"Dropping the Gloves" with Andrew Bogusch

photo credit: Harry How, Getty Images

EMBARRASSMENT IN THE DESERT

It’s rare that the sporting public fails to mock the NHL for its latest issue, but the League is getting a pass (for the moment) on one of its worst black eyes in recent memory.

Lawyers met in a Phoenix bankruptcy court Tuesday in the first of many hearings about the Coyotes’ muddled future. And they did so in relative obscurity thanks to the conference finals, the NBA playoffs, the early weeks of the baseball season and the occasional NFL nugget.

Judge Redfield Baum ordered the League and team owner Jerry Moyes into mediation to determine who controls the insolvent franchise. A status hearing has been set for next Thursday. There is also a June 22^nd court date, at which time Baum will hear arguments about the validity of Jim Balsillie’s offer to buy the Coyotes and move them to Hamilton, Ontario.

Could this happen to another major professional league?

No, of course not. And while Moyes and Balsillie are certainly the baddest guys in this drama, the NHL is guilty for letting the situation degenerate to this point.

Yes, the League has apparently been in control of the organization since November, but why was Moyes allowed to own the Coyotes in the first place? He was over-leveraged BEFORE putting hundreds of millions of dollars of his own money into the franchise. His early expenditures drew the attention of the Securities and Exchange Committee because he was using borrowed money.

Where were the red flags then, five to six years ago? As the Coyotes continued to bleed money, why not reach out to Jerry Reinsdorf then?

Because the NHL simply cannot admit the majority of expansion into warm-weather cities did not work. The game had to be played in the desert, even if created the possibility of boardroom shenanigans like this.

When the Montreal Expos were on life support, Major League Baseball took firm control of the organization to prevent any real embarrassment. The on-field product struggled mightily, but the team quickly found a new place in Washington, D.C. and now plays in a brand new ballpark. MLB did not allow an outsider to swoop in to steal the franchise. And it didn’t cling to the idea that baseball had to exist in Montreal.

But the worst part of the Coyote predicament is something few are discussing. The NHL does not want a team in Hamilton because it would mean more dollars leaving owners’ pockets.

A club in Copps Coliseum would be exponentially more popular than the Coyotes. That would mean more revenue, which would mean an increase to the salary cap and floor, which would mean a greater expenditure for owners.

Gary Bettman can say Copps Coliseum isn’t ready to house an NHL team, and that may be true today. But it’s a dilemma with an answer -- they have engineers and construction workers in Ontario and Balsillie has the cash to fund renovations.

It is an almost criminal stance to take as hockey’s caretaker.

The commissioner can keep Balsillie out of the owners’ club for now for (once again) messing up the application process, but he should not forever ignore Balsillie’s love for the game and his deep pockets, both of which the game could use.

Make him crawl from Phoenix to league headquarters to apologize. Make him use an iPhone for six months. Then let him put his new team in Hamilton and let the game be played in a hockey town.