Quote:
Originally Posted by DiracSpike
People keep talking about which markets in NA are better than Calgary, and even with our old building I'll grant you that the list is pretty short. What no one seems to be talking about though is the owners could easily just sell the team to someone else determined to bring a team to their city. The Flames have appreciated in value spectacularly since most of these guys bought in, I could totally see them willing to cut bait with the constant headache of owning a barely profitable business and drink in that sweet sweet capital gains. Most team relocations in professional sports these days are the result of one ownership group selling to another.
So all of you hardliners, stop acting like relocation fees and less interest in big American markets than in Calgary is a fail safe for this team never moving. Couple more years of having to negotiate with nenshi with hundreds of millions of profits staring me in the face I'd be down to sell, bet these guys will too.
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If they sell to an owner who wants to move you must remember the new owner would have to pay a relocation fee. So right there you can take at least $100 million off the sale price because that has to go to the relocation fee. Nevermind the fact that if they indicate they will bail without an arena, they basically lose all their leverage in any potential sale since everyone knows they're desperate to unload. It's a piss poor approach to negotiating that will ultimately ensure they sell the team for less, possibly even significantly less, than they could if they were smarter about this. They have handled this situation even worse than Edmonton did, which is kind of something Ken King said wouldn't happen. Then again given King's track record, when he says something is going to happen, it usually doesn't.