Quote:
Originally Posted by nik-
The league is still going to have to funnel money into the market. So they are most definitely on the hook. I won't say Bettman is incompetant, because he's obviously not, but he either has the blinders on regarding that market (unlikely) or refuses to admit that it's a total failure (more likely).
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Yeah Bettman isn't an idiot, he's smarter than the majority of the people on this board. Keeping the Coyotes where they are probably has a greater impact on the NHL than the Coyotes owners.
It likely has something to do with the TV deal and exposure to a national market. Attendance in Phoenix is pretty secondary to the NHL compared to geographic coverage for TV networks.
It must be hard to sell a national TV package in the States when you don't have any teams in the western US. They probably need Phoenix for that purpose.
THe NHL only has 5 teams west of Texas in the US and 3 are in California. They probably can't afford to lose another western team unless it gets moved to another western US market.