Those are the words of Jim Balsillie's lawyer and spokesperson, Richard Rodier quoted in today's Tennessean. Tell me about it... try being a Pred fan during all this. The story in today's paper follows up on an interview Rodier did on the Fan 590 in Toronto and a story in yesterday's edition of the Nashville daily quoting GM David Poile's frustration at not getting any payroll guidance.

The quote that fires me up for the upcoming season is this...

"We want to give David Poile a very generous budget to build the team however he wants, having regard only to the league salary cap and not to any budget restraints imposed by ownership, ... This is about winning, buying a team that has a shot at winning the Cup in our view."

Not the quotes from an ownership group looking to skedaddle right away...

Another good one for Pred Nation, also from today's paper...

"I don't speak for the commissioner or the NHL, nor does Jim. But I think it's bang-on what (the league) has said. This team is not going anywhere as long as the lease is in place."

and...

"The team's not going anywhere unless two things happen. One, there is no lease and (two), the NHL has considered the relocation issue in accordance with its constitution and by-laws and has granted its consent to relocation."

So, I hate to be the one to break it to the gang from XM's "Hockey This Morning," or "Hockey This Week" crew or all of the columnists that have written about the death of the Predators...

No moving trucks necessary... the reports of Nashville's NHL demise have been greatly exaggerated...

That being said... this is no time to rest on a few good quotes from a potential buyer. The efforts to increase support for this team must continue on the corporate level... The fans are mobilized, the Nashville Chamber of Commerce will be announcing a new plan to drive corporate support in an afternoon press conference. Season ticket renewals are on pace. When the 07-08 schedule is announced the mini-plans and individual ticket drives can begin.

As a reminder... the 14,000 paid ticket number is not something that is far out of sight. Last season the team came in at 13,815. That is only 7585 tickets short for the year...

That's it... only 7585... out of a needed 574,000 paid tickets... that's an increase of 1.3%. Preds attendance has risen about 7% a year for the past two seasons...

My belief is that the fans will do this by themselves. With drives like savethepreds.com and others... The paid ticket number should be there if everyone does their part.

The opportunity is there, and in the immortal words of Herb Brooks "Now go out and take it!"

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