Quote:
Originally Posted by Fire
You are way off base with this paragraph. If Treliving wanted to spend $15 million on a couple of players right now the owners wouldn't stop it. The tickets go up because the market can support it. The cap will most likely keep increasing year over year. They need the ticket revenue to do the same or risk becoming a have-not franchise again (remember the 90's? - boy were they fun).
Any money they make on the Flames is peanuts compared to their business ventures.
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Last year the Flames owners pulled out millions of dollars, like $10M+ of additional profit by not spending to the cap. This year they will do the same, but more. I have not seen the operating income numbers for the Flames for this past year, but the year before in 2012/2013 they made nearly $12M in EBITDA. I fully expect that number to be north of $20M for this past year. And this year I assume it will be more.
NHL teams in Canada are a money maker. The Winnipeg jets are already worth more than double what True North paid for them. I agree there are likely less complex, bigger money makers than owning an NHL team. I also know that Flames owners aren't exactly posting their shares for sale to whomever will take em.
How long do you think it would take for the Flames ownership group to find a buyer if they decided to sell tomorrow (assuming no NHL red tape). Not long. Not long at all.
I am for the city investing in a new stadium, but ONLY if it is treated like a real investment with real return on investment, not some economic impact calculation, over a reasonable period of time. Every single dollar, including tax breaks, needs to be completely justified with real cash returns.
Calgary should SET the example of how to profitably support the building of a stadium, not fall into the same trap so many other cities have experienced.