Balsillie is quite the hokey nut. When I was at RIM, the co-op committee would organize these talks where senior people would talk about what they do, how they got there etc. They were all pretty interesting, except Balsillie's talk, which involved hokey.<p>Anyway, I'm no hokey fan, but the politics behind this are actually pretty interesting. The NHL commisioner has been in power for a long time and runs the league with a heavy hand, and his primary push over his time has been trying to expand the game to the southern US, which involved moving teams from places like Quebec City and Winnipeg to Phoenix and Nashville. Of course, there is no base for hockey there and so a lot of these teams have very poor attendance and lose lots of money. Due to revenue-sharing, more successful teams have to pay for the loses for less-successful teams, which irritates lots of team owners, who are also governors of the NHL.<p>Now, Balsillie comes along and tries to buy a team. First The Penguins, then the Predators. The first time he balks after some last-minute addenda to the contract, while the second time he is judged to be too brash and not respectful enough of the established order.<p>Now comes this attempt. Clearly the Coyotes are a failure of a business - amongst the lowest sales in the league, massive financial loses every year. In order to survive, Bettman must convince team owners (who must approve any move within the league) that his southern strategy is worth perusing, that Balsillie would be an irresponsible and undesirable owner, and that they must keep subsidising the Coyotes for the good of everyone. Balsillie, OTOH, is using three strategies: first bankrupcy court to where he picks up the Coyotes by offering a very good price for a very bad business, second a lawsuit that alleges the NHL promotes anti-competitive practises (trying to keep Hamilton from getting a team, since its close to Toronto and Buffalo) and lastly, appealing to other team owners' business sense, his this move would make the league better off financially.