[Senator Clay Davis]

It's worth remembering there are (at least) three teams who are deeply underwater financially right now, with virtually no reason, short of the league rigging a dynasty for them, to think they won't continue to be financial black holes. Even playing in the Dome, those owners would break even or even make money, as opposed to their current situations of bleeding cash. So even if Murray could pull off a sale, there are owners who would gladly leave their failing markets for this one, especially if the only cost is the relocation fee. Taking out being propped up by government subsidies, the Coyotes have almost certainly lost at least $250 million in the last decade. Why wouldn't Barroway pay that as a relocation fee to, you know, actually have a shot at making some money?

So even if this goes all the way, what happens when Barroway or Viola tell Gary "Well we're in POS, hopeless markets, and there's an open market that, even in an old building, we will do far better financially, so yeah if you're letting them go either let us take their place, or compensate us bigly". It also would probably be, relatively speaking, cheap as #### to buy one of those teams and move them here, so a local buyer can scoop them up for a bargain price, even factoring in the relocation fee. The layers of complexity to this thing if it does go all the way is part of why it's unlikely to go all the way. Bettman is hoping we fall for the fear mongering, because if we don't he may play himself really badly, and turn a bad situation for the Flames into a catastrophic situation for the league as a whole.