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PHOENIX – The NHL is offering about $140 million (U.S.) to purchase the Phoenix Coyotes in U.S. Bankruptcy Court and would avoid a sticky issue still facing the case by accepting the existing lease to play in Glendale.

The other bidder that would keep the team in Arizona, Ice Edge Holdings, did not include a figure in its bid, but its CEO Anthony LeBlanc said the partnership will offer up to $150 million.

However, the Ice Edge bid is contingent on reaching a new lease agreement with Glendale, something LeBlanc said must happen by the end of next week to keep the offer viable.

The NHL offer would not assume the coaching contract of Wayne Gretzky, nor would it provide any money to Coyotes owner Jerry Moyes.

Canadian billionaire Jim Balsillie has the largest bid at $212.5 million, but it is contingent on moving the team to Hamilton.

http://www.thestar.com/sports/article/687068

Can they do that ?

Who has precedent on the Phoenix assets - the shareholders (Moyes) or the creditors or the employees??

Gary Bettman rules the NHL with an iron fist. Balsillie has erred his wrath and been blacklisted. Assorted strings are pulled, owners vote 26-0 with Toronto abstaining. This is Balsillie's third and most bold attempt at buying an NHL team, and I can't help but get a warm satisfaction from how he is dragging the NHL through dirt because Bettman won't let him play. And can the NHL afford buying a 140m$ team that loses 20m$ a year?

I don't have any sort of legal background but I don't see why the NHL can't. MLB has ownership of the Expos for years. It wouldn't be permanent ownership, this would buy them more time to find an owner to keep the team in the desert. Not sure if that's what "antitrust" is, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. But with the lease uncertainty surrounding the Ice Edge bid, the NHL's is the front-runner.

Balsillie can shift his attention to the Thrashers if he so chooses. He's done with the Coyotes. But if he moves to another franchise (which he will), maybe he could try to purchase a team as the NHL has mandated? It's not like I'm opposed to Canada getting a 7th team, but Balsillie is side-stepping the rules in an attempt to make the most coin the fastest. Sorry, doesn't work like that. You've tried thrice now, you've struck out. And maybe you might want to solidify an arena renovation in Hamilton first? What you call "a bold attempt at buying an NHL team" I call "a misguided, arrogant, blind attempt at buying an NHL team without understanding half of the problems involved." Six of one, I guess.

And by no means should you rule out Jerry Reinsdorf in this either. If the NHL wins the bid, he'll be the first person they turn to.

And one thing you can say about Bettman, he's committed to his 30 clubs at their current status, very committed to them all. Bettman is trying to buy a team to keep them in Phoenix, whereas David Stern says vague, avoiding comments like "The future of the Sonics is in Seattle" and "The Grizzlies' future is in Tennessee," all while trying to find potential owners to move roughly 5 teams out of their current cities, and even wants to move to China.

The biggest loser out of all of this is Coyotes fans. They either get a team ripped from them or they get a team that's terrible on the ice because they haven't been able to make any big offseason moves.

Oooooo, what did I miss? Was I called names?

This morning Blackberry Bill offered up another $30Million, what is the league going to do now? Increase there price, go to owners who are already losing money and tell them they need more to prop up a team that is losing more than they are? Gotta love the NHL.

Yeah, gotta love the NHL for trying to save one of its franchises and increase popularity in the US. The audacity of them to do that.

WEFFPIM wrote:Yeah, gotta love the NHL for trying to save one of its franchises and increase popularity in the US. The audacity of them to do that.

Yes it makes sense to increase popularity. . . but this team has been there for a long time now. . .has lost money almost every year, has less sold out games as i have fingers, and the city would rather have money than the team at this point.

Fact is, the NHL is trying to force a square peg into a round hole on this and it simply isnt working

There's no fan interest because ownership hasn't given that city anything to be interested in. Phoenix maybe the biggest bandwagon fan market outside of the state of Florida, and a simple look at the Suns, DBacks and Cardinals attendance numbers show that. Ownership has been the Coyotes problem almost from the get-go. Get a good owner in there, the team will improve, the city will buy tickets.

The NHL, and the owners of the teams in the league don't want Balsille to own a team in the NHL. Why can't he understand that and move on. Plus, a team doesn't need to be in Southern Ontario. Winnipeg deserves a team first.

The next place you'll see a team is Kansas City.

So, the auction has started in Phoenix, Ice Edge has backed out so it's between Balsillie and the NHL. Looks like the judge needs some clarification on the numbers in the NHL's bid, then dropped the biggest news so far, he may reject both bids completely. If that happens the NHL might have to fund the team indefinitely. Co-counsel for the Coyotes is making a giant ass of himself, going as far as not knowing what other events the Jobing.com Arena holds aside from NHL games. City of Glendale says they support the NHL's bid and not much else.