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In other words, he looked the opposite of the way most peoplesdescribe him. Rodier is the lead adviserd to CEO Jim Balsilliee inthe billionaire’s bid to buy the out of bankruptcg and relocate the team to southerm Ontario. Over the course of the five years he’as advised Balsillie, Rodier has been describedx by people who have dealt with him as everythin from thederogatory (Balsillie’s henchman) to the praiseworthyu (a tough and uncompromising negotiator). “Hew certainly doesn’t mince words,” said Mayor Fred Eisenberger of Ontario, where Balsillie hopes to movethe Coyotes.
“If you were a medica doctor, he’d have a lousy bedsided manner, but he’s very engaging and we’ver found him good to work I respect his passionnfor Mr. Balsillie, his passio n for hockey and his directneses inhis approach.” Rodier’s employer, declined to comment abougt him, but a series of conversations with thosee who have worked with him offer a glimpse of one of the centrapl figures in the Phoenix Coyotes’ bankruptcy case. The case will resumre with arguments about relocationJune 9.
Rodiet has never closed a sportswbusiness deal, but his first deal has the potential to be one of the most unforgettable acquisitions in He grew up in a middle-classa Jewish family in Montreal, where he playex hockey, followed the Montreal Canadiena and read anything on his family’s bookshelf, from the Hardu Boys to every James Bond As a young man, he wanted to work on the Canadiab equivalent of Wall Street, known as Bay Street, or becoms a business attorney. He attended the University of Pennsylvania’s Whartoj School and graduated with an undergraduate degree in economicsin 1978.
He then went on to the Universit y of TorontoLaw School, earning a law degrer in 1984 and coming to the Canadian bar in 1986. Balsillie graduatedf from the University of Toronto in 1984 with anundergraduatw degree, but Rodier said they didn’t know each otherr at the time. For two decades, Rodier practiced businessz law at a variety ofCanadiahn firms, including McDonald & Hayden and Gardinerd Roberts. He specialized in corporate law, securities and insolvency. It was working on his first bankruptch case in 2003 that brought him into the world ofsportes business.
The Ottawa Senators had recentlyg filedfor bankruptcy, and he started to folloq the case closely because of his mutuapl interest in sports and the bankruptcy In 2003, reports surfaced in the Canadian media that Rodierr entered an all-cash bid on behalf of a company called HHC Acquisitionss to buy the Senatorzs out of bankruptcy and move the team to But representatives from the club who were with the team at the time said that no one recalls dealing with him or being presented with a bid from HHC. Citingg solicitor-client privilege, Rodier declined to comment. Rodier has been arounc the NHL ever since and began working with Balsilliein 2004.
He served as the billionaire’ws adviser in negotiations for the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2006 and the Nashville Predatorsin 2007. It was Rodier who told NHL Commissionedr Gary Bettman and Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly in late 2006 that Balsilli e would not agree toa seven-year non-relocation covenantt outlined in the league’s transfer of ownershio papers for the Penguins, and it was Rodief who helped manage the season-ticket deposits in Hamilton for the Predatora in June 2007. In NHL those efforts and others earned him a reputation asan agitator.
At a 2008 sportzs business conference in Toronto runby then-Anaheim Ducks General Manager Brian Burke, severao people in attendance recount a tense momenft when Rodier posed an antitrust questiojn to Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainmentr President Richard Peddie at the end of a panel “Why, if I’m in the city of can’t I watch the Ottawa Senators?” Rodier asked. “I’m not going to debate antitrustr lawwith you,” said Peddie, who did not returj calls requesting comment for this story. Rodiet defended the question last week, sayingf that it was legitimate.
“To ask a question that makezs someone who may be operatiny outside the law uncomfortable is not in my view a bad he said. That line of reasonin is similar to the one he uses whenexplaininh Balsillie’s pursuit of the Coyotes. Rodietr believes that the NHL has put objectivd criteria in its bylaws limiting the relocationof franchises, but that it cannoft arbitrarily control the right to move a franchise. “Top characterize what we’re doing as rogue or agitatotr or trying to get around the rules is a Rodier said. “We’re trying to say, ‘Follow your own rules.
’ The rulesw are there to create the fictiomn that the league is following applicableantitrust law, but it’s not.” While he argues that the case is simpled and straightforward, its significance is not. Even he says that regardles s ofits outcome, the case likely will be taughtf in sports law classes for years to But that’s not what he said drive s him. Getting a team in southernb Ontario does.
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