Bill Daly, quoted in an article in today’s Kansas City Star, has done a better job being clear and coherent about the Nashville Predators’ future by far than has his boss, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman:

“I’m not really in a position to comment on the status of Craig [Leipold]’s talks with anyone,” said NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly. “Whoever buys the team will have an obligation to make the team work in Nashville.”

I like the sound of that last sentence. Keep those ticket sales coming, y’all.

As often happens, I wholeheartedly agree with Liz Garrigan and her column in this week’s Nashville Scene:

The [mayoral] field is too fragmented, and it amounts to some bad juju for Dean and Briley. So, gentlemen, we know it’s not fair to ask one of the two best candidates in the field to abandon your pursuit. But politics is rarely a fair game. Once Briley’s TV is up and there’s a clear sense of your respective support, one of you needs to get out and throw your support behind the other. Do what’s best for your city. You wouldn’t have to make a pact with the devil—only with one another.

Look, guys, I’ve spent time with both of you on several occasions this year. I think you’re both smart, intelligent people who will lead this city in the direction I’d like to see it go. I wish you were in separate races because I’d likely vote for you both under those circumstances, but unfortunately you’re not.

I fear, as Garrigan does, that neither of you can win while both of you are candidates. If you are genuinely as inclined to act in the city’s best interest as I firmly believe you are, lock yourselves in the same room (leaving your staff members and consultants behind) sometime in the next week or so and figure this thing out. One of you needs to do the right thing for Nashville and leave the race. Whichever one of you does will earn a lot of respect–and future viability–by doing so. Both of you may suffer politically in the long run if you insist on charging ahead in futility.