Quote:
Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis
The threat of Edmonton moving was way more real than any threat the Flames make. So the leverage situations are not comparable at all. Edmonton is a step or two above Winnipeg as a market. Calgary is a step or two below Toronto as a market. And yeah it's because corporate money matters, especially since the primary goal of Flames ownership, by far, is to sell more luxury boxes and increase the lower bowl and charge more for tickets there too. Calgary is probably the only market in Canada besides Toronto that could actually do PSLs and actually sell most if not all of them.
|
I agree with your overall premise, Clay, in terms of corporate money being important and being more available in Calgary (although now that Rogers place is built not by much). That being said. I wouldn't put Calgary and Edmonton quite as far apart as you suggest. I also think it's somewhat disengenous to suggest Calgary has more leverage than Edmonton.
From Forbes:
http://imgur.com/a/hV0YB
Calgary is in my opinion every bit as likely to move as Edmonton was or you could look it the other way niether team was ever going to move given the rather good support bases where they were and the unpredictible nature of moving into foreign untested US markets. Yes, Calgary might have a better corprorate structure and thus more to gain from that money. But Emdontons few rabbid fans make up for the larger base of less avid fans getting company tickets from their companies for free. IN fact I'd say a lot of calgarians would not goto games at all if not for their companies. I'm not sure that our situation here in that sense maes us any better as a fan base! Frankly it's not something I'd be too fond of. I'd rather have Edmontons situation than Calgary's as a fan. Die hard loyal fans are hard to beat. I think the main difference and I think this is what you were getting at Clay is the Calgary has a wider population to suppor the Flames. Where as Edmonton has a smaller tighter more lloyal support base. however the corproate support is growing in emdonton I wouldn't underestimate now that Oils have made the playoffs how much of an increase they gain with corproate investment. THe thing is they needed the building to help that along more than Calgary does right now that we can agree on.