The National Hockey League (NHL) said it is investigating the propriety of the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing by the Phoenix Coyotes that could result in the franchise relocating to Canada.
The Coyotes’ owners issued a statement on Tuesday about the filing to pursue a court-approved sale of the team. The sale involves a US$212.5 million offer from Jim Balsillie, co-chief executive officer of Blackberry maker Research In Motion Ltd, to buy the Coyotes and move them to Ontario.
The NHL, which has said the Coyotes won’t relocate, later issued its own statement saying it’s investigating the circumstances surrounding the filing. The league also stripped Coyotes chief executive officer Jerry Moyes of authority to act on behalf of the club.
“The league will appear and proceed before the bankruptcy court in the best interests of all of the club’s constituencies, including its fans in Arizona and the league’s 29 other member clubs,” NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said.
The Coyotes haven’t turned a profit since Moyes, owner of trucking company Swift Transportation Co, invested in the team in 2001. Annual financial losses have exceeded US$20 million in some years, the Arizona Republic reported last Wednesday.
Moyes said on Tuesday that the bankruptcy filing allowed Glendale, Arizona, officials to provide potential buyers assurances about the city’s willingness to offer incentives to keep the team.
The Coyotes’ ownership group said the bankruptcy court would hold a hearing within several days to establish a sales procedure to attract higher bids.
Balsillie’s PSE Sports & Entertainment LP purchase price would pay secured creditors in full and give US$97.5 million to unsecured creditors.
Balsillie said on Tuesday in a separate statement that he agreed to post US$17 million in so-called debtor-in-possession financing and that his offer is conditioned upon relocation to Ontario. Research In Motion is based in Waterloo, Ontario.
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman told the Associated Press last week that the Coyotes wouldn’t move out of the Phoenix area and the league’s goal was to bring in money to make the franchise solvent. The NHL and league owners must approve any offer for the Coyotes.
Balsillie, a triathlete who graduated from Harvard Business School in 1989, previously failed in attempts to move the NHL’s Nashville Predators and Pittsburgh Penguins to Canada.
“I am excited to move closer to bringing an NHL franchise to what I believe is one of the best un-served hockey markets in the world, southern Ontario,” Balsillie said in his statement. “A market with devoted hockey fans, a rich hockey history, a growing and diversified economy and a population of more than 7 million people.”
The Coyotes have yet to win a playoff series since moving to Phoenix in 1996. The team hasn’t reached the postseason the past six years and had a winning record just once in that span.
Fred Kerley is competing unaugmented against drug-fuelled athletes at this weekend’s Enhanced Games and still hopes to race in the 2028 Olympics, the suspended former 100m world champion said on Friday. Arguably the biggest name at the divisive event in Las Vegas, where doping is permitted, the US sprinter said he had chosen not to take any of the banned substances including testosterone and steroids that his competitors have been using. “I don’t need it. God gave me fast feet for a reason. And I’m here to showcase my talent,” Kerley said. Kerley last September became the first US competitor and first track
MLB is experiencing an epidemic of guys being dudes. At ballparks all across the US, groups consisting of mostly young men are joining in on the “Tarps Off” trend that is loud, goofy, infectious and new to the baseball world. Joining in on the fun is simple: Go to the section where the party is happening, take off your shirt and start twirling it above your head. Soccer-like chants or singing usually follow — injecting a jolt of energy for a sport that is occasionally chided for its lack of energy inside the stadium. After getting its start in St Louis, Missouri, on
Hull City AFC are to play Middlesbrough for a place in the Premier League after Southampton on Wednesday failed in their appeal against expulsion from the Championship playoff final for spying on opponents. Southampton were thrown out of the final on Tuesday and handed a four-point deduction for next season after they had beaten semi-final opponents Middlesbrough. “The original sanction of expulsion ... remains in place, as does the four-point deduction to be applied to the 2026/27 Championship table and the reprimand in respect of all charges,” the English Football League said in a statement. The final is to be played at Wembley
INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL: Officials, players and fans winging across all of North America are likely to make this the most polluting World Cup ever, say scientists The largest and likely most lucrative ever World Cup this summer could set a record for the most-polluting sporting event in history, environmental experts say. “Unlike the case of the Olympic Games, where the carbon footprints have been reducing over the last several editions, this is totally opposite in the case of FIFA men’s World Cup,” said David Gogishvili, a geographer at the University of Lausanne (Unil). The summer’s World Cup has been expanded to 48 teams for the first time. It is being played in three countries — Mexico, Canada and the US — for the first time. It is going to
RSS