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In late 2006, Jim Balsillie tabled an offer of about $175-million for the Penguins. About six months later, he offered up $220-million and then $238-million for the Predators.

So when it came time to bid in the bankruptcy case involving the Coyotes two years later, did anyone really think he'd stop at $212.5-million?

From the latest court filings:

The [purchase agreement] as amended includes an open offer to the City of Glendale to acquire its Claims in the bankruptcy cases. PSE cannot force Glendale to sell its Claims, of course, but is willing to buy them for $50 million, which is substantially more than Glendale would recover in the bankruptcy cases, and not thereafter seek any distributions from the bankruptcy estates on account of such claims. If Glendale is willing to sell its claims, PSE's cash purchase price for the Coyotes would be reduced by $20 million, and that $20 million plus and an additional $30 million more from PSE will be paid by PSE to the City of Glendale to acquire its claim and waive it against the bankruptcy estate, resulting in a net benefit to the estate and its creditors of a $30 million increase.

For those without a calculator, that's effectively an additional $30-million added to the purchase price and up to $50-million suddenly earmarked for the city, which I believe has about $150-million to pay off on the relatively new Jobing.com Arena.

Whether or not that's a better deal for Glendale than they would get otherwise depends on how deep any potential concessions to keep the team would have to go. Still, it's an interesting move by the Balsillie team, one that makes sense given the city and its lease remain a major hurdle to any relocation. This gambit would also settle the matter of where the team would play for what would become a lame duck final season in Phoenix, as part of the agreement would see the Hamilton Coyotes play at least some of the 2009-10 rent free in the rink.

As for the potential relocation fee, well it factors in, too.

"PSE’s offer to acquire the Glendale claim takes into account the risk of a high relocation fee determination by the Court," the filing states. "Even if the Relocation Fee exceeds $15 million, as long as it is acceptable to PSE, the amount paid to Glendale would be reduced by no more than $10 million, assuring Glendale of getting at least $40 million."

As local NBC affiliate reporter/anchor Brahm Resnik put it, "council has a lot more to talk about at its closed meeting Tuesday morning."

Indeed.

They won't get as much attention, but Balsillie's amended bid included two other changes as well:

1. "The amendment provides for an extended deadline for entry of a Sale Approval Order to September 21, 2009. The 10-day period for the NHL to try and obtain a stay pending appeal would expire on Thursday, October 1, 2009, and PSE could close on October 2, 2009."
   
   
2. "The Amended APA addresses concerns raised by the Unsecured Creditors Committee about the impact on the creditors from a possible delayed closing due to an NHL stay pending appeal. If a decision approving the sale to [Balsillie] is stayed, [he] will set aside $25 million in an interest-bearing account, so that the unsecured creditors will recover the time-value of money when the Court's decision is upheld. Further, [Balsillie] has agreed to protect the unsecured creditors by indemnifying up to $10 million of their damages (but not more than 100% of the non-subordinated unsecured claims) in the event of a reversal on appeal."

What Balsillie's doing here is really using what he has available — time and money — to give up in order to make his bid more attractive. Where it still may fall short, however, is with regards to many of the other arguments from the league as they relate to the bankruptcy court being able to force a new owner or relocation on them.

We'll begin to see how much all that money talks as soon as Thursday when we're back in court.

Speaking of which, there were a couple more good related lines from the Jerry Moyes camp in their latest filing. Essentially, they argue that things are down to two relocation bids, one now and one later, making Glendale's anti-relocation stance a non-factor:

"If any other deal had been viable, the check books would have surfaced. They have not. There are two current bids and those are what should be considered, not the vitriolic side-shows."

There's a lot more in the latest documents that's of interest, but I'll leave that for a future post. In short, the NHL's put all of its major legal arguments on the table, and some of them could be very troubling for Balsillie's bid, regardless of how big it is.