I find this hard (That's what she said) to believe.

Well, no this blog is not about the TV show, The Office, it is about the NHL and how the Phoenix Coyotes, who have been in court to see if they were to be bought by Jim Balsillie and subsequently moved to Hamilton have apparently sold out there home opener. Balsillie's bid to buy the Phoenix Coyotes failed and the NHL has the operation controls until they can find a suitable owner that they are happy with that will keep the team in Phoenix.

Now he are my problems with what is going on:
(1)Balsillie has the money to own the team and is wanting to bring it to Canada, with this current economy and the way people are losing money in the US, having a seventh team in Canada to increase amount of income coming into the league would make complete financial sense.

(2) The NHL has control of one of it's team, how much influence does it have there, I'm not sure, but if you see guys like Shane Doan, Ed Jovanovski, and other high payed guys moved, the NHL will make it look like the team is not losing as much money as it is.

(3)This sell out for the home opener in Phoenix, I highly doubt that even 40% of these tickets were even paid for, this just looks suspicious to me. In a city like Phoenix where they have the Arizona Cardinals, the Phoenix Suns, and the Arizona Diamondbacks, hockey does not rank high on sports team in Phoenix, even if they are apparently selling them at a discount.

(4) Why is the NHL so against having a seventh team in Canada that doesn't come through expansion, the fact is that when companies fall on hard economic times, you either fold your worse markets or move franchises to areas where the company is successful. Here is how this would play out, The top 10 markets include all six Canadian franchises as far as profits are concerned. The Phoenix Coyotes lost a reported 70 million dollars last year and was probably the worst franchise as far as finances go (Giving Tampa Bay a close second). So using my theory above about where companies succeed you should have more, it would make logical sense to move a team to Canada, whether it is Hamilton, Winnipeg, or elsewhere and have the team make a profit and allow more teams to make money.

So, Gary Bettman, wake up and use some common sense, if I was losing $70 million I would really contemplate moving the Coyotes to a more viable market because you have tried the sunbelt, it didn't work, so either swallow your pride and allow the team to move, or continue to let a team lose a lot of money for the next few years until the governors finally come to their senses and throw you out of office.