Ice Edge No Longer Planning To Participate In Coyotes Auction

CAN YOU TAKE ME HIGHER? In Toronto, Kevin McGran reports Balsillie's new $242.5M offer for the Coyotes -- an increase of $30M that includes $50M to Glendale if the city would "drop its opposition" to the sale -- was "met with silence from politicians worried about losing the team." Glendale spokesperson Gary Husk in an e-mail said the city is "deferring to the court and the NHL to determine the merits of this and the other bids." City officials added that "any deal could only be ratified in a public meeting." Meanwhile, Balsillie's reps want Bankruptcy Court Judge Redfield Baum to "throw out the league's demand that a relocation fee would be close" to $190M, charging that the NHL "'misled' when it argued providing relocation input to Balsillie's camp would bog down the proceedings" (TORONTO STAR, 9/9). Also in Toronto, Damien Cox wrote the "unsaid issue behind the scene has been Balsillie's deep pockets and the limit, if there is one, to how much he might be willing to pay for the Coyotes in an open auction." Cox: "This is Jim Balsillie's trump card. And a measure of how much he wants this to happen" (THESTAR.com, 9/8). In Hamilton, Milton & Peters wrote Balsillie upping his offer for the Coyotes "offered a hint of what might be yet to come," and that "has to send a chill down the collective spine" of the NHL (HAMILTON SPECTATOR, 9/8).

HINDSIGHT IS 20-20: The NATIONAL POST's Bruce Arthur notes had Balsillie "not chosen this team, the Coyotes probably would have been peddled" to Bulls and White Sox Chair Jerry Reinsdorf and "then quietly moved." Had the NHL "simply admitted that one of its franchises was a failure and attempted to rectify it in good faith, then perhaps the opening for Balsillie would have been closed." Arthur: "But the NHL, piece by piece, has driven itself to the brink of this most remarkable bout of jeopardy" (NATIONAL POST, 9/9).

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