's really not that much that Poile has to do to get better. But no budget restraints? WOW. I'm completely shocked. I didn't expect him to go Major Leauge on us (that would have been nearly impossible with the core players that we have locked up anyways), but I definitely wasn't expecting this year.

Enjoy it Anaheim, because we want that Cup next year!

I guess it's good news if the ownership isn't going to set a limit. But it's a little silly to say they're going to be "buying a team" to try to win, when the salary cap now essentially prevents that. It's not like the old days when a few teams (Rangers, Flyers) could overspend and overspend to buy a lot of players. And there are quite a number of teams with needs that have both room under the salary cap and the willingness to spend up to that limit.

But Nashville is a top-tier team that was well under the cap last year. So, I guess my point is that we were good enough to be the best team in the league for most of the season without spending up to the cap... being able to spend up to the cap should only make us that much better.

Hey sooners2727. You will be right - IF - wise choices on who the Preds sign or trade for are made with their salary cap room they have. The right moves would help them advance beyond one playoff round in the future.

But there are way more teams who have been in similar positions to the Preds who have headed the other way. They end up signing 'Star' players that end up hurting the chemistry on a team - or are just a bust once they sign a big contract and the team begins a slow spiral downwards. Just one example would be my Leafs who lost the conference final to Carolina a few years ago and then made a bunch of stupid signings - getting - and overpaying - a bunch of 'Name' players - instead of the needed role players, in many cases giving up some promising young players or draft choices to get those players. Most of those 'name' players did not pan out at all and the result was a disaster.

It has taken 2 full years for Ferguson and Maurice to undo the damage and I think by letting some of the young players that got lots of ice time last season develop - the Leafs are on the right track now. Nashville has to be careful not to make the same kind of mistakes.

And besides - I want a good young team when they move up here. ;-)

Well, and I have faith in Poile to do just that. That's something we've always been worried about. "What will Kariya do to chemistry?" "What will Arnott do to chemistry?" "What will Forsberg do to chemistry?" So, I definitely see what you're saying. I just think David Poile is one of the better GMs in the game that wouldn't make the mistake you bring up.

I just want this all to get settled... all this waiting, grabbing and clutching onto every statement by the lawyer, etc etc... half of me just wants to dig a hole and crawl back out on Opening Night and see what we've got.

Hey Sooners2727 - I can understand how you are feeling somewhat from the other side. Hamilton area residents like I was - until moving 45 miles down the road here to Toronto - those Hamilton area sports fans have been teased with an NHL team many, many times. And some last minute deal would go through beyind the scenes that left Hamilton out.

In fact Hamiton was favoured to win the expansion team that went to Ottawa. Then at various times there were rumours that various teams would be coming to Hammiton. In 1993 and 1997 we went through this. Then last year it was the Pens and now the Preds.

So as much as I would luv to see a team like the Preds move into this under-served, hockey crazed market, I'll not get my hopes too high until it really happens.

Once it does happen - the team will be so successful that the NHL will be kicking them selves for not moving to the Hamilton or KW area earllier.

As for now -Sooners2727 - you crawl into your Nashville hole, I'll climb into my Southern Ontario hole up here - popping out only to watch games next season that will be played Nashville next year and only in Toronto up here. Then we crawl back in our holes , but when we wake up in October 2008 will the start of that season be in Hamilton or Nashville. I suspect it could go either way with lots of twists and threats along the way.

The soon-to-be Nashville owner is negotiating with Hamilton, Ontario officials on a contingency plan to move the team there if their lease with the city of Nashville is broken.

Well they certainly are not hiding the fact that Hamilton is certainly very much in the mind of Preds owner-to-be Balsillie. In today's Hamilton Spectator they have taken out ads accepting deposits on Preds' season tickets for Copps Coliseum! Fans are being asked to ante up a $500.00 depostits for Upper Bowl seats, $1000.00 for lower bowl seats and $5000.00 to reserve a suite.

