Quote:
Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis
Leverage. Namely, the Flames have none. It's mostly the NFL that does this, and that's mostly because they have the Los Angeles hammer. And that will now be gone shortly and will leave the NFL to rely on the upcoming vacant St. Louis Market or maybe San Antonio, but neither of those is LA as a threat. So you'll see a lot less of this for NFL teams moving forward. LA is a meaningful threat for moving. San Antonio? Pfft.
Quebec City is out now with expansion, Toronto 2 is highly unlikely to ever happen. Other than those? Is moving to KC a really threat? What are the Flames going to do if the city says $0? Moving? Never happening. That devalues the franchise, possible by a couple hundred million. Sell the team? Sure but for far less than market since buyers know they're looking to unload. Or, of course, pay for the arena themselves. So no matter what they are going to be out a lot of money. But only Calgary is a top market for them long term.
The city is not at their mercy, nor is there a viable threat out there better than Calgary for a NHL team. They shouldn't feel pressured to cave at all.
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NFL is looking to expand to London and Toronto. San Diego is going to regret losing their team if it happens.
Quebec, Hamilton, Seattle are all options assuming Vegas is already confirmed. There will always be somewhere to move. GTA doesn't seem to crazy an idea to me, especially if it was beneficially to the league to have that extra leverage.
A lack of an arena won't hurt the value of the Flames brand. That's not going with the team when they get sold.
There is always leverage.