Quote:
Originally Posted by Karl Racki
Murray Edwards made his fortune running public companies. He is not a hockey guy.
Public companies are focused almost exclusively on keeping investors (the equivalent of ticket and merchandise buying fans in hockey) happy and active and buying stock. They do that almost exclusively by keeping the share price high. Today. Every day. That makes investors money. And it makes those running public companies A LOT of money. Enough money to buy a professional hockey team in some cases.
A struggling public company has few options. Being bought by another company or fund or selling off significant "non-core assets" for needed cash or massive cutting of staff/spending are the most common. Only companies that are on the verge of bankruptcy are likely to sell core assets, when there is NO other course of action available. Middling companies do a few things. Minor acquisitions/ asset sales to tweak their asset base and generate interest is one. Less drastic cost cutting measures to aid the bottom line is another. And unfortunately more often than should be the case manipulating results of operations to make them appear as good as possible to all but the most sophisticated investors is prevalent too. Investor relations personnel are key. Frustrated investors call and the investor relations group talks them off the cliff and tells them not only is everything going to be ok, its going to be great. Just be patient. We have a rock solid plan. All in the name of keeping the share price up. Today. Every day. This is how Murray Edwards has made his fortune. Running public companies. He does it well.
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While I understand your points, Murray Edwards also hasn't made his fortune on pulling the wool over people's eyes with all talk and no substance, nor by running perpetually under-performing companies.
He's made decisions, tough ones, and came out ahead many more times then not, just based on his track record.
He doesn't deal with things day to day in the club, that's King's job. There are other multiple other owners, each with their own personal and business successes on their resume.
I don't doubt that there are many ways to turn this franchise around, and guys such as the owners the Flames have been around the block to see when something isn't right, and go about fixing it.
That said, while there is time for patience and letting things play out and run their course as a strategy, there are also times to make the tough decisions to advance and re-energize the business for the betterment of times ahead, and that could be coming sooner then later for the owners to act on. That includes the franchise forward and franchise goalie potentially, as well as the GM and even the GM's boss.