Sporting Madness

The NHL to Hamilton situation continues to get stranger by the day. Yesterday, a new group came forward with their own plan for a team in Toronto [ The Canadian Press via The Globe and Mail ], which involves a 30,000-seat arena at Downsview Park (with Olympic-sized swimming pool!), a percentage of the profits going to charity and possibly the stupidest name ever proposed for an NHL franchise, the Toronto Legacy. MLS and WNBA clubs laugh at that name. Even the Oklahoma Thunder snicker at that name. Anyway, add them to the list of prospective owners for a GTA franchise. Of course, that list also includes Balsillie and his Hamilton plans as well as the group led by former Leaf Kevin Maguire , who are trying to bring a team to Vaughan . Even more interesting, though, was today's revelation that Toronto Argonauts owners Howard Sokolowski and David Cynamon are apparently interested in buying the Coyotes and leaving them in Phoenix [ Paul Waldie , The Globe and Mail ]. Here's the...

Very interesting stuff here from The Globe and Mail . Apparently, a group led by Paul Pellegrini and Andrew Lopez has lined up $1 billion in financing and scheduled a news conference for Friday to discuss application for an expansion franchise, a potential arena site and a name. I wonder if this group is at all related to the one that provoked the earlier Vaughan rumours I covered back in April ? If Vaughan is indeed the plan, that would make a lot of sense. Vaughan is a better site than Hamilton in my mind; it wouldn't affect the Sabres as much, and there are more people within close range of the arena. Plus, an expansion franchise (especially one with this amount of cash) would allow Gary Bettman and co. to cut Jim Balsillie off at the knees and maintain their control of where franchises are placed. Furthermore, a generous payment could stifle any potential objections from the Leafs and Sabres and prevent what could be a nasty antitrust fight in court. If these guys are seri...

The perfect storm continues to build and a second NHL team in Southern Ontario comes closer by the day. Back in October, this was only informal discussions among NHL governors; late April saw NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly engage in protracted meetings with interested parties about a team in Vaughan . I predicted a while back over at Out of Left Field that NHLPA executive director Paul Kelly would have to be heavily involved for this to have any chance, and lo and behold, the players' association jumped in full force [ Tim Wharnsby on the side of this relocation. The next crucial element was a team in significant trouble; enter the Phoenix Coyotes, a team heavily in debt, apparently run by the league [ Greg Wyshynski , Puck Daddy ] and entering bankruptcy protection [ Craig Harris , The Arizona Republic ]. All that remained to be found was a prospective owner rich enough to buy the team, throw enough cash into the black hole to keep them operating in Phoenix until he coul...