And indeed I just went on to ticketmaster.ca and sure enough you can purchase 'tickets' under the title 'Hamilton Predators NHL Franchise Deposit Event' - Date TBA. The fine print on the purchase screen states...
Additional Information:
If and when the NHL allows a team to relocate to Hamilton, a sales representative will contact you with season ticket seating location information. Seating locations will be allocated based on when the deposits were made, with earlier deposits being offered the better seating locations. At that time the depositor can choose to purchase the offered tickets or request a refund of their deposit. Deposits will be automatically refunded in the event that it is determined that the team will not be moving to Hamilton, but in any event no later than December 2009. If deposits exceed expected available seating, depositors will be placed on a priority waiting list based on when their deposits were made. Deposits will also be available at any time by requesting a refund from Ticketmaster's Customer Service Department. Interest will not be paid on refunded deposits.

Apparently my hole isn't big enough... must dig deeper.

Seriously, one day it's seemingly good news. The next day disaster is on our doorstep. Fortunately I just don't see the NHL liking what he's doing. I hope not at least...

Not that I had any doubt - but if the idiots that run the NHL don't realize that the Southern Ontario market isn't THE location they should be considering to re-locate or place a new team, just look at the remarkable reaction to a team that may not even move to Hamilton.
http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story/?ID=210839&hubname=

Reports are that in the first 5 hours of sales, deposits of $5000.00 have already been received on 60 corporate suites - so that they have had to cut-off sales of the corporate suites. Just as amazing 4700 people have put $1000.00 deposits on lower bowl seats and another 2500 have put up $500.00 on upper bowl seats at Copps Coliseum. That is over $6,000,000 paid already towards an NHL team that might not ever play a game in Hamilton - or may not for another two years or more. Amazing!

This isn't rocket science. If you want a hockey franchise to be successful - put teams in cities where the fans are!

That is one hell of a gimmick. The guy gets $6 million Canadian dollars to put in the bank and draw interest on until 2009 and than refunds you the money if the team doesn't move.

$6M x 6% interest and you get $360,000 a year in interest. Free money to put in your pocket all on the hope that the team will move to Hamilton. I want part of that action.

I'm not sure who gets the interest. The owner or ticketmaster. The funds stay in a trust account with ticketmaster until they either get passed on to the ownership when 'real' ticket sales start or get refunded if Hamilton does not get the Preds. Who gets any interest made in the meantime is something I am not sure of.

Interesting to hear some of the comments of the players at the NHL awards last night. In fact a column about the players' reaction starts with this paragraph in today's Toronto Star. "To the elite hockey players who gathered to honour one another last night, the idea of an NHL team in Hamilton, or Kitchener-Waterloo, or somewhere in the Greater Toronto Area is a no-brainer."

And Bettman is described as being 'livid' that the media spotlight was on the possibility of the Preds move to Hamilton during the Stanley Cup final and on the Hamilton ticket sales on the day of the NHL rewards. Truthfully I think he should be happy that at least the NHL is still in the media spotlight at all. The Preds story helped keep the spotlight on hockey in the week between the conference finals and the start of the Cup final - and this story is getting HUGE play up here - and drawing much more attention to the league yesterday than just the NHL Awards show could ever dream of. Hockey stories are taking up as many as 3 pages of the sports sections the last couple of days in Toronto area newspapers and there have been multiple stories on the Hamilton situation on every sports telecast and even both the CTV and CBC National News telecasts. Combine that with the brisk sales in Hamilton and for anybody with a brain it should be a clear indication of where the interest in hockey is - and hence - where the hockey teams should be located.

Then again - nobody has ever accused the NHL executive of ever being smart - have they?

Great article in today's Toronto Sun on this.
http://www.torontosun.com/Sports/Hockey/20...262738-sun.html

Best quotes from the column
"This is no game Jim Balsillie is playing, although it is certainly unfolding as most intriguing theatre. It is more like an assault, an overt, aggressive, full-barrelled, well-financed attack on conventional wisdom, the National Hockey League and that great untapped hockey resource that is the market of southern Ontario."

" You can argue that he hasn't been nice enough and polite enough for the very nice and polite NHL. But you can't argue -- not as a league, not as a business, not for the game -- that what he is attempting isn't absolutely in the best interest of the sport, the NHL, and the most passionate hockey market in the world."

"And yes, while nobody is saying so for the record, this is also a thought-provoking offensive on the unregulated monopoly that happens to be the Toronto Maple Leafs."

" So, you're Gary Bettman, and you have a choice to make. Do you, as commissioner, do what is in the absolute best interests of your league, your business and your ownership? Or do you, in a small way as a small league, get your back up and reject Balsillie and say 'He can't tell us what to do?'

