Quote:
Originally Posted by Canada 02
sheds light on things, and confirms what I suspected/feared. QCSV has been losing a lot of money; at some point they indicated to King/Sutter the possibility of closing up shop. Calgary wisely explored alternatives, which unfortunately leaked out from Abbotsford (intentionally?) and created some backlash against them.
Given the financial structure of the agreement between QCSV and Calgary, it didnt make sense for Calgary to want to leave such a risk-free situation
so now the question, is QCSV losing more money than the breakup fee to get out of this franchise? I think they are waiting a few more weeks to see if they can get into the playoffs, which would help offset some of their losses, and possibly give time for a third party to get involved
its too bad; I'll be catching them in Peoria this weekend and again in March to support them the best I can. Can't see them if they are in BC
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I'm not sure what kind of penalty there is for "getting out of the franchise", but my understanding is that there is a penalty if QCSV fails to put a professional hockey team in the i wireless Center. If they don't put a team there, they have to pay half of the renovation costs they did to upgrade the facilities for the AHL, which amounts to $700K.
They will lose more than that this year, but their biggest problem is their marketing efforts, or lack thereof. Granted, they probably have a small budget (espeically at this point!), but some of the things happening are almost comical. There were a couple $10/$5 ticket nights I didn't even know about, and I try to pay attention! I heard most people showed up expecting to pay full price. Might want to try advertising that next time. They also didn't even do a press release about Monday's charity bowling event, which I heard was a blast, or even announce which fan won the trip to Calgary some months ago! It's like they are barely even trying to succeed.
Flames' future flickering (QC Times)
