Begininning with the letter "P"

Today’s word of the day is “Persistent” and can be described as: (1) obstinately refusing to give up or let go. (2) dogged: stubbornly unyielding.

Since I believe in fair play, I thought in today’s entry, I should spend a bit of time exploring the third corner of this apparent triangle, Jim Balsillie and his unyielding effort to become an owner of an NHL franchise. So, the short and sweet version is Balsillie, a die hard Canadian (when it comes to Hockey anyways) is the co-CEO of the company Research in Motion (also Canadian) which is the manufacturer of the Blackberry wireless phone network. His net worth is around $1.9 billion so the approximate $220 million he offered in his third attempt to buy a NHL franchise is really irrelevant. What is may be the real reason for all of what has happened. Is Balsillie really the die hard Canadian that he claims to be or is he now just playing the PR game for his own benefit?

As I mentioned in my first blog entry, Public Relations in the end is about having people want something that was your idea. By clearly and effectively using what is wrong with the NHL and Bettman as its apparent CEO, Balsillie has marketed his vision to the magical number of seven with all Canadians behind the wrongs that it seems he has been dealt. It has helped him tremendously that the other two corners have all refused to play along but then again they’re playing a different PR game. Whether Balsillie truly wants to “Make it seven” for the right reasons or he just wants to draw from another sport and not make it his third strike is yet to be seen.

Really in the end, the best game that Balsillie could have hoped for in this scenario is exactly what the outcome has been. Did he get the Phoenix Coyotes in the end? The answer is unfortunately no. Let’s be honest, did he really expect to after what had taken place the last two times? I’m not sure. What Balsillie did however was to unite a country to stand up for him and a sport that should be their right to play and own more of. What the real question is though did Balsillie’s PR show the true difference of being dogged by being “Persistent” or just being plain old dogged?