Reinsdorf Bidding for Hockey Team

By Benjy Lipsman in News on May 7, 2009 2:20PM

It looks like Bulls and White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf may soon add to his stable of pro sport franchises with the addition of an NHL hockey team. But with the Blackhawks finally in good hands after Bill Wirtz's reign of terror, it's not going to be our local team.

Reinsdorf is actually involved in a bid for the Phoenix Coyotes. Jerry Moyes, the Coyotes' current owner, is in financial trouble and had reached an agreement to sell the team for $212.5 million to BlackBerry founder Jim Balsillie. Balsillie would relocate the franchise to southern Ontario. The NHL-led Reinsdorf group wants to keep the team in Arizona.

Upon hearing of the Reinsdorf bid, Moyes filed for bankruptcy -- presumably to allow the franchise to escape from contracts like the one on their brand new arena. The league is challenging the filing in the hopes of keeping the team in place, where they share the new Glendale, AZ sports complex with, among others, the Chicago White Sox spring training facility.

The sale of a pro sports franchise can be a lengthy and complicated process anyway -- look at how long the Cubs sale has taken -- and a bankruptcy by one of the involved parties only complicates matters. But perhaps Reinsdorf will soon have something to occupy his time while he's down at his Phoenix-area winter home.