Truth is, The Commish stepped in because he bleeds corporate green and MLB is big business and the iconic Dodgers are a huge part of it. He can’t let the team in Chavez Ravine go to ruins while Frank and Jamie McCourt have it trapped between third and home in the rundown of their divorce.
Say what you will about the Bruins’ ownership under the Jacobs/Delaware North family — and much of what you’ve said can’t be repeated here — but the team on Causeway Street has been nothing but bedrock in how its business has been run. Sure, that’s come out of your pocket, and you wanted more from Jacobs and general manager Harry Sinden back when the team was right there in the ’70s and ’80s. But there has never been the slightest fret that Jacobs/DNC couldn’t make payroll, had to borrow big bucks from Carlos Slim (see: New York Times Co.) or was about to pimp the team to the most puck-starved city in all of Canada.
Which brings us to Winnipeg. The good people of Manitoba, of whom there are many but just maybe not enough in terms of critical NHL mass, are giddy right now that their Jets are about to return home. They lost their franchise to Arizona, specifically Phoenix, after the 1995-96 season when the NHL was convinced a sheet of ice and a hard chunk of rubber would be an easy sell in the desert. Initially things were fine, but then Coyotes ownership moved from the city to the ’burbs (Glendale) and the franchise melted faster than a slush cone in Sin City. Gee, who knew location was important, that in real estate there is a difference between acres and achers?
We’ll spare you the detailed recap of the NHL having to step in, Uncle Bud style, to take over the barking, bankrupt Desert Dogs. But late in 2010, it looked like former Amherst College hockey captain Matt Hulsizer, a Chicago-based money guy, had the cash and vision and passion to buy the team from the league and make a go of it in Glendale. All good, until a citizen watchdog group didn’t like how the middle men and women in the deal — the taxpayers — were being treated over a new lease for the Coyotes’ arena.
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