Jerry Reinsdorf trying to buy the NHL's Phoenix Coyotes

2009-07-04T03:07:44Z

...and the NHL wants him to buy them too.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The National Hockey League is backing a bid by sports team mogul Jerry Reinsdorf to buy the bankrupt Phoenix Coyotes for up to $148 million rather than the $212.5 million offer from Canadian billionaire Jim Balsillie.

The NHL believes the owner of the Chicago White Sox baseball and Chicago Bulls basketball teams and part-time Arizona resident will keep the team in the Phoenix area and the league hopes Judge Redfield Baum accepts Reinsdorf's bid, Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said in an email.

"At the end of the day, what we have and what's been submitted to the court, we think is the best offer that's out there, and we're trying to maximize the value for all creditors," Daly said in an email.

Boy, does this ever warm our frigid cockles.
You can see why the NHL would want Reinsdorf in on this. Under his tenure, the Bulls and White Sox have both been World Champions, when they had been desolte before he arrived. When Reinsdorf took over the Bulls in 1985, they had made the playoffs only once in the previous 9 seasons, and when he invested in the White Sox in 1981, they had made the postseason only once since 1919. Both became winners within a generation.

Both teams also became more than just financially solvent - the Bulls return huge profits every season, moreso than any other franchise (as Doug breaks down here), and the White Sox have become a high-spending, even-higher-returns operation, as well as multi-time pennant winners. Reinsdorf's resumé as a franchise owner is very impressive, and presumably the NHL can foresee a similar turnaround coming to a moribund franchise that neither wins nor breaks even.

Yet, for us Bulls fans, this is a tough pill to swallow. We just let one of our best players walk in free agency, unchallenged, because the franchise with the largest profits in the league refused to traverse an entirely traversible payroll barrier that would reduce the owner's huge profits only very slightly.

Ponying up for Gordon wouldn't have made the Bulls insolvent, or come anywhere close to putting them in the red. Paying the luxury tax for the luxury of keeping your best players will not be the death of this time. An arbitrary payroll boundary, which they had no need to adhere to strictly and plenty of incentive to go over, has combined with stubborn business practice to cost our team a prized asset, and set back back the basketball product for the forseeable future. That sucks.

And it becomes that much harder to accept this when you later read about your team's owner being suddenly able to get hold of $148 million to finance a bankrupt liability. I hope this cheers you up.

Rich men want to stay rich, and Jerry Reinsdorf is no different. Can I find it in my heart to blame him for that? If I wasn't a Bulls fan, probably not. I'd probably do the same.

But I am a Bulls fan. So screw him.

Comment from Doug Thonus on 2009-07-04

2009-07-04T11:44:26Z

Sounds like Reinsdorf is going bargain hunting. He's offering 67 million less than the competition for franchise. Why would they realistically even consider his bid?

The league would probably be better off if the team moved to Canada anyway.

Comment from Mark Deeks on 2009-07-04

2009-07-04T21:57:15Z

They're approving it because Reinsdorf makes bad teams good. He makes them turn profits. He makes them solvent, and gets them in the black. He's deliberately underbid because he can, knowing the sway that his CV has. And he'll probably do it again.

Comments for Jerry Reinsdorf trying to buy the NHL's Phoenix Coyotes

Jerry Reinsdorf trying to buy the NHL's Phoenix Coyotes

Comment from Doug Thonus on 2009-07-04

Comment from Mark Deeks on 2009-07-04