Balsillie First At Copps Til October

((HT: Hamilton Spectator))

Hamilton council has unanimously agreed to give BlackBerry boss Jim Balsillie exclusive rights to Copps Coliseum ((pictured, thanks The Spec)) until October.

If Balsillie secures an NHL team by then, he is promising to enter into a 20-year lease with the city, with options to extend it a further three times, each for four more years, totalling 32 years.

If a team is secured, Balsillie is also promising to put $5 million into Copps by fall 2010, which he believes is enough to get the arena in operating shape for an NHL team.

A more detailed agreement between the businessman and the city remains confidential, including what penalty Balsillie would pay if he broke the lease agreement.

David Shoalts with the Globe and Mail continues:

"A source familiar with the agreement said Balsillie's representatives have indicated they plan to have the team in place by October for the start of the 2009-10NHL season.

The source said the only potentially major obstacle in sight was the insistence by some committee members that Balsillie make a formal commitment to keeping the Coyotes in Hamilton if he manages to buy them out of bankruptcy. But a public statement by Balsillie soothed any fears he would use Copps as a temporary home for the Coyotes and then build a new arena elsewhere in Southern Ontario.

"Hamilton has always been and remains now my first choice for locating a potential seventh NHL franchise in Canada. I am not considering any other site locations at this time," Balsillie said in the statement. "We look forward to Hamilton City Council passing a motion [Wednesday night] at its council meeting to approve an option for a 20-year lease at Copps Coliseum. It would mark the beginning of a strong and lasting partnership with the City to bring the NHL to Hamilton."

Hamilton Mayor Fred Eisenberger said the lease agreement will not be made public because it contains confidential technical, commercial and labour-relations information.

But sources said the agreement will be similar to the one Balsillie signed with the city when he tried and failed to buy the Nashville Predators and move them to Hamilton in 2007. That deal would gave Balsillie's company all of the revenue from the three city-owned facilities while he would be responsible for paying for upgrades plus the operations costs.

Balsillie has already said he intends to spend $150-million in improvements on Copps. In a lawsuit filed against the NHL by the Phoenix Coyotes, the team says Balsillie has pledged to make "substantial improvements in the Copps Coliseum, which will include luxury suites and other amenities that will make this arena among the best of those hosting NHL home games." The BlackBerry tycoon is prepared to pay $30-million himself and plans to approach the federal and provincial governments for the rest.

Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty said on Wednesday the provincial government is willing to listen to any request for public money for the arena renovations.

Under the previous agreement between Balsillie, the city was expected to realize a net benefit of $2-million annually. This would have been achieved by eliminating the current annual subsidy of $3-million it pays to Hamilton Entertainment and Conventions Facilities Inc. (HECFI) to manage the facilities.

The next step in the fight by the co-CEO of Research In Motion to get the Coyotes will take place in a Phoenix courtroom next Tuesday. A U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge has to decide who actually controls the Coyotes - the NHL or team owner Jerry Moyes -before Moyes' petition to put the team into bankruptcy and sell it to Balsillie for $212.5-million (U.S.) can proceed.

The lease also grants Balsillie exclusive rights to operate an NHL team at Copps. That means any plans Vancouver developer Tom Gaglardi may have had to put together a group to buy the Atlanta Thrashers and move them to Hamilton are finished.

In the meantime, the Coyotes are not getting much love from their former owner and the site in Glendale, Ariz., where their arena is located. Westgate City Center, an entertainment and shopping complex owned by Steve Ellman, who was rescued and then pushed out of the Coyotes ownership by Moyes, refused to play host to a Save The Coyotes rally scheduled for Saturday. The organizers were forced to reschedule the rally at another site in Glendale.

Nicole Trainor, a spokeswoman for Westgate and Ellman, did not respond to a request for comment."