Balsillie Defends "Brash" Move

((HT: The Spec/Steve Milton))Jim Balsillie argues that he’s been forced into his controversial, confrontational approach to seeking an NHL team for Hamilton “because there is no front door.”Damien Cox of the Toronto Star sets up the meeting Balsillie had with the Editorial Boards of the Star and the Hamilton Spectator...Balsillie has twice angered NHL executives, and some owners, by attempting to buy teams with the express purpose of moving them to Copps Coliseum. In his May 2007 bid to purchase the Nashville Predators, Balsillie’s ticket drive for the “Hamilton Predators” ruffled many NHL feathers.And he will move the Coyotes to Hamilton if a Phoenix bankruptcy court rules that Jerry Moyes can put the team into Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and sell it to Balsillie. That ruling may come next week and if it’s in his favour “the puck will drop (in Hamilton) in October,” Balsillie told a joint editorial meeting of the Hamilton Spectator and Toronto Star in Toronto today.Balsillie says if he ...