Melnyk: Balsillie wanted to move the Sens to Hamilton

This morning's Ottawa Citizen features an article headlined: "Melnyk yet to hear apology from Balsillie", referring to RIMJim's dissing of Eugene in the battle between the Blackberry Baron and Gary Bettman.

But what may be much more interesting to Senators fans is that Melnyk confirms what was posted on this Forum months ago (taken from a Globe & Mail report, and available to read on these threads)...

...that Balsillie and his henchman Rodier wanted to pull the Sens out of Ottawa and move them to JB's backyard.

This excerpt:
Melnyk did, however, go on to call the strategy of Balsillie's group "bizarre" and revealed they also approached him about moving the Senators to southern Ontario when he was in the process of buying the franchise six years ago.

"A lot of people don't know this, but this same proposal came to me when I was buying the Ottawa Senators, by the same cast of characters, including (Balsillie lawyer Richard) Rodier," Melnyk said.

"And I told him right off the bat that I thought it was ... that it's not the way you go about things. There's a professional way. You meet other owners, you get to know the business, but you don't, I don't think you knock the door down to try to get a team.

"I think the way they have gone about it has got to be the most bizarre way of trying to enter professional sports."

Link to full article here:
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/sports/Melnyk+hear+apology+from+Balsillie/1949645/story.html


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If anyone had any doubts about Balsillie's true motives, Eugene Melnyk has cast a hard spotlight on them.

It's all about Jim.

"cast of characters" lol

The Gene is funny.

It seems Balsillie is just not going to learn... the NHL is not some high tech company that he can outbid or muscle into doing things his way.

This guy is never going to get it. He's a bully and the NHL is turning him back and he's getting more and more immature/delusional.

No team for you.

maybe he can buy the bills and finally move them to Toronto, the NFL might be more endearing towards him (doubt it though)

It's very sad because Balsillie seems to have tremendous aspirations for the Hamilton area and I'm sure it would be a terrific success and a huge boost to the Hamilton area if he were to get a team there with everything that he wants to build.

shabbs wrote:It's very sad because Balsillie seems to have tremendous aspirations for the Hamilton area and I'm sure it would be a terrific success and a huge boost to the Hamilton area if he were to get a team there with everything that he wants to build.

Exactly. There was point in the Phoenix saga where he may have had a reasonable chance and it really was only about him v. Bettman. He really hurt his own chances needlessly going after current owners. He had enough ammo with Boots and Sanjay Kumar and the like.

We should call moving a franchise to Hamilton a RIM Job.

Although he is going about it the total wrong way, it seems strange the NHL doesn't want an obvious passionate owner, willing to spend huge amounts of money, to have a team. I know the leafs get all pissy but, Hamilton could support a team and in the end, it's only going to help the NHL.

111519 wrote:Although he is going about it the total wrong way, it seems strange the NHL doesn't want an obvious passionate owner, willing to spend huge amounts of money, to have a team. I know the leafs get all pissy but, Hamilton could support a team and in the end, it's only going to help the NHL.

Yeah, but he's a Grade A wiener. Have to be careful who you give franchises to - and now he'll never get one because NHL owners all hate him.

SpezDispenser wrote:

111519 wrote:Although he is going about it the total wrong way, it seems strange the NHL doesn't want an obvious passionate owner, willing to spend huge amounts of money, to have a team. I know the leafs get all pissy but, Hamilton could support a team and in the end, it's only going to help the NHL.

Yeah, but he's a Grade A wiener. Have to be careful who you give franchises to - and now he'll never get one because NHL owners all hate him.

Spez>based on your comment, Jim may end up buying the Bulldogs and renaming them the Hamilton Hotdogs.

(You can visualize the between period promos at Copps...two for one Shopsy's 'Jimbo' Franks with a free large cola and hot blackberry turnover)

And the first thing he'll do is buy Heatley's contract so he and Dany can play together.

Jim would be more likely to revive the Hygrade brand than buy from Shopsy's

davetherave wrote:Spez>based on your comment, Jim may end up buying the Bulldogs and renaming them the Hamilton Hotdogs.

(You can visualize the between period promos at Copps...two for one Shopsy's 'Jimbo' Franks with a free large cola and hot blackberry turnover)

And the first thing he'll do is buy Heatley's contract so he and Dany can play together.

Yeah, a couple of Grade A wieners.

SeawaySensFan wrote:Jim would be more likely to revive the Hygrade brand than buy from Shopsy's

Hygrade went out of business???

TheAvatar wrote:

SeawaySensFan wrote:Jim would be more likely to revive the Hygrade brand than buy from Shopsy's

Hygrade went out of business???

And Neilson doesn't make granola bars anymore either.