On the Forecheck

Entries with the tag: Jim+Balsillie

Boots bankruptcy a boon to Ballsillie? Maybe not

by Forechecker on 10/08/08 at 12:39 PM ET
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For Jim Balsillie to obtain the minority position in the Nashville Predators that Boots Del Biaggio bought into, bankruptcy court appears to offer a potential “back door” into NHL ownership, as he could simply outbid other parties for the shares. Since the bankruptcy trustee is bound to obtain top dollar for Del Biaggio’s creditors, this offers a potential legal end-run around the NHL’s process, which kept Balsillie from buying the Predators in 2007. For instance, the Globe & Mail’s Stephen Brunt wrote the following last week:

If Balsillie is indeed interested, he must have similar views [regarding Del Biaggio’s relocation schemes] – minus the Kansas City part – and he understands that by working through the bankruptcy courts he can’t be derailed by NHL politics or the legal butt-covering that prompted Bettman to twice make sure a sale to Balsillie was never consummated.

But it may turn out that this back door is closed, as well. One intrepid Nashville fan has dug up a legal presentation entitled “Sports Franchises and Bankruptcy Law”, which appears to shed some light on this question of whether the Del Biaggio minority position can simply be auctioned off to the highest bidder, regardless of NHL rules.

Filed in: Nashville Predators | On the Forecheck | Permalink
Tags: Jim+Balsillie,

Balsillie Buying the Predators, Again?

by Forechecker on 09/29/08 at 11:07 PM ET
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When the words first crept across my computer screen, I thought it was a flashback to the summer of 2007. “Jim Balsillie is closing in on a deal to purchase the NHL’s Nashville Predators,” ran the first sentence of the article from Sportsnet. According to a report by Bob McCown on the Fan590 in Toronto, the Blackberry Kid is tantalizingly close to announcing a deal to buy out the Predators’ local ownership, with the obvious intent of moving them from Nashville to his lair in Hamilton, Ontario.

Filed in: Nashville Predators | On the Forecheck | Permalink
Tags: Jim+Balsillie,