"Let's do the math for a moment: Balsillie wants to pay $238 million for a team that is worth maybe $150 million; He is willing to pay $140 million for an arena renovation (to upgrade Copps Coliseum). Up front, Balsillie is willing to invest $378 million to make his point, sell out his games and make the NHL stronger all the while. How does the NHL say no to that?"







-

The Toronto media is jumping all over Bettman and his 'bad' handling of the potential move of Nashville to Hamilton. An article in today's Star is headlined - 'Why is Bettman so scared of Canada'. In the article Gretzky - who grew up in Brantford just 20 miles or so from Hamilton - is quoted as saying
"If the franchise is able to move into that area, it'll be tremendously successful," said Gretzky. "We all know that." Well, everybody except Bettman, apparently."

The gist of the article can be summed up in this excerpt.
*******
The commish went on to make himself look even sillier by saying, "I'm not in favour of doing anything to destabilize an existing franchise." And what does he think is happening with the Preds while they float in uncertainty? Two prime free agents are already gone, with Peter Forsberg and Paul Kariya next to head out the door. Most in the hockey world believe Leipold is determined not to sink another dime into the team and will reduce it to the lowest possible payroll. Gosh, that'll certainly stabilize things in Music City.

It could well be that by being so obviously insulting to the incredibly successful Balsillie, an entrepreneur and businessman whose jock Bettman couldn't carry, the NHL czar is hoping Balsillie will ultimately become so annoyed by the process that he'll walk away. Worked with the Pens, after all.

Perhaps the most insulting bit of noise Bettman directed Balsillie's way was to say yesterday that no application had been completed and therefore the quarter-billion dollar ownership transfer couldn't possibly even be discussed. Not sure, but when Michael Eisner and Wayne Huizenga were being courted in nauseating fashion, it's hard to remember anyone raising a stink about filling out correct dates of birth. And those fellows sure were dedicated to being long-term owners, weren't they?

Fact is, the guvs already know Balsillie very well. They unanimously approved his purchase of the Pens before Bettman and lieutenant Bill Daly drove him away. It's beyond bizarre why the NHL commissioner now appears intent on treating the RIM impresario like a grubby panhandler.

The full article
http://www.thestar.com/Sports/article/227848

With the trades of Hartnell, Timonen and now Tomas Vokoun, it's clear that Nashville is on a major salary dump. I wonder how the fans and the corporations, asked to buy up tickets to get the paid attendance over 14,000, are going to react?

Party @ Sooner2727's place!!!

Seems like the rug has been pulled out from under Balsille by Leopold according tothis TSN report


I don't buy his reasoning for it for a second. How the hell does Leopold not realize what Balsille's intentions were? Was he under a rock while JB tried to buy the Pens??

Confusion reigns. This from today's Toronto Star....
******
So while confusing reports last night initially indicated Leipold no longer wanted to sell the team to Balsillie, that was mostly Nixonian-like, mean-spirited NHL spin. These guys play for keeps. Leipold, to his credit, didn't let the lie last long. "We did send the NHL a letter today requesting that it not do any further due diligence on Jim Balsillie's offer for the Nashville Predators until we reach a binding agreement," Leipold said in a statement last night after the erroneous early reports surfaced. "If (Balsillie) is interested in reaching a binding agreement, we are prepared to move forward."

That sounded a lot more like "let's make a deal" than "get lost," wouldn't you say?

The reality is that the NHL knows that if Balsillie gets his hands on this team, they're going to have to concoct some other underhanded scheme to keep that club away from Hamilton. So if they can get Leipold to back away, they can pretend as though it all fell apart through no doing of theirs.

Clever, these fellows. Too bad they don't use their cleverness for the good of the sport a little more often.
Bettman and Co. should be embarrassed, of course, by what is happening with the hockey club in Music City. Last summer, the Preds were an aggressive buyer, picking up Jason Arnott and J.P. Dumont, and they further identified themselves as a serious player in February by adding Peter Forsberg. Now take a look. This week, they sold off negotiating rights to Scott Hartnell and Kimmo Timmonen, and yesterday No.1 goalie Tomas Vokoun was peddled to Florida for draft picks.

