Quote:
Originally Posted by angrysoutherner
The issue with the Coyotes is a three prong issue. Firstly, the Coyotes up until two seasons prior to this season were no competitive. The second issue was that Phoenix was not and in my opinion is still not a hcokey market, when you have a team that does not win in a town that does not have a strong hockey market people will not buy tickets.
The third issue was and stil is the American Economy, Florida, Nevada and Phoenix all were the biggest victems of the economy crash due to the sub-prime mortgage issue. Those three states had by far the highest amout of foreclosures in the states. The people in those states had a hard enough time paying for household items so luxury items like tickets so a hockey game were the last on their list of things to purchase.
Further, due to the fact that it is not a hockey town they would not have the corporate sponsorship that other towns (toronto) had and therefor less season tickets would be sold to companies.
Finally, unlike florida where you have lots of Snow birds that own property in the states from Toronto and other hockey provines do not reside to in Phoenix that they do in Toronto,
These are reasons why Phoenix has and will continue to have financial difficulites.
|
The funny thing is that all those reasons you mentioned are
exactly why the NHL needs to continue to support Coyotes and fight to keep them in Phoenix.
To paraphrase you:
- Phoenix has not been competitive.
- Phoenix is not a natural hockey market, therefore people are less likely to support a losing franchise.
- The economy in southern states like Arizona has still not recovered from the sub-prime mortage situation.
- The poor economic situation further cripples the Coyotes financially because corporate sponsors.
However, I propose that because Phoenix is not a natural hockey market, you have to allow adequate time for Phoenix to become a hockey market.
Since hockey just came to Phoenix 16 years ago, kids that have grown up going to games there whole lives are only in high school. I would suspect, admittedly without looking at any studies, that it would take at roughly 20-25 years to cultivate a hockey market where there was none before.
Obviously that timetable could significantly increase with a winning franchise, but as you have noted, Phoenix has never been a winning franchise.
When combined with the extenuating circumstances of the economic downturn, it makes perfect sense that now is not the time for the NHL to cut and run from Phoenix.