Flippy - I Rant, You Read
Thursday, December 21, 2006
Idiots of the Day - Mario Lemiuex & the NHL
Canadian billionaire, Jim Balsillie of BlackBerry, backed out of wanting to buy the Pittsburgh Penguins. At first you might fault him for backing out at the last minute, until you read about what the NHL tried to pull. He put up his offer for the Penguins in October, and the NHL basically told him that the deal would be rubberstamped. Like, “Oh, no problem, Jim, we’ll get you that NHL team to do with as you please, asap.” However, on December 8th, the NHL came up with 24 last minute conditions on buying the team. And lovely Mario wouldn’t give Jim a 30-day extension to examine these conditions. You know, I’m no billionaire businessperson, but I wouldn’t even have to consult a lawyer before *I* backed out of the deal. What a crock. “According to sources close to the negotiations, Mr. Balsillie balked at a “side deal” that would have required him to agree, among other things, to allow the NHL to take over the hockey team if it was unhappy with arena negotiations, or if it became disenchanted with his ownership. The league also wanted to restrict the new owner from contemplating a move out of Pittsburgh under any circumstances until 2013 at the earliest.” If the NHL became “disenchanted” with his ownership? What does that even mean? Basically, it sounds like the NHL wants the right to take the team from him for any half-baked reason they pull outta their butts.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, “However, Mr. Lemieux said on Monday that the Penguins’ current owners were “shocked and offended that Mr. Balsillie would back out of such an important deal at the last minute.”’ So, you give a guy some crappy conditions at the last minute and HE’S the bad guy for not just accepting them? Yeah, whatever, Mario. What a jerk. And to add more jerkiness to Super Mario’s dumb statement, he adds this prize - For one, Mr. Lemieux has not spoken with Mr. Balsillie since the deal fell apart on Dec. 15. And yesterday, he said his ownership partners intend to keep Mr. Balsillie’s down payment—estimated at US$10-million and held in escrow—because “we believe him to be in breach of our agreement.” Hello, you offered him a crappy deal and instead of telling you to stuff it, he asked for a 30-day extension. It sounds like he was being pretty darned generous. If I’m on that jury, I’m telling you to give him his $10-million back AND I’m making you pay him a couple mil for your stupidity. If you read the article that I linked to in the first paragraph, you’ll see how crappy Mario Lemieux and the NHL are treating Jim Balsillie. Frankly, not only does it ruin this deal for them, but who would want to buy the team now? Hey, want to buy this team? We’ll let you hang for months, and then when it’s almost time for the deal to be done, we’ll throw in some super crappy conditions that no one in their right mind would agree to, and we’ll also keep your down payment. Sound good?
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