"The direction is obviously to have a low payroll," GM David Poile told TSN last night, noting that Leipold is "an owner who doesn't want to be the owner anymore."

Clearly, such an approach won't help the Preds increase fan interest to reach the important 14,000 fans-per-game level next season, which will probably force the team to break its lease and move.

Let's be clear. This franchise has been totally destabilized by Bettman's unwillingness to even consider than another team in Southern Ontario could be good for the game and his league.

::Peeks head out of hole::

Man, I sure like this hole.

I just read online today that the owner of the Preds has instructed his GM to slash payroll to the league minimum? Has anyone heard this first hand in the local area? I know they shipped out Vokoun to save the money, but that is a lot of slashing to get to the league minimum, no? I know they have a few high priced UFA that won't be back, but how much more do they need to cut to get down to the low 30M?

And this strange tale apparently takes another twist: TSN's website reports that Predators owner Craig Leipold is preparing to sell the team to a different buyer, who would move the team to Kansas City. The new bidder's offer is reportedly $50 million less than what Jim Balsillie (who wants to take the team to Hamilton) has offered.

If that report is true then something very fishy - and very smelly is going on. Does a business man turn down an extra $50 million? Or is something behind the scenes going on? Perhaps the Leaf monopoly pulling strings to protect their Southern Ontario mega millions monopoly - as the Leafs have done in the past to keep teams out of Hamilton? Or is it the New York based head office staff doing anything they can to screw Canada.

If I owned one of the other NHL franchises I would be backing the Balsillie bid - because with his higher price offer for Nashville - one would assume would potentially add value to the market value of their franchises. It absolutely makes no sense no matter how you look at it.

Let's face it - the NHL should have fewer teams in the USA and more in Canada where the fans are. The Gold Cup soccer final outdrew any of the Stanley Cup games in the USA - so hockey is way down the sports list for Americans behind pro football, college football, NBA, college basketball, baseball, NASCAR, golf and now apparently even behind soccer too. In Canada hockey is #1, 2 and 3 with Canadians. When will the American based stiffs like Bettman wake up to that fact!

Pat, I think part of it is the Leafs looking out for their own interests. They pulled the same crap fourty years ago when Buffalo was seeking to get into the first wave of expansion.

But most of all what may be driving this is the connection between KC's new arena the Sprint Cneter and the fact that it is being built/run by the Anschutz Group...they of the LA Kings. Sprint Center needs a major tenant.....and there they are.

Disgusting really...part of the reason the NHL is going into the sh*tter is because they keep putting franchises in places that don't give two sh*ts less for the product. I wonder who in KC over 40 even remembers that they had an NHL club in the 70's.

(Wait, how many fans outside of KC remember that there was a team there in the 70's)

::climbs back out of hole::

Whew! I just love that everyone is assuming he wants to move the team to Kansas City. He has the rights to the arena there, but that stems from the Pittsburgh deal. The arena deal in Nashville is as good if not better than the one in KC. Don't look for Ticketmaster to start selling season tickets for the Kansas City Predators soon. I think what was fishy was Balls not being up front with anyone about his intentions to move the franchise. He lied to Craig Leipold. He lied to Gary Bettman. I truly feel that somewhere deep down, Leipold cares about the city of Nashville (ignore earlier rants about him by me) and feels the Predators should be given a chance. I think Del Biaggio is going to give them that chance. Ten years, again, does not a hockey market make. These things take time. He has a backup plan should Nashville not work for him, but I don't think he's dying to get a team to Kansas City like Balls was dying to get a team to Canada. Though really, it wouldn't matter if he had a burning desire to get the team to KC - we'll sell 14,000 per game next year without a doubt. Easily.

And thanks, Balls, for ruining our team. If it hadn't been for you, we wouldn't have to trade Vokoun... Kariya would easily be in the fold again... and we would have re-signed one of Hartnell or Timonen. Fortunately, we're not that bad even without those guys.

National Post reported yesterday that the 'new' potential purchasers were promised a team for Kansas City as next in line if they backed off in their pursuit of Piuttsburgh earlier this year. They did and the Predators are apparently their reward.

And again, they can't move the team unless there is no lease. We sell 14,000 tickets/game, there's a lease. Don't get excited, Kansas City.