Quote:
Originally Posted by Jay Random
I don't have the link handy, but I got the figures from the Forbes ‘business of hockey’ articles for 2019. Those three markets accounted for almost exactly half of the total reported profits of the 31 NHL franchises. Most teams were near break-even, but about 10 were on the wrong side of it.
What it adds up to is that apart from the Original Six and a couple of other big-market franchises, NHL teams operate very close to break-even and haven't got a lot of reserves for sharp downturns like we've seen the last couple of years. One year of slumping attendance wouldn't be a crisis. A year of slumping attendance after a year of closed arenas is definitely a crisis.
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I have to slightly disagree with your assessment so I went and dug up some more recent links. Here's the latest Forbes article after the Covid shortened 2020-2021 season.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikeoza...h=226a122570dd
Quote:
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The league’s five most valuable teams—the New York Rangers ($1.65 billion), the Toronto Maple Leafs ($1.5 billion), the Montreal Canadiens ($1.34 billion), the Chicago Blackhawks ($1.085 billion) and the Boston Bruins ($1 billon)—accounted for almost a quarter of the league’s revenue. Without them, the league would have lost $50 million.
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So for the recent year, besides a Sportico listing of franchise values, all I could find was this..
https://www.statista.com/statistics/...teams-in-2010/
And then here's a list done by an actual analyst about projected revenues per team until 2025.
https://bookies.com/nhl/picks/reveal...-nhl-rich-list
So yes, I think your usage of "crisis" is grossly overstated.