Instead, Bettman looked across the table and suggested another option. What about Pittsburgh? The Penguins are still for sale.
And so it began: Jim Balsillie’s gradual, improbable plunge from wealthy, wannabe owner to NHL pariah.
Almost immediately, Balsillie’s camp began negotiating a deal to buy the Penguins from a group that included scoring legend Mario Lemieux. Later that June, while Bettman was in B.C. for the annual entry draft, he received a surprise phone call from his new friend. “I was actually in the lobby of the Sheraton Wall Hotel in Vancouver, and he was on his way to either a bicycle trip or a bicycle race,” Bettman recalled, testifying this summer at his own deposition. “And he said to me: ‘I need some advice. I’m not sure what to do about these negotiations.’ And I remember saying to him: ‘Jim, unless you’re prepared for the possibility that you will own the Penguins in Pittsburgh forever, you shouldn’t buy the team.’ And he said: ‘That’s really good advice, I appreciate it.’ And then he dropped out of the bidding.”
To Bettman, the message was crystal clear: Balsillie was still in love with his southern Ontario scenario—the same one they discussed on March 28—and he had no interest in owning a team south of the border.
Which is why, when Balsillie suddenly changed his mind and re-entered the Pittsburgh negotiations later that summer, Bettman became suspicious. “There was a real concern as to whether or not Mr. Balsillie was really going to try and work things out in Pittsburgh or try to figure out a way to extricate them and move them,” he testified. “This was an issue relating to Mr. Balsillie’s credibility. Did he mean what he said?”
What he said (or allegedly said, or allegedly didn’t say) is now the stuff of sworn affidavits. But this much is certain: when the Penguins were on the market in 2006, the team was in desperate need of a new rink. At the same time, the state of Pennsylvania was in the process of granting a slots licence for a casino development in downtown Pittsburgh, and one of the bidders, Isle of Capri, had pledged to fork over US$290 million toward a new arena—but only if it won the casino licence. Any potential buyer, Balsillie included, would have to honour that arrangement and keep the Pens in town.
Despite his Hamilton ambitions, Balsillie insists he was fully committed to staying put in Pittsburgh. On Aug. 29, 2006, during another sit-down with NHL brass, he threw his unequivocal support behind the Isle of Capri bid, and if that proposal fell through, he vowed to work diligently on a so-called “Plan B,” which would include an undetermined blend of private, government and out-of-pocket funding. As for what transpired during the rest of the meeting, it depends on which side you believe.
At the heart of the now-disputed storylines is the league’s so-called “seven-year” clause, a standard rule that prohibits a new owner from immediately relocating his team. Balsillie, concerned that the stipulation would handcuff him during arena negotiations, says he was under the impression that Bettman agreed to waive the requirement. Bettman says no such discussions ever occurred.
Amid those mixed signals, negotiations picked up steam. By Oct. 4—the day before the season began—Balsillie and the Lemieux group had reached a tentative agreement worth US$175 million. All that was left was a rubber stamp from the NHL’s other 29 owners. “I was thrilled and excited about the prospect of owning the Penguins,” Balsillie testified in August, noting that his private jet could whisk him to a game in 45 minutes flat. “Of all the ironies, I could get to Pittsburgh faster than I could get to downtown Toronto for a Leafs game from my home in Waterloo.”
To prove his commitment to the team, Balsillie even ordered HHC to cancel its lease option with Copps Coliseum.
But then came Dec. 4, 2006—the day of Balsillie’s face-to-face interview with the executive committee of the NHL board of governors. As Balsillie recalled in his deposition, he considered it more of a meet-and-greet than anything else. “I thought they were just trying to size me up, really,” he testified. “My sense of it is these people were just trying to get a sense of who I am, how I think, who they are dealing with, what kind of person I am.” After the meeting, Balsillie shook some hands and boarded a plane for China. “I walked out and thought: ‘What a nice bunch of people. I am excited. We are going to get this done. We are going to win a Cup.’ ”
