Yep, probably should have sold all that Bear Stearns stock too while he was looking into his crystal ball. Your posts never cease to entertain with their stunning lack of attachment to reality.
There are 4 or 5 teams that were struggling before the crash, there are nearly as many owners in jail, and that has nothing to do with the crash, thus far the expansion of the NHL into the sunbelt has been a disaster due to lack of due dilligance on the part of the league allowing ownership groups who have little but iou's to buy teams, the league has been so commited to getting into the markets they havn't cared how. I assume the plan was that the vast TV deals would enable the questionable owners to cover their losses
Conversely they have a stinking rich wanna be owner who wants in but isn't allowed because he has pissed them off and wants to put a team in Ontario, had Bettman shown any ability to be flexible and admit his US plan was failing he would have worked with Ballsilli to make it happen 'properly', to be honest he still could, Bettman could ring Ballsilli and tell him you have to pay off the city and keep the team their for another couple of years as the price of the league working to get a team into Hamilton.
The reason the Yotes are in the place they are is because Bettmen didn't want to let go of Phoenix as a market, the crash was 3 years ago, it was utterly predictable that it would sink several franchises from almost the moment the market fell apart, Gary didn't have to predict the market crash, he just had to be sensible about what it would do and start the plan to move teams and probably contract the league as well.
Last edited by afc wimbledon; 04-20-2011 at 01:16 AM.
Matthew Hulsizer needs to show up at Jobing.com Arena tonight for Game 4 of this rapidly deteriorating StanleyCup playoff series against Detroit.
He won't be here, we're told, and that's troubling. Another absence by the would-be owner of the Coyotes would send an unmistakable message to fans and players: He can't save the team, the move to Winnipeg is imminent, and all that's left is for the NHL to blow the whistle.
Tell us, right now: Are you in or out?
Hulsizer has been mysteriously quiet and invisible for weeks. The silence has proven toxic.
The Phoenix Coyotes may play their last game in the desert on Wednesday, but there is one big reason why the NHL has fought long and hard to prevent a possible franchise move to Winnipeg: Television.
A survey of several current and former NHL governors – who would not speak on the record because commissioner Gary Bettman frowns on public discussions of league business – highlighted the league's need to keep the Phoenix market (the 12th-largest in the United States, according to Nielsen Media Research) in order to maximize a U.S. TV contract.
“It's not that they don't want to go back to Winnipeg, it's that they want to keep the Phoenix market,” said one governor, who believes Winnipeg will be the next city to get an NHL franchise even if the Coyotes stay in Arizona. “All our broadcast partners want to keep that market.”
At this point, it looks like the Coyotes will return to Winnipeg, from whence they came in 1996. None of the governors interviewed were optimistic the municipal bond deal that is supposed to pay for Chicago businessman Matthew Hulsizer's purchase of the Coyotes from the NHL can be saved.
One governor said Canadians may not like it, but the NHL is a U.S.-based league, with only six Canadian teams, so the 24 American franchises are more interested in developing markets at home.
That governor also said it would be hard to sell a team from a small Canadian city, like Winnipeg, to fans in his market, “especially on Tuesday and Wednesday nights.”
If an NHL team is to move, most owners prefer it to be the Thrashers because that will ease another of the league's problems.
[aren't TV ratings in that market terrible? now that the NHL has a 10 year US TV contract, isn't this a moot point? why don't they care about losing the Atlanta TV market? none of this adds up]
The two warring factions in the desert standoff over the Phoenix Coyotes have agreed to put down their guns and meet, face to face, Thursday.
But that doesn't mean either side, the City of Glendale and the Goldwater Institute, has altered its position.
"Ours certainly has not," Goldwater spokesman Dan Guerin told QMI Agency Tuesday.
It's expected the meeting, scheduled for 3 p.m. Thursday, will either include media or be made public through transcripts.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for Hulsizer refuted reports that he has walked away from the deal.
"We are absolutely still committed to this franchise, and we are still putting our energy into getting the transaction done," Brad Goldberg, the Vice Chairman of Hulsizer-led Arizona Hockey Holdings, told Fox Sports. "That statement is 100% true, and it's the most important piece of information to get out there."
The potential TV revenue has to be a drop in the bucket compared to the massive losses that franchise has racked up year after year. I suppose that as the NHL owns that team, they are free to leave them there and eat the losses if they so choose.
I'm guessing the most of the owners aren't particularly stoked about that prospect. The NHL has put itself in quite a pickle here.
The potential TV revenue has to be a drop in the bucket compared to the massive losses that franchise has racked up year after year. I suppose that as the NHL owns that team, they are free to leave them there and eat the losses if they so choose.
I'm guessing the most of the owners aren't particularly stoked about that prospect. The NHL has put itself in quite a pickle here.
Yep, I thought I heard they are estimating an ~ $20M loss this season.
"We are still focused on trying to make it work in Phoenix," Bettman told Rogers Sportsnet's "HockeyCentral at Noon" on Wednesday.
"I hope we're successful ... Do we have an infinite amount of time? The answer is obviously not. But we haven't been holding an announcement waiting to see when the Coyotes are done playing, I can assure you of that."
Bettman was cagey when asked whether he had been in discussions with True North Sports and Entertainment chairman Mark Chipman, who is spearheading the effort to bring NHL hockey back to Winnipeg.
"I'm not going to either confirm or deny that," the commissioner said. I think it would be fair to say that I don't have a deal for the club to go anywhere else right now.
"If I had to get to a deal at some point, my guess is I could probably arrange it."
The entire city of Winnipeg would gladly sell their first born children for season tickets.... they are Hockey MAD!
Guess the closer it gets the more people are looking at their budgets to see if they have any extra money to spend. Especially if TNSE asks for a three year commitment. I know I don't have 3k laying around not doing anything and that is just the tickets. I usually drop another $70 bringing the family to a game for snacks etc.
Its ok though Winnipeg is a very affluent city full of Millionaires and rich retirees with oodles of disposable income. It will so totally work, they have been saving up for this since 96 and are ready.
This also brings up another question.... if Thomson is rich and will gladly cover any losses to infinity why are they asking for a 3 year commitment? I thought he was the benevolent richest man in Canada and willing to provide the good people of Winnipeg with Hockey no matter how much it costs him?
35% willing to buy tickets without knowing the prices is great. If you extrapolate that over the total population of the city, they could have 250,000 season ticket holders.
Quote:
Originally Posted by tjinaz
This also brings up another question.... if Thomson is rich and will gladly cover any losses to infinity why are they asking for a 3 year commitment? I thought he was the benevolent richest man in Canada and willing to provide the good people of Winnipeg with Hockey no matter how much it costs him?
Yup. If there's one thing publicity-shy Toronto born and raised billionaires are known for, it's their love of propping up small market sports franchises 2,000 km away from where they live.
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Turn up the good, turn down the suck!
35% willing to buy tickets without knowing the prices is great. If you extrapolate that over the total population of the city, they could have 250,000 season ticket holders.
Please say this was suppose to have green text on it? Because unless the ROI of a lemonade stands and newspaper delivery has skyrocket in the past ten years, I doubt you can lump all the children in the Winnipeg Metro area into this number calculation.
