Quote:
Originally Posted by seattleflamer
Katz would NOT like the Seattle deal since he would share all the downside risk with Hansen with no government backstop and no tax breaks. And b) he would be the junior partner with probably a less than favorable stake in other arena revenue generating activities than he'd have in Edmonton.
Worse case scenario for Katz is he raises capital by selling some equity in the Oilers to make up the difference in funding if the corporate financing/government subsidy route doesn't work out.
He's got a sweet heart deal in Edmonton and just seeing how much farther people will bend.
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This is why Seattle isn't a realistic threat, Katz wouldn't be gaining anything of consequence to offset the risk of moving to an unknown market. If a city steps up and builds you a rink and hands you a bunch of additional rights, like Glendale did, you can live without big hockey related revenues. There's a hell of a lot more money to be made in sweetheart real estate deals and the like around these arenas. Seattle wouldn't offer that, it would offer a junior interest that would be virtually impossible to leverage into something else.
That said, Katz is negotiating with Edmontonians here, so they aren't going to figure this out and it will likely work.