If all goes as expected, Craig Leipold will mark his tenth year as owner of the Nashville Predators later this month by selling the franchise to Canadian businessman Jim Balsillie. As many have speculated, this move could ultimately lead to the depature of the team for  another market.

For the first nine or so of those years, Leipold has been as much fan as owner, the kind of team leader that most teams would die for. He has been the antithesis of Bill Wirtz, Al Davis or Bill Bidwill, owners who routinely are mentioned as the bottom of the heap in professional sports. Aside from his comments during the NHL lockout where he made the case that the league’s business model wasn’t workable for the Preds’ long-term future, Leipold has emphatically insisted that the Preds were “not going anywhere” and that he was committed to Nashville for the long haul.

Only within the past year has Leipold departed, gradually at first, from that position. (Yikes, the best puns, including that last one, are usually unintentional.) Last fall, he began seeking a minority owner and noted that one was necessary in order to secure the team’s long-term future in Nashville. Last month, Leipold shocked the city (though perhaps not many NHL insiders) by announcing the team’s pending sale to Balsillie. When asked, Leipold said that he could only say for sure that the team would remain in Nashville for the 2007-08 season, though he hoped that it would remain in town much longer.

I am highly appreciative of Leipold and all that he has done to bring hockey here, and I have little doubt that he has acted with great intentions throughout his time as the Preds owner.

In hindsight, though, I have to wonder: Did Leipold miscalculate by repeatedly rebutting concerns about the team’s future? While avoiding the stereotypical situation where a professional sports owner holds a city “hostage” by asking for more for his team, did he deal Nashville a far worse blow by encouraging a sense of denial about the team’s circumstances until selling to Balsillie was the only reasonable solution? I am encouraged to see the city beginning to rally to ensure that the Preds remain in Nashville, but wouldn’t greater awareness of the team’s perilous position months–or even years ago–have been better? Did Leipold unintentionally inoculate fans and civic leaders alike from taking action by maintaining his stance as a consummate team player, one who would never move the team?

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