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“Make It Seven” Is PR Spin, Not Nationalism
by Mike Chen on 05/19/09 at 01:32 PM ET
Comments (19)
For both supporters of both sides regarding the Jim Balsillie/Phoenix Coyotes debate, there’s one point I kindly ask you to drop. It’s a major sticking point, a PR agenda, but ultimately it’s nothing but empty jingoism. So please, drop any sort of national interests in this because while Balsillie’s PR team has cleverly wrapped up his intent in the Canadian flag, it ultimately has nothing to do with nationalism.
Think of it this way. When the Ottawa Senators were in financial trouble back in 2002, scuttlebutt had Balsillie ready to catch the proverbial ball if Eugene Melnyk’s group dropped it. If this whole thing was about Balsillie trying to “make it seven,” wouldn’t he bypass the opportunity to purchase a Canadian franchise and stick with trying to relocate an American one? When I asked Balsillie’s team about this very notion, they didn’t answer the question. Instead, they just said that they didn’t want to talk about the past and they wanted to focus on the current venture.
Fair enough. But by avoiding that issue, Balsillie’s team failed to really refute that argument and, in a way, cement their nationalistic argument. Sidestepping it pulls the curtain back on the Wizard of Blackberry.
And really, his true intentions are nothing to be terribly ashamed about. He simply wants to own a team from his favorite sport in his backyard. He’s a billionaire, so he’s got every right to do that. It’s his execution that’s flawed, arrogant, and screams more of an attention-getting brat than a clever businessman.
If Balsillie’s goal is to turn Canada against the NHL, it’s probably the wrong battle to fight. Remember, this league withstood an entire-season shutdown and it current metrics show it stronger than ever across a lot of different areas. If Balsillie’s goal is to turn Canada against Gary Bettman, there are two major sticking points. One, sports league commissioners aren’t exactly beloved by the fans anyway. Two, while Bettman obviously has sway as the mouthpiece, negotiator, and key adviser for the Board of Governors, he still answers to that same Board of Governors. In other words, Bettman has 30 bosses—he’s not an all-knowing, all-powerful emperor throwing lightning bolts from the top of his NHL throne.
Turning the public against Bettman won’t do anything because the public is already against Bettman. Turning the public against the league won’t have a lasting effect because modern society has a very short memory as it is—when training camps open in September, most hockey fans will probably have forgotten about this issue (assuming it’s resolved by then, whatever the outcome).
What Balsillie’s power play (pun intended) has done is further alienate the Board of Governors—the guys that would have to ultimately and formally accept him into the league. His tactic—brash public self-promotion and an attempt to circumvent league rules—has to make you wonder if he truly does want a team. It’s a basic lesson you learn in business: don’t burn your bridges because you never know when you’ll need them.
Balsillie’s a smart guy. No one gets to be in his position without a combination of intelligence, work ethic, passion, and at least a little luck. Knowing that, why would he try to buck the one system he needs to appease in order to get a team? Keep in mind that the Board of Governors aren’t exactly young, impulsive guys with money. There’s no overnight millionaire with a soul patch and endless Internet company stock. These guys are mostly old school and old money, and they don’t appreciate someone trying to come in and rewrite all the rules.
If Balsillie really wanted to make things work, his best choice would be to play it cool and collected: purchase the team in good faith, act like he’s giving it the old college try, and then relocate after he’s in good with the Board of Governors. For whatever reason, Balsillie’s intent on showing his cards when trying to get an NHL team. He did it with Pittsburgh, he did it in Nashville, and he’s doing it again here. If he had just kept his mouth shut and quietly played his intentions, he’d be much further in the process than he is today.
Fans on Balsillie’s side have taken to his notion that he should be allowed to circumvent league rules because Canada deserves a seventh team. Pro sports, however, isn’t actually about the desires of fanbases or nationalistic pride—it’s about money. Success produces money, so that’s the ultimate goal of every team (whether they execute it or not), be it the Pittsburgh Penguins, Detroit Red Wings, Buffalo Sabres, New York Yankees, or Manchester United. With that in mind, a league will put a franchise in place where they think it will create revenue, both directly and indirectly.
