When it comes to the National Hockey League in Phoenix, there is a surprise every day.
Which means, of course, that when it comes to the fate of the bankrupt Phoenix Coyotes, nothing should surprise anyone.
Not even more examples of insanity, panic and sheer desperation.
On Tuesday, right after Jerry Reinsdorf dropped his bid to purchase the Coyotes and keep the team in the desert (because he’s a smart businessman and he never really seemed all that interested in buying them anyway), the National Hockey League its-own-self filed a bid to buy the team out of bankruptcy, obviously hoping to sell it later.
The league is very nervous. When Reinsdorf pulled the plug, it left only Ice Edge, a group that wants to play Coyotes games in places such as Halifax and Saskatoon (Do we hear Plum Coulee? How about Iqaaluit?) and Jim (RIM) Balsillie the Canadian billionaire the NHL hates s-o-o-o-o much, who wants to buy the Desert Dogs and move them to Hamilton, Ont.
In other words, Balsillie became the only legitimate choice for bankruptcy judge Redfield T. Baum when Reinsdorf pulled out and, to be quite frank, the RIM CEO is, and always has been, the only real person interested in paying an amount of money (in this case more than $212 milllion) to buy the Coyotes and pay off the creditors.
Of course, he wants to move the team to Hamilton, Ont., and the NHL sure doesn’t want that.
So the league has decided to make an offer itself, an offer to buy one of its own franchises, and then try to sell it to some unsuspecting sucker willing to piss away all is wealth on a bad franchise in a lousy hockey market.
That takes nerve, you know.
The judge might just want to sell it back to the NHL if only to see if those grifters can find another wealthy person stupid enough to own a hockey team in a desert. Hey, they already found Richard Burke, Steven Gluckstern, Steve Ellman and Jerry Moyes.
There must be more crazy rich people out there?