((HT: Arizona Republic))Paul Kelly, the executive director of the National Hockey League Players' Association ((pictured, thanks Bruce Bennett/Getty)), has told The Hamilton Spectator that "it's time to pull the plug" on the NHL in Phoenix.
Kelly also tells The Spectator that NHL owners should not only be doubting that the Coyotes should remain in Phoenix, but that those doubts should have arisen long before now.
Speaking on a Toronto radio station Wednesday, Kelly asked: "How much money must (a franchise) lose before someone says 'perhaps they ought not to be there'?"
Kelly added that it may be acceptable for an owner to absorb huge losses for a year or two, but when losses have occurred over a number of years, and there's a buyer ready to step in, the NHL should consider such options.
Kelly added that it may be acceptable for an owner to absorb huge losses for a year or two, but when losses have occurred over a number of years, and there's a buyer ready to step in, the NHL should consider such options.
"Yet we continually hear we have to stick by the franchise," Kelly told The Spectator. "There is some sense of frustration on the part of the players as they read sworn court documents as to how far down it's gone in Phoenix."
Kelly stopped short of specifically supporting Jim Balsillie's bid to transfer the Coyotes to Hamilton.
"We don't formally endorse or support the current effort to move the team to Hamilton, Ontario," Kelly told the radio station. "That's not to say we're against it either, but we are neutral."
The interview was on the Fan590 with Bob McCown and PrimeTime Sports...
Listen to it by clicking in black...
Those of us at OSG HQ think that Kelly's first quote can be substituted on a few different franchises currently floating about- like, oh we don't know, Atlanta...
No comments:
Post a Comment