Why then create the Phoenix Coyotes? You may consider this vision flawed (and that’s open to debate), but the idea of American expansion isn’t just about TV dollars. The way to grow a game is for generations to grow up with it. The expansion/relocation from the 1990s is just starting to see tangible effects—witness the number of players becoming draft eligible born in California or the number of minor teams in Texas. Those are the types of people that the NHL wanted to create when they moved southwest, much more so than any random eyeballs on the TV screen. There’s a big difference between 500,000 extra people watching half a period on TV and kids growing up with the game in new markets; those kids will involve their parents, buy equipment and merchandise, and pass their passion on to their friends and family, thus ultimately establishing a culture and a community.
And for fans that think that the league (not Bettman; remember how the Board of Governors ultimately control the league) is the enemy of Canada or small markets, recall how the league held the line during bankruptcy or financial difficulties in Buffalo and Ottawa.
Is Phoenix a viable market for that? Again, that’s a debate for a different time. Current evidence says no on the surface but poor ownership and management have prevented a fair study of the market. In any case, this is about league rules and money. So let’s put forth this hypothetical situation. Let’s say the Canadian dollar crashes over the next year and the Ottawa Senators start bleeding money. Let’s also pretend that an independent study shows that Las Vegas is the absolute best place to put a new sports franchise. And let’s pretend that the Maloof brothers signed a behind-the-scenes deal for $250 million for the Senators on the condition that they move to Vegas—no ifs, ands, or buts. At the same time, let’s pretend that a local buyer was working with the league on a $150 million purchase.
Would you support that movement? It’s essentially the same situation as now minus the nationalism; take away the tint of Canadian pride and you can easily see that this really is about one person trying to circumvent the rules to get what he wants. It’s a simple debate about whether the ends justify the means. If Balsillie sets a precedent now, who’s to say that Joe Blowhard can’t try and poach a Canadian team five years on?
In many ways, nationalism is a good thing. It brings out our pride when it comes to civic duty and heritage. However, history shows us plenty of times how nationalism can be perverted into someone’s own personal agenda. This is what’s happening here. Look at the facts and ignore the PR spin. If you really support making it seven, find someone that will abide by the rules of the league. It’s the only way into the club; everything is else is just searching for the media spotlight or trying to play public opinion.
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Tags: Jim+Balsillie, Phoenix+Coyotes,
Comments
Thank you Mike Chen. Excellent, well-written blog entry that cuts to the heart of the matter.
Posted by auxlepli on 05/19/09 at 01:15 PM ET
Many good points. As you pointed out, Balsillie was waiting on the Ottawa Senators when Melnyk came in, and that is part of the issue here: that was not his first attempt to go about things in the proper channels. Including the Senators, he has now gone through four concrete and visible attempts to purchase the team. When it was the Penguins, he received BoG approval to be a new owner, and only backed away when the League inserted a no-movement covenant into the deal at the last minute; it was the League that originally tried the bridge-burning switch-a-roo, not Balsillie. Yes, you can doubt his honesty when he said he wanted to be open to a move should the city not give the Penguins a new arena, something that Lemieux pushed on to retire the Igloo, and a characteristic that should have the BoG attempt to remove Charles Wang as owner for the very same reason.
It is quite true that expansion is partly a long-winded process to expand the game, but things can change. First with the rise in fuel prices, and then with the drop in global trade and shipping as a symptom of the economic downturn, his need to re-focus and finance his trucking business, that which made him into a potential owner in the first place, should not be questioned. Many of the symptoms of the team that lead to it being a cash sink, despite playing to 85% of capacity this season, should also be cast on the original owners, Steven Gluckstern, Richard Burke, and Steve Ellman, and League acceptance of their business plans, not on Moyes, who only became full owner a full decade into the Coyotes’ stay in Phoenix.
The League has said that it does not have any plans for expansion, not until its franchises are all in order, but until they mandate proper controls that go above and beyond the success-neutral salary cap they are taking a passive role in this. Of course, such decisions would force the League to admit that NHL Franchises are not a free licence to print money. Owners that are aware of this, ones that know that it takes money pouring into all aspects of the team with sound decisions made at every step, are the owners that the fans deserve, and that the League truly needs, even if it can’t see that at the moment.
For me, the biggest surprise is that the League has not yet done what it has had years and ample opportunity to do: sit down with Balsillie, and truly go over what it takes to be an owner, how to make the League work for the fans, for all its franchises, and how to get there. Even now with the court proceedings, out-of-court discussions are anything but out of the ordinary. General Managers recognize that RFA salary arbitration is the least desirable method of conducting business, even if it must be arranged for as a last resort, and they most often make their arrangements amongst the parties, in advance of the unnecessary pain of those proceedings. There’s still time.
