BIG news coming out of WES 2009 last night (thanks to everyone who stopped me in person and relayed the news!) had NOTHING to do with BlackBerry smartphones, but rather, hockey! RIM's Co-CEO Jim Balsillie put in an offer to buy the bankrupt Phoenix Coyotes on condition of being able to relocate them to Southern Ontario. Of course I'd personally rather see the team hit Winnipeg (BRING BACK THE JETS!!!) but either way a new Canadian team would be cool and we all know Jim wants a hockey team bad.
The best thing us BlackBerry users can do is help make it happen. Think about it... it'll cost him a ton of money, so he'll need to make some more money, which will in turn kick things into overdrive even moreso at RIM which will just lead to more bigger and better products for us, the consumers (it's a theory anyways...maybe not a good one).
To help promote the bid to make this Canada's seventh NHL Franchise, they've set up MakeItSeven.ca. If you want to support the cause, go sign up! Oh, and if it can't be the Jets, I vote the team should be called the "CrackBerrys". Who's with me? :p
Bookmark/Search this post with:
28 comments
Maybe instead of worrying about a stupid hockey team; he and his company should be putting all their efforts into fixing the piece of crap Strom!
Cheese and freaking rice.. I LIVE in Phoenix. Just what this town needs is another corporate liar loser in charge of a pro team... yea yea... the Cardinals made it to the playoffs this year. Fine. The Diamondbacks won the series a while back... The Suns have been competitive off and on...
But hey, why not. I take it back. Jim steals.. erm.. I mean earns a lot of money, so bring it on...
What about the RIMjobs?
As my screen name shows I am a fan of Hockey. Actually I am more of a fan of the Flyers because the product that the NHL is putting is unnoticeable. With that said I have said it everytime this comes up. Jim should have a franchise no matter where he wants to put it except if he wanted to move my team. (but ares is financially sound and attendance is high).
With that said little gary will never want Jim to move a team let alone own one because gary thinks transplats to southern cities will like the local team. Sorry but if I moved to Tampa I would still be a Flyers fan as I am sure other hockey fans would say.
Good luck. Give us the NHL back gary you have ruined it.
Already signed up on that site.
I believe that Jim's been trying to start/buy an OHL franchise for sometime, however with Waterloo's proximity to Kitchener and Guelph, that was always going to be next to impossible to pull off.
This would appear to be a step up from the O.
I've long though the NHL's expansion away from Canada and the North Eastern US has been, to put it politely, misguided [two teams in Florida, WTF?]. I'll support just about anything that attempts to reverse this trend.
Good stuff!
He can then move them to Waterloo and call them the Waterloo Storm?!?!? ;) Or the Waterloo Water Buffalos
Anywhere is Southern Ontario is fine, but not Waterloo. Waterloo is a bad place to put any sport teams, IMHO.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Waterloo
-correction-
I am not a huge hockey fan but i do go to the games sometimes and they r really fun. I would be sad to see the Coyotes leave Phoenix!
BOOOOOOOO to Jim Balsillie and BOOOOOOOOOOO to Crackberry for supporting this! There are Coyotes fans out there and we love our team, I'm absolutely disappointed that this site is promoting Jim's scavenging around any struggling team to try and take them away. Hopefully the Phoenix Coyotes are howling in the desert for a long time to come, now that our incompetent ownership has outed himself as a traitor to the city.
Every time Obama wipes his butt, someone has to comment on it here....so this is right up the ally. Anything that can be connected to Black berry is news.... and I too do not want the 'yotes to leave.... we paid for that stadium so they better fill it with this team or another!
Your lucky. I am a flyers fan and season ticket holder and I paid for the pens arena. You at least want the team.
Be that as it may public money for a stadium sucks. The flyers built 2 with private money as other teams have done it.
Regardless of what happens. Bettman still sucks at his job. Point being he says the officiating is fine and that there are only 2 Stanley cups in existence. The real one and the one that stays at the hall which a copy. This proves that he is an idiot. The original one that is over 100years old sits in the bank vault in the HOF.
