Why Jim Balsillie, owning an Hamilton Franchise, would be good for the NHL, Toronto Maple Leafs, Media, and Southern Ontario.
The obvious is that he has the economic means,
he is a passionate Canadian and a rabid hockey fan. The less obvious, and yet potentially of more value is that J im Balsillie and his partner and co-founder of RIM, Mike Lazaridis will be recognized as our generations Alexander Graham Bell or Fredrick Banting. They created RIM and with it put a computer within arms reach of desire. Jim Balsillie is deeply entrenched in the Waterloo region, and is funding or guiding many innovations to further enhance communications and socialization.
Any sports league would benefit from having Jim Balsillie as of their owners. He brings a profound and possibly unmatched knowledge of social media, and a Waterloo network of inventors that are working on the next generation of how we will interact and connect as humans on this planet.
The NHL could leverage Jim Balsillie and his platform to revolutionize how sports leagues engage, embrace and energize their fan base, in Canada and around the world. This would create a new and deep pool of revenue for the owners in every market.
Why a Hamilton franchise be good for the Toronto Maple Leafs
Attention is the oxygen of any entertainment business. With unlimited entertainment choices, and a new generation of consumers who are socializing not in bars or in front of television sets but on their computer or gaming platforms, anyone, including the Toronto Maple Leafs will have to work harder at getting their attention, and motivating them to watch or come to their games. A rival franchise just up the road would create tension, fuel conversation, and create a division of fans as they sided up for each team. All of this sparks conversation, and debate, enagementment, and more importantly interest and attention.
Why a Hamilton franchise is good for the media
Building on my point above, this type of tension and debate, are great stories to also socialize in the media. Add Wayne Gretzky coaching in our home court, a slate of young guns that power Phoenix, and you are selling papers, and driving eyeballs in front of the television set, to sports channels, and on the web. All of which brings in advertising dollars.
Why a Hamilton franchise is great for Southern Ontario
Hamilton and Windsor have been hit hard by the manufacturing recession that has destroyed this infrastructure for the past twenty years. They need a renaissance and this team would be one. A focal point to help them in their migration from manufacturing to a service based economy.
More importantly this franchise will bring in the Kitchener/Waterloo economy of innovators and entrepreneurs, the people that will help reinvent Canada’s future economy.
It will be an ideal opportunity for Torontonians, and in fact all of Canada to learn more about companies like Open Text and Igloo, and to realize why our tax dollars need to be invested in technology, and innovation going forward.
Why the impasse?
Gary Betman and Jim Balsillie are both great leaders. They achieved their stature by being in control of their destiny and their agenda. Jim Balsillie made a brilliant strategic move to go afer a franchise with the purpose of relocating, and in doing so created a loss of control for Gary Betman. The courts are now ruling on a decision that could effect sports franchises everywhere.
Plan to move this agenda forward
Obama won his election by rallying the individual voter, and ironically he did much of his communication through his blackberry, sending out millions of messages a day. We need to rally Canadians to embrace the idea of a team. Let the NHL, our favourite NHL Teams, Politicans and Media know we like the idea.
We need to have the Toronto Maple Leafs come out in favour of this team, and set an aggressive yet still affordable fee for having a team locate within their franchise territory. This will require the high end lobbying you see when big corporate and political deals get done.
We need to show the NHL and the NHL Owners what life would be like with Jim Ballisille as an owner. What can RIM bring to the table? What can millions of RIM users bring to the table? What does the Waterloo and Kitchener economy of entrepreneurs, who are currently revolutionizing communication bring to their table. New and bold ways to engage the fans and media, and the dollars that come with that.
We need to separate the emotions of two great leaders, and the disruption caused one’s agenda and destiny by the other, and get back to a rationale look at the NHL in Hamilton with this great Canadian at the helm.
Tony Chapman