Posted by SENShobo from Waterloo, ON on 05/19/09 at 01:43 PM ET
The one thing I can’t believe is how many Canadians have bought into this.
You could see what he was doing from day one!
Posted by Paul from Motown Area on 05/19/09 at 01:44 PM ET
Very well put Mike! I’m a Californian, born and raised, and would love nothing more to see more teams in Canada. But this has nothing to do with returning a team to the homeland and everything to do with a spoiled billionaire who is going to get his way come hell or high water.
This guy is a total jerk. He has no respect for, or from, the league or the other owners. He’s playing Canadians heart strings and creating an unhealthy and unreasonable divide among fans, teams, and just about everyone involved. He’s a rich little boy who wants to play with real size players. He’s the Peter III of Canada.
But what do I hate the most about Balsillie? He actually makes Bettman look an almost sympathetic figure. For that, I will never ever forgive him
Posted by SMV on 05/19/09 at 01:54 PM ET
It is certainly one part PR spin, but Canadians have a real fire for Canadians in hockey, for the Stanley Cup to be in Canada. There’s a reason that the World Juniors draw better in Canada than anywhere else in the globe, that even when they are in the States efforts are made to have them close to the border. When the Senators were in the Final, as begrudgingly as the five other franchises wished it, the Cup was wanted here, and those few who wrapped themselves in Ducks remarked frequently that they cheered for the Canadians on that team, as opposed for the team itself, much as a certain Wing draws well in Newfoundland.
Sure, it’s not perfect nationalism, but it still strikes a strong chord in Canada.
Posted by SENShobo from Waterloo, ON on 05/19/09 at 01:58 PM ET
SENShobo, I have no doubt of the Canadian desire for another team. When I say that “Make it Seven” is PR spin, I mean Balsillie’s intent, not the desire of Canadian hockey fans. It’s just a convenient way for him to drum up public support.
Posted by Mike Chen on 05/19/09 at 02:10 PM ET
Make It Seven” Is PR Spin, Not Nationalism
If what Balsillie’s group is putting out to the media is Spin, how would one Characterize what is coming out of the NHL head office?
Bettman & daly are only now (May 2009) claiming that the NHL has been in charge and running the team sine October 2008. Funny I don’t remeber this information being made public until after Moyes put the team into bankruptcy. Bettman & daly are both lawyers and more often than not when interviewed about any league related item , these two will speak in cryptic, non denial denials when asked any sort of difficult question
So, how would I characterize, anything bettman and & daly say?
Pure unequivocal , lawyer-eeze, BULL-S###!!
Jim Balsillie, shouldn’t be the new owner of the Phoenix team, he should hired by the Board of Governors as the new NHL Commissioner .
He runs a Billion dollar high tech firm. He grew up watching and PLAYING the game and continues to play the game. He probably has a a million better ideas stored away on his blackberry on ways to make the game more popular and more marketable than gary’s entire staff of New York lawyer buddies will ever dream of.
Posted by dbcooper from parts unknown on 05/19/09 at 03:11 PM ET
Jim Balsillie, shouldn’t be the new owner of the Phoenix team, he should hired by the Board of Governors as the new NHL Commissioner .
That’s kind of what this is about, isn’t it? If the BoG really didn’t like the way Bettman negotiated or spoke for them, they’d boot him right out. If they really wanted Balsillie in in any capacity, they’d contact him directly. Bettman’s on contract to the league via the BoG, he’s not on a King-for-Life type of tenure.
Bettman & daly are both lawyers and more often than not when interviewed about any league related item , these two will speak in cryptic, non denial denials when asked any sort of difficult question
Again, remember that Bettman is the mouthpiece of the BoG. His job is to spin, just like a politician’s job is to spin, just like it’s the media’s job to question spin and look at the facts.
If what Balsillie’s group is putting out to the media is Spin, how would one Characterize what is coming out of the NHL head office?
Here’s my take on it. I think the league got into Phoenix with some poor assumptions about arenas. I think they screwed up the campaign to get an arena in Scottsdale and wound up in Glendale, which was a bad location any way you cut it (though I hear the arena itself is actually really nice). I think they screwed up their due diligence on the current ownership situation. They won’t admit that but the facts are pretty plain.
Still, the BoG approved the move to Phoenix. They approved the ownership group, they approved the plans. It’s a process and it holds them accountable to deal with their mistakes. This whole thing is about process. If Balsillie wanted to work through the proper channels, that’s all well and good.
