Outside the Courtroom, Southern Ontario, Phoenix Wages War for Coyotes

Fighting has become a controversial aspect of hockey. Now the NHL is engrossed in another fight: the court hearings concerning the bailout and potential relocation of the Phoenix Coyotes.

BlackBerry boss Jim Balsillie extended an offer to bail out the Coyotes and relocate the team to Southern Ontario, and league, team, and the Canadian billionaire are spending countless hours in and out of the courtroom to settle the matter.

Due to mounting financial troubles, in 1996 the Winnipeg Jets moved from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada to Phoenix, Arizona to became the Phoenix Coyotes.

Over the past three seasons, the Coyotes have reportedly lost $90 million. Mr. Balsillie bid US$212.5 million to rescue the team on the condition that the Phoenix franchise relocates to Southern Ontario.

“Mr. Balsillie is a lifelong hockey fan. When he was approached to help the Coyotes through bankruptcy with bridge financing (debtor in possession) and to make an offer to buy the team, he was happy to do so, with the proviso that he could move the team to Southern Ontario, which he believes is the best un-served market in North America,” said Bill Walker, spokesperson for the Make It Seven campaign.

More than 131,000 have signed up on Make It Seven—a campaign to make the Coyotes the seventh Canadian NHL franchise—to show their support. “Clearly there is an untapped enthusiasm and latent demand for hockey in Southern Ontario. We’ll be responding to this…[on] www.makeitseven.ca and will continue to give the fans a voice in this whole process,” said Walker.

In Phoenix, over 2,250 miles from Hamilton, Ontario, proposed new home for the team, Coyotes fans have waged their own campaign to keep the team in the desert.

Indeed Coyotes fans appreciate Mr. Balsillie’s bailout but cannot bear the relocation of the team. “The bailing out part I love. The moving part makes me too ill to even contemplate it,” said Monique Reaux a.k.a Onyx of Coyotes Hip Check, a hockey fan for the past 17 years and a member of the Save the Coyotes Coalition. “I wish Jim Balsillie were buying my team to make it the best it can be, right here in Phoenix, not take it away from me.”

Mr. Balsillie has said that Southern Ontario is “one of the best un-served hockey markets in the world” and that it has “a market with devoted hockey fans, a rich hockey history.”

However, has Mr. Balsillie overlooked the market in Phoenix?

Reaux agrees that the NHL underserves Canada; however, relocating the Coyotes is nonsensical. “Given a fighting chance and enough time we, too, could have ‘a rich hockey history’. Mr. Balsillie has some good points but shouldn’t shortchange the loyal and die-hard Phoenix [fan base] that continues to stand by their team.”

If Reaux could buy the Coyotes, she would “invest in a little more talent…, change the coaching staff…, [improve] more publicity in a broader range of television outlets locally, partner with local transportation companies to make the commute during weekdays more palatable, charge for parking” to keep the team in the black and in Phoenix.