May 15 (Bloomberg) -- Research in Motion Ltd. Co-Chief Executive Officer Jim Balsillie’s effort to buy the Phoenix Coyotes and move them to Ontario may endanger the stability of all U.S. sports leagues, National Hockey League Commissioner Gary Bettman said.

Coyotes owner Jerry Moyes put the team into Chapter 11 bankruptcy last week and made plans to sell it for $212.5 million to Balsillie, who would relocate the franchise to Hamilton, Ontario.

The NHL has specific procedures before allowing a club to move, including research into whether the new market could support a team. Relocation requires approval by a majority of owners in the 30-team league, spokeswoman Bernadette Mansur said.

“You can not have a stable league if franchises can be uprooted at the blink of an eye on a personal whim,” Bettman said in an interview at league offices in New York. “It is up to the partners to decide who would be a good partner.”

In court papers, the NHL said it had previously removed Moyes from all positions of authority to act for the club and that he had no right to file for bankruptcy or sell the team. Federal Judge Redfield T. Baum will decide the matter May 19.

“When you own a franchise, you have purchased an interest in the league and the right to operate in a particular market,” Bettman said. “If there is an increased value in going somewhere else, that belongs to the NHL as a whole.”

Up For Sale

Bettman said if the NHL wins the case, it will put the team up for sale and look for multiple bidders that will keep the franchise in Phoenix. He said he would consider taking a lesser offer if it meant keeping the team in Arizona.

Balsillie, an Ontario native who graduated from Harvard Business School in 1989, failed in previous attempts to move the NHL’s Nashville Predators and Pittsburgh Penguins to Canada. His company, which make Blackberrys, is based in Waterloo, Ontario.

He said in a statement yesterday that he made a “generous, good-faith offer” to buy the Coyotes.

“This is about the passion Canadians feel for the game of hockey,” Balsillie said.

Bettman said he would only consider moving the team to another city if he can’t find a buyer, which is unlikely.

He said he understands how much Canadians love hockey, although more research has to be done before deciding whether Hamilton, a city of about 500,000 some 40 miles from Toronto.

‘Hundreds of Millions’

“It’s not anything we’ve looked at, and before you make a decision that will involve hundreds of millions of dollars, that is something that is going to have to be studied,” he said. “It’s the reason we have relocation procedures.”

Moyes, founder and chief executive of Phoenix-based Swift Transportation Co., gained control of the team in 2006. In court records, Moyes said he has spent $380 million on the Coyotes, including loaning money to the team to pay players and other expenses.

Minority owner Wayne Gretzky, the NHL’s all-time leading scorer, has run the team’s hockey operations since 2001 and has been coach the past four seasons.

The Coyotes haven’t won a playoff series since moving to Phoenix from Winnipeg in 1996. The team hasn’t reached the postseason in the past six years and had a winning record once in that span. They finished 36-39-7 this season.

New Lease

Bettman, 56, said a new owner in Phoenix probably would have to renegotiate the lease for Jobing.com Arena with the city of Glendale, Arizona, and that better business managers could make the team profitable where it is.

“I believe that all of our franchises can be successful where they are currently,” Bettman said. “The question goes to the more fundamental point, if by trick or artifice or using bankruptcy courts in ways not intended, you can circumvent league rules and procedures, that is going to create a great deal of instability for all sports leagues.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Curtis Eichelberger in New York at ceichelberger@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: May 15, 2009 16:50 EDT