As a native of Arizona I never grew up a hockey fan. But when the Coyotes came to town I didnt think much of it as TV does no justice to hockey. I started to attend games in person and quickly grew affection with hockey and the team. Its just too bad that the rest of the valley never really got onboard with them.
Coyotes. Another fanbase that SHOULD NOT be allowed to boo bettman. The team will never leave. Bettman will never be fired. He will increase horrible rule changes and the NHL will cease to exist.
I respect your love of the team and the sport but come on is Moyes the first owner or the second owner of this team that has failed.
Why would he do that? buy em sure but dont take em from my state
They should have never left Winipeg in the first place, now that there is a salary cap they would do well there, and they have never done well in Phoenix. All I know is if you put them in Kitchener-Waterloo (75 miles west of Toronto) the stadium will be full every night
It would be fantastic to get another hockey team in Southern Ontario!
Toronto is a legendary hockey town with the greatest fans in the World. We already have the beloved Toronto Maple Leafs but it would be great to have a second team in our City. If not Toronto, the City of Hamilton would love to have their own team.
The rivalry that would then occur between these two cities would make for very exciting hockey and the fans would be ecstatic.
Good luck Jim Balsillie.
- CB
I say Bring back the Jets..
But if that can't happen, then I agree they should move back to Canada at least.. They started as a Canadian team, and they should stay as a Canadian team..
Basilly tried to steal our Nashville Preds but we stopped him.
Keep your hands off the Coyotes, Balsillie, you're not getting them.
Unfortunately, that a$$clown Betteman (or whatever) doesnt want this to happen. Hes such a phuckhed!!! I never advocated putting a hockey team in the desert anyway. I wasnt aware they knew how to make ice!!
For your information assclown, youth leagues are doing very well out here in the desert. I hate wings fans like you because you give the good ones a bad rep.
i'm an American who's all in favor of another team in Canada. I believe the roots of the sport lie there, and should remain there. I'm against expansion, and against some of the "warmer" market teams that continue to fail, while teams have been moved from Canada, Hartford, and Minnesota.
However, i view this as sort of a hostile takeover of a failing franchise, which i am also against. I realize that Canada wants another team. But listen to the players...most of them do not want to move, and here you are screwing another fan base that's trying desperately to support this team.
leave the team where it is, quit the "forceful" move of a franchise, and wait your turn.
Oh, and Go Hawks.
Hockey is considered a Canadian game, and rightly so, but the first "professional" team was actually in Houghton, MI (Portage Lake Hockey Club which played at an arena now call "The Dee"). Just thought I'd share that fun factoid.
i see everyone complaing not to move the team! well then get someone from the U.S. to buy them or someone local, they are bankrupt, why keep them there losing money?? doesn't really make sense, move them somewhere where they will make money and sell out
FYI, there was an an offer getting ready to be presented from Jerry Reinsdorf before Moyes went behind the league's back.
Now moyes is in deep shit since he had no right to file bankruptcy as he was not in control.
The first professional hockey game I ever saw was the St. Louis Blues vs. The Winnipeg Jets. I grew up in St. Louis, Missouri and have been a hockey fan almost my entire life. I've been against almost all the team relocation that have occurred in the past 25 years. The only city I feel that actually deserved a professional hockey team is Denver, but not at the expense of Quebec City. I want to see a team back there, the Jets back in Winnipeg. The Northstars back in Minnesota, but I guess the Wild will do. I'd even prefer to see a return for the Whalers.
Well, since the Rangers are out, let's go Canucks.
Bettemen will never let him move the team to southern ON. Ontario already has the hapless Leafs and, for those a little further south, the every successful Red Wings. Yes, I know the Wings are in the US and not Canada but tons of people cross the border to go to wings games and tons of Windsor residents are Wings fans. I'd love to see the Coyotes go back to Winnipeg and become the Jets again.