What he’s trying to do is circumvent the process that pretty much all sports leagues go by. Like Steven Seagal in the 1990s, he’s trying to be Above The Law and Hard To Kill but really, he’s creating a chasm between the BoG and himself, and thus putting his intentions On Deadly Ground.
Posted by Mike Chen on 05/19/09 at 03:57 PM ET
Additional comment to hopefully close out the weird underline format error.
Posted by Mike Chen on 05/19/09 at 03:58 PM ET
I fixed it Mike, someone forgot to close a tag, I just deleted the partial tag.
Posted by Paul from Motown Area on 05/19/09 at 04:02 PM ET
“When the Ottawa Senators were in financial trouble back in 2002, scuttlebutt had Balsillie ready to catch the proverbial ball if Eugene Melnyk’s group dropped it.”
I’ve seen that mentioned by other people on sites this week, but whenever I asked for some proof of this, the person declined to provide any or just said it was “widely reported” at the time. I haven’t been able to find an article myself, so I’ll ask you Mike. Do you have a link to an article or something else that shows Balsillie tried to move the Senators in 2003? It certainly hasn’t been widely reported in any of the media outlets I see/read, but if true, it does change the dynamics of this a bit.
Posted by Matt M on 05/19/09 at 04:10 PM ET
Sorry about the underline mishap.
If the BoG really didn’t like the way Bettman negotiated or spoke for them, they’d boot him right out.
Well, if the BOG wanted an inept and poorly handled situation which included the approval of multiple shady characters as owners ( Regis family, “Boots” Del beggigo, Bruce Macnall, ...) , then they must surely ne pleased with the tenure of bettman.
Posted by dbcooper from parts unknown on 05/19/09 at 04:18 PM ET
No prob db, it is an issue that will be addressed over the summmer. If someone makes a mistake, it should not continue on to other comments.
Posted by Paul from Motown Area on 05/19/09 at 04:21 PM ET
Matt M.
Here are a couple of Globe and Mail articles on Hamilton’s bid to get an NHL team. One is submitting a bid for the Senators when they were in bankruptcy and another comes from 2004 and Hamilton signing a deal with HHC aquistions to bring a team in Hamilton. Both articles deal with HHC and HHC’s spokesperson is lawyer Richard Rodier, now known to be JB’s lawyer. Put 2+2 together and it is clear JB was/is behind HHC.
The article from 2003:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20030124.whoot0124/BNStory/Front/
2004 Article:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040430.wxhammer0430/BNStory/Sports
Posted by jkrdevil on 05/19/09 at 05:24 PM ET
Assuming you accept all those declarations from Balsillie’s lawyer in those articles, you must reject the notion that Balsillie just wanted a franchise, since the statements in that story were always that Balsillie’s interest was in no way meant to throw off Bryden’s bid, and that it was meant as a safety net in case all other bids fell through, meant to keep the team in Canada. Of course, it never came to that.
Posted by SENShobo from Waterloo, ON on 05/19/09 at 06:45 PM ET
This guy’s post (from 2007 during the Nashville saga) connects the dots from JKRDevil’s links:
http://storm-nation.blogspot.com/2007/07/jim-balsillies-front-man-richard-rodier.html
Posted by Mike Chen on 05/19/09 at 06:45 PM ET
Thanks for the links to an article. Although the articles never mentions Balsillie so it’s impossible to know either way if he was behind HHC. We know Jim isn’t the only person who’s ever looked into a team in Hamilton and it could be that he hired Rodier after this as a result of his past experience.
Also, I agree with Senshobo. The comments in the article support that HHC never wanted to take the team from Ottawa as a first resort, but only were there to step in if the team were set to leave Canada. If JB was behind it and he was deadset on the team, he just would’ve outbid everyone in bankruptcy and had the Phoenix fight in Ottawa instead.
Posted by Matt M on 05/19/09 at 07:04 PM ET
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Well-written, Chen.
While I support the notion of another team in another market where it would be successful (Islanders become Toronto’s second team, maybe?) and would even support the Coyotes move out of Phoenix, where I’m just not hearing the stories about the growth of a hockey culture that Southern California and Texas have seen, I think Balsillie’s tactics are awful and I hope they blow up in his face.
Posted by J.J. from Kansas on 05/19/09 at 01:01 PM ET