Quote:
Originally Posted by kharberg
Within a few years when all the Jets hype slows down, Winnipeg will have to dip into the revenue sharing pool just like Nashville, Carolina etc., because of the lack of Luxury boxes and seats in the MTS Centre. The difference is, they will be taking way less out of that pot then if they stayed in Phoenix.
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Then name 30 NHL markets that will never have to do such a thing.
I think it'll be better than that. Certainly not top like most of the Canadian markets are sitting. Look, if you check out the top 16 US metropolitan areas sorted by population
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_o...tistical_Areas
Only 16 down the list is Minnesota-St. Paul. A metro population of about 3.25 million. They are doing very well. 7th, you have Florida, 9th Atlanta, 12th Phoenix. Ignoring the whole "it's too hot there for people to care about hockey" position, what is it that's causing these teams to fail? Failure on the ice is certainly a part of it, but another big factor is competition! 32 NFL teams, 30 MLB and 30 NBA teams, all vying for these same big markets. Population + your sport there, does NOT equal profit.
While in a city like New York or LA, there's enough people to help mask this, once you get to a place with a population of about 4 million, one would assume that the sports pot is being split 4 ways already, between the 4 leagues. Of course the arenas/stadiums don't hold in the entire city, so it's not necessarily a straight mathematical equation, but that's sort of the point. The level of support for each sport in a city with all 4 varies greatly. In some markets, this will benefit hockey, and in others, it will hurt it very much. In Phoenix, people just don't care. In Atlanta, they don't care. In Winnipeg they do.
I agree that the organisation will have their work cut out for them, as Winnipeg is a smaller city with a lower income than a place like Calgary, but so long as the product on the ice isn't a complete joke, they will be very consistently sold out. Also a fact not often mentioned about the old arena, getting there without a car was a bit of an issue. No LRT, and I don't believe a whole bunch of bus routes went that way. Now, with the arena right on Portage Ave. near main, almost every single route stops in a 2 block radius at most.
Even if when times are sometimes tough, they may need to dip in, they will NOT need as much revenue sharing money as Phoenix or Atlanta would. That is an improvement. It will be a more consistent market, that adds stability. And unless you can think of 30 places to put NHL hockey where nobody will ever need to dip into that pot, then the choices are
A. Do the best you can, and let the revenue sharing help teams through tough times, so long as they're not perpetually taking a ton, or
B. Contract.
...I hope option B occurs with Atlanta and we somehow snag the first pick in that one.