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1) Seems this story just doesn't want to go away. Just when we thought things were stabilizing in Music City 2 more significant bumps in the road to franchise stability occur. One is probably little more than a blip/insignificant, the other potentially serious.





2) Jim Balsille makes another bid:We don't know why Blackberry Jim decided to once again throw himself into the Nashville mess.

• Perhaps he was bored and wanted to screw with the process. He offered to accept the current lease arrangement and not ask for any additional concessions(unlike the potential new-local group which is trying to extort additional tax dollars)




• Also offering to give the city $75 million (not the required $25 million) if he has to move the team . Anyone left believe he wouldn't? Many have speculated he is doing this to simply embarrass the NHL and the local Nashville purchase group and create some mischief with Nashville City Council.



• To review: There is an escape clause in the current lease with the city that allows ownership to leave if average paid attendance drops below 14,000 for two full seasons in a row. Current owner, Leipold exercised that escape clause this summer. In short, if the Preds average less than 14,000 paid attendance this season; and we believe its assured this will happen(See below) - it would appear William (Boots) Del Biaggio or Balsillie could have to wait to introduce the escape clause until after the current season and the team would not be able to move the team until after the 2008-09 season at the earliest.



• We are still trying to find out Jim's real motivation here. On the surface it makes little sense, and could endanger his expansion chances. As always, there is more to most stories than what is in the papers. We at FAUXRUMORS will continue to dig to get at the truth for our readers!

3) Attendance in the crapper: Going from bad to worse!

• They didn't sell out their home opener against Colorado on October 4, but did manage to attract: 16,363, which equates to 95.6% capacity. Most teams sell out their home opener, but still not a terrible beginning.




• There after is where the big problems seem to be beginning. In their second home game October 6, 2007 verses Dallas attendance dropped precipitously to 13,079 or a mere 76.4% of capacity.



• It gets worse. For the third home game October 11 against Phoenix the home 'crowd' was already down to 12,155 or 71.0% of capacity. This has to be an alarming trend, but not one who is a regular reader of this blog should find surprising



• Their latest home game against Calgary showed a slight rebound of 13,152 in attendance. Still FAR from capcity and LESS than the required 14,000.



• Additionally those numbers are folks in attendance NOT paid/tickets sold. Those numbers are likely even worse. As mentioned above when the Preds fail to achieve the necessary attendance of 14K/game they will be as good as gone.

4) Here is what we believe is going on/will happen:

• Balsille's bid isn't serious. We believe he will be awarded an expansion franchise when those are announced in a year or so.



• The real charactar to watch here is William (Boots) Del Biaggio. As we have mentined all along, his presence within the 'group of local investors signals the teams ultimate destination, KC. We believe in time he will 'buy out' the other investors or at least gain a controlling interest. This will be the next move to look for.



• The team has about a zero % chance of staying in Nashville. The only questions that remain are when and to whom the team will be sold. Our money is on Boots and the team gonzo within 2 years!