If Balsillie's Going Down, He's Taking Everyone With Him

((HT: GlobeSports/Shoalts))

Who is the one guy ((and the one organization)) that you really don't want to piss off in a proceeding where you're trying to become a member of a very exclusive club...???

If you answered Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment's Richard Peddie ((pictured, with Leafs GM Brian Burke, thanks Getty Images file)) and the Toronto Maple Leafs, you get a gold star.

Those are the two groups that Research in Motion's Jim Balsillie is trying to throw in his list for deposition as we get closer to the September 2nd viability hearing for Balsillie's bid for the Phoenix Coyotes in US Bankruptcy Court.

From the David Shoalts' article...

"His lawyers’ request said Balsillie “believes that, notwithstanding the NHL’s pretextual arguments, the Maple Leafs are trying to block [Balsillie’s] purchase of the Coyotes in order to prevent a Hamilton relocation and competition with the Maple Leafs in Southern Ontario.”

Lawyers for Balsillie and Moyes want to grill Peddie about the Leafs’ motives. They also want to question Bettman, Daly, Boston Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs and Minnesota Wild owner Craig Leipold.

Balsillie’s legal team also demanded a series of NHL documents. The team wants documents concerning all franchise transfers, expansions and relocation fees since 1990, gate receipts for all teams located relatively close to one another, hockey-related revenue statements since 2005, and all documents relating to the possibility of another team coming to Southern Ontario."

The NHL has agreed to having Gary Bettman deposed in addition to deputy commish Bill Daly and two owners to be named later. Balsillie wants Bettman, Daly, Peddie, the Wild's Craig Leipold and the Bruins' Jeremy Jacobs.

Leipold's inclusion would be to set the basis for the Balsillie-Predators partnership that fizzled and to address Leipold's amount of pissdom after Balsillie went ahead and atttached the Predators logo to some Hamilton, Ontario ideas to gauge season ticket interest.

There is an inherent belief, in the Balsillie camp, that Peddie and MLSE are behind a "veto" idea of bringing another franchise into southern Ontario.

The NHL wants to depose Balsillie, his attorney Richard Rodier, Jerry Moyes, Moyes' lawayer Earl Scudder, and Coyotes CEO Doug Moss. Those of us at OSG HQ are not thinking that Scudder and Rodier will get questioned because of attorney-client privilege. Moss gets to discuss the state of the franchise when Moyes wanted to declare bankruptcy.

All this to get in to the club...???
And in the end, you have to ask if it's really worth it in the end...
Or, as some close to OSG HQ have declared:

"Why don't they just get a ruler out and get it over with...???"