Ownership battle on for Phoenix Coyotes

TORONTO, May 6 (UPI) -- The National Hockey League is resisting efforts by a Canadian billionaire to buy the bankrupt Phoenix Coyotes and relocate them to Canada.

The league has repeatedly said the franchise won't be moved to southern Ontario near the Toronto and Buffalo Sabres franchises, The Globe and Mail reported.

However, Jim Balsillie, co-founder of the BlackBerry manufacturer Research in Motion in Waterloo, Ontario, has been working behind the scenes in his third bid to become an owner of one of the league's 30 teams, the report said.

The Coyotes filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Tuesday in Arizona, and Balsillie's $212.5 million offer to purchase the franchise was included in the court filing, Canada's National Post reported.

"A condition of the offer is that we get permission to move the team to the unserved market of southern Ontario," Balsillie said at the Toronto Convention Center.

A source told the Globe that NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman is "incensed" at Balsillie's repeated bids to place a team, which could be Canada's seventh franchise, in southern Ontario.

Balsillie previously tried to buy the Pittsburgh Penguins and Nashville Predators.