[Rumour] Wild lost $30 million last season

[sureLoss]

Apparently multiple times last season the Wild had to ask investors for more cash to cover loses

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-pu...155615565.html

And the blame may fall on the $20 million on signing bonuses they had to pay out to Parise and Suter.

[Tyler]

Hard to feel sorry for them.

[alan21]

That's what you get for chasing the big fish.
Perhaps it'll pay out in the long run.

[GreenLantern]

They definitely paid a heavy price.. lots of pressure on that team to perform.

Lots of talented youth on that team moving forward though.

[blankall]

If the contracts were that front loaded with signing bonuses, theoretically, they should pay off in the future. Also, I'm sure the lockout didn't help. A team like the Wild probably depend heavily on ticket sales.

I'm guessing the lockout caused a lot of teams to run big losses. The Wild got more screwed than most, because they structured their contracts in guaranteed bonuses that were not pro-rated.

[Parallex]

Yeah, huge chunk of money paid out via signing bonus + less gate = big losses.

Serves them right.

[blankall]

Originally Posted by Parallex

Yeah, huge chunk of money paid out via signing bonus + less gate = big losses.

Serves them right.

I'd take Parise, Suter, and a playoff appearance over a 1 year loss any day of the week. Hmmm...well maybe just Suter and the playoffs, Parise didn't quite live up to hsi contract.

[Coach]

Originally Posted by blankall

I'd take Parise, Suter, and a playoff appearance over a 1 year loss any day of the week. Hmmm...well maybe just Suter and the playoffs, Parise didn't quite live up to hsi contract.

The people ACTUALLY losing the $30 mil might feel a little differently.

Tough to feel bad for them given those ridiculous contracts, although leopold himself said that he thought it was way too much. Goes to show he's willing to try and put a winning team on the ice, but man.

[blankall]

Originally Posted by MattyC

The people ACTUALLY losing the $30 mil might feel a little differently.

Tough to feel bad for them given those ridiculous contracts, although leopold himself said that he thought it was way too much. Goes to show he's willing to try and put a winning team on the ice, but man.

Fair enough.

I'm still not entirely sure how this signing bonus thing works. Does it come evenly off every year in the contract? Is each year reduced by a percentage? Does it come entirely off one or more years?

[GGG]

Originally Posted by blankall

Fair enough.

I'm still not entirely sure how this signing bonus thing works. Does it come evenly off every year in the contract? Is each year reduced by a percentage? Does it come entirely off one or more years?

It is paid as a lump sum on a date specified in the contract. All of the big UFA contracts had signed the last 2 years had large signing bonuses paid out before the lockout date and low salaries for that year. You get a 10 million signing bonus the day before the lockout starts and you prorate your 2 million dollar salary for that year.

[You Need a Thneed]

The Wild paid around $22 million combined for Parise and Suter, and likely already have had to pay them each their signing bonuses for this coming season at $10 million each.

Not hard to believe that the Wild are deep into the red at this point. The $42 million paid to those two players in the last 13 months is probably close to their total revenue for that period.

[Locke]

Woah, stupidly huge contracts actually cost money? No kidding.

[edslunch]

The Wild signed these contracts and knew that a lockout was a strong possibility. Apart from not getting as much playoff revenue as they might have hoped this 'financial crisis' would have been entirely foreseeable

[ricardodw]

Parise and Suter both get 12M for 2013-14 and 11M for 2014-15


so that is 24M plus 22M the next year It gets worse before it gets better.....

That would be when Parise is 32 and Suter is 31 and their signing bonuses are paid off and they drop to a salary of $9 each.

It will be interesting how this effects the cap increase next year..... when successful team are losing money and spending a huge amount on the players share not likely the cap goes up for a while.

[You Need a Thneed]

Originally Posted by ricardodw

Parise and Suter both get 12M for 2013-14 and 16M for 2014-15


so that is 24M plus 32M the next year It gets worse before it gets better.....

That would be when Parise is 32 and Suter is 31 and their signing bonuses are paid off and they drop to a salary of $9 each.

It will be interesting how this effects the cap increase next year..... when successful team are losing money and spending a huge amount on the players share not likely the cap goes up for a while.

They each get $11million in 14-15.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by edslunch

The Wild signed these contracts and knew that a lockout was a strong possibility. Apart from not getting as much playoff revenue as they might have hoped this 'financial crisis' would have been entirely foreseeable

Thats exactly why these contracts are structured as they are.

Again, these were stupid, stupid contracts to offer.

[cannon7]

Looks like the honeymoon in St. Paul is over. The Wild used to have one of the longest consecutive sell out streaks. If their fanbase is wondering why they lost the North Stars...

[Żoso]

Originally Posted by cannon7

Looks like the honeymoon in St. Paul is over. The Wild used to have one of the longest consecutive sell out streaks. If their fanbase is wondering why they lost the North Stars...

These losses have nothing to do with fan support. The shortened season and a few ridiculous contracts are to blame.

[ricardodw]

Originally Posted by cannon7

Looks like the honeymoon in St. Paul is over. The Wild used to have one of the longest consecutive sell out streaks. If their fanbase is wondering why they lost the North Stars...

Last year they had 104% of capacity for their 24 home games ... 500 a game less than Calgary..... Calgary has the 4000 cheap seats in the tips of the saddle so I would be cautious about declaring honeymoons over.


The fans have to be excited about the Parise/Suter signings... and making the playoffs won't hurt the fan's enthusiasm.

It would be very interesting to see the gates receipt numbers rather than attendance.

The Jets with their 15,000 sell outs are liable to be generating similar revenue to the teams selling out with 18,000-19,000 as the cheapest seats in Winnipeg are $50-60.

[valo403]

Originally Posted by ricardodw

Last year they had 104% of capacity for their 24 home games ... 500 a game less than Calgary..... Calgary has the 4000 cheap seats in the tips of the saddle so I would be cautious about declaring honeymoons over.


The fans have to be excited about the Parise/Suter signings... and making the playoffs won't hurt the fan's enthusiasm.

It would be very interesting to see the gates receipt numbers rather than attendance.

The Jets with their 15,000 sell outs are liable to be generating similar revenue to the teams selling out with 18,000-19,000 as the cheapest seats in Winnipeg are $50-60.

I'm not sure I follow your logic.

The cheapest seat in Winnipeg may be $50, and the cheapest seat in another city selling out a bigger arena may be $20, but that doesn't mean that first 15,000 seats are priced all that differently. An extra 4,000 people, regardless of the price level, is significant revenue both on tickets and related things like concessions and parking.