Moyes Makes Pitch To Glendale Council In Support Of Balsillie

Moyes Urges Glendale City Council To Support Balsillie

Coyotes Owner Jerry Moyes last night made a "last-ditch plea in the public portion" of a Glendale City Council meeting for "politicians to switch" their support to RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie's bid for the team, according to David Shoalts of the GLOBE & MAIL. Moyes urged the council, which backs the NHL's bid for the team, to instead accept Balsillie's offer of $50M "in exchange for supporting his bid." Moyes pointed out there were "only 400 fans at last week's preseason game" at Jobing.com Arena. He added, "Glendale would make more money if the team leaves and they accept the PSE (Balsillie) offer. Even bringing in the Great One, Wayne Gretzky, we still could not succeed. We did everything we could to find a buyer." Balsillie last night told the council that it can keep $25M of his "offer for damages for breaking the arena lease even if" U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Redfield Baum "picks the NHL’s bid over his." Meanwhile, lawyers for SOF Investments, the Coyotes' largest creditor, filed a plea with the court asking Baum to "get off his duff and make a decision already." The filing reads, "SOF believes that with the NHL's preseason having already commenced, the Coyotes continuing to incur massive losses, and the pendency of the Court’s decision necessarily affecting the Debtor’s ticket sales and other critical business issues, time is of the essence. Any further delay will create undue risk to creditors" (GLOBE & MAIL, 9/23). The Glendale City Council could not respond to Moyes' plea because his comments "were not on the agenda." Moyes after the meeting said the council "has their head in a hole" (ARIZONA REPUBLIC, 9/23).

TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE? The NATIONAL POST's Bruce Arthur notes while Baum has "kept his cards exceptionally close to his robe, it is starting to feel less and less like Balsillie, for all his persistence and all his money, is going to win." Moyes' asking for mediation "feels like desperation," as does "showing up at a City of Glendale council meeting last night to speak in the five minutes afforded the public." Arthur: "The gut feeling here is that Jim Balsillie, one way or another, is going to lose. And the gut feeling here is that somehow, one way or another, he knows it" (NATIONAL POST, 9/23).

WAYNE'S WORLD: The GLOBE & MAIL's Stephen Brunt writes that Gretzky has "refused to report for the Phoenix Coyotes training camp this autumn, though signed to a handsome contract" that is being honored, "certainly does a disservice to the team's beleaguered front office, to its confused players, and to the handful of fans who still give a damn." Gretzky is "simply doing what so many others have done before him: looking out for No. 1 while still managing to remain the Great One in the eyes of those who refuse to see him in any other light" (GLOBE & MAIL, 9/23). However, in Toronto, Damien Cox wrote, "It's pretty clear the treatment of Gretzky throughout this ordeal has been dreadful, and to some degree, it's the NHL that has allowed it to happen." Nobody "wants to honour the contract he signed in good faith, and now he's been left hanging while the haggling continues" (THESTAR.com, 9/22).