Bankruptcy court judge rejects both bids for Coyotes

U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Redfield T. Baum on Wednesday rejected bids by the National Hockey League and Canadian businessman Jim Balsillie to buy the Phoenix Coyotes.

In his 31-page decision Baum threw out Balsillie's bid with prejudice, saying it could not succeed because he can't properly satisfy the NHL's rights regarding relocation. Balsillie wanted to move the team to Hamilton, Ont.

"This conclusion effectively is the end for the efforts of PSE, Balsillie, Moyes and the Coyotes to force a sale and relocation of the hockey team based upon the claimed powers in Section 363 (f)(4) of the Code; i.e., those efforts and related motions are denied with prejudice," Baum wrote.

However, he left the door open for the NHL to take another crack at ownership by amending its bid.

"In hockey parlance, the court is passing the puck to the NHL, who can decide to take another shot at the sale net or it can pass off the puck," he wrote.

Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said in a statement that "we are pleased that the Bankruptcy Court has confirmed the League's right to select its owners and the location of its franchises. We are reviewing the opinion and considering how we can best address the court's concerns regarding our offer to purchase the Coyotes. It remains our goal to secure the long-term stability of the Coyotes in Glendale."

FOR THE COMPLETE TEXT OF JUDGE BAUM'S DECISION.... http://www.nhl.com/league/ext/pdf/phx_decision.pdf

Great news for all three Coyotes fans! :)

They are gonna have to find a way to make that Phoenix sitution work. Ain't gonna happen with Don Maloney at the helm though. We had him as Isles GM and pulled off that fuckin stupid Turgeon trade.

Fucked the franchise up more than Milbury ever did.

I have no answer. The teams shouldn't have been down south in the first place and now hardly any of them are doing good crowd/financially wise. It's a mess of the NHL's own making.

What's the latest on the Isle and the stadium deal?

Official announcement tomorrow.

Wang and Murray are still at each others throats though. It's recently come out that Wang hasn't been very upfront with the fans as far as his intentions are concerned with this project. He plans on selling off a chunk of the housing and the TOH ain't happy about it.

On Murray's side she's being a bit of a snake proclaiming she now wants to compromise with Wang to scale back the project a bit. This thing has been in front of here for five years and no says this after the zoning hearings with a week left to go.

If this doesn't work I'd bet the Isles will move to Brooklyn/Queens.

But it's ugly.

I went down there a few times as a goalie coach to do some clinics for kids and there was a lot of good, knowledgeable fans down there. They deserve the team to stay put.

The NHL can't keep moving teams and burning fans. It doesn't bode well for the brand nationally. The league lacks stability as it is.

Since Bettmen took the helm we've seen Quebec, Hartford, Winnipeg, and Minnesota all change zip codes. Top that off with Two lockouts and the loss of ESPN to broadcast the games. Bettmen is pretty much out of options. He has to make this work or he's in deep shite.

this is a Pyrrhic victory for Bettman. Sure, he keeps Balsillie out of the club, but now the NHL is going to end up running a team that will probably lose between $50 and $100 million this year. That's cash money that the other owners are going to have to come up with to keep a lame duck franchise in operation.

And Bettman has got other fires to put out, as well. Atlanta, Florida, Tampa, and Dallas are all franchises with serious financial / ownership issues.

Sid