Arena negotiation discussion. UPD: Flames release their proposal

[curves2000]

I have said it before and I will say it again. If we run on the assumption that the Flames ownership group believes that their current deal with the ageing Saddledome is leaving millions of dollars of revenue and franchise value on the table plus the loss of a variety of Saddledome events due to the roof, should the NHL allow them to move in order to maximize value? The Flames ownership group and others would say yes, they should be allowed to move.

Does the same argument not hold water for franchises that are currently losing money, have much less revenue, have a lower franchise value and a worse overall business case than the Calgary market?? If the ownership group in Phx said that we need to move the Coyotes to Calgary where the Saddledome is the only major rink in town, where hockey is #1, where our TV deal with Sportsnet would be much larger and where we would sell more merchandise all while increasing our franchise value by the tune of maybe a few hundred million and not sucking on annual losses that were reported to be as high as the 30 million, would that not be fair for THOSE owners?

At the end of the day it needs to be balanced! The scary threats don't hold economic sense when you have how many franchises who lose money and who don't have the same benefits economically as Calgary has had in the past and will have again in the future!

[RM14]

Francis: In October/Early Nov.. "I would be shocked if Jankowski isn't sent back down".

[Tinordi]

Such bald-faced and craven pandering to the gullible.

How many times does the city need to call this idiotic bluff?

[squiggs96]

Originally Posted by jayswin

Oh yeah, wasn't it confirmed that "scooter" was Eric Francis' CP account, or am I thinking of someone else?

Hmmmm. If I was a betting man, I'd be wagering millions this is correct.

[Manhattanboy]

In his latest comments about the Seattle arena plan would it have killed Mayor McCheese to at least publicly acknowledge the importance of the Flames to this City?

Yup am grasping for any straw now.

[bubbsy]

That article was just terrible. Eric Francis seems out of his element. Hope he reads the twitter comments and realizes he's too stupid to write an informative and journalistic piece, if that's what it was supposed to be. Unfortunately, he's not smart enough to read an enlightening or thought provoking opinion piece either, as the article has a thesis built on ridiculous arguments.

Well done Francis, you show your intelligence level each time you put your name to such articles.

[corporatejay]

Originally Posted by Manhattanboy

In his latest comments about the Seattle arena plan would it have killed Mayor McCheese to at least publicly acknowledge the importance of the Flames to this City?

Yup am grasping for any straw now.

How many times does he need to say it in order to ease your own ridiculous insecurities?

[jayswin]

Originally Posted by Manhattanboy

In his latest comments about the Seattle arena plan would it have killed Mayor McCheese to at least publicly acknowledge the importance of the Flames to this City?

Yup am grasping for any straw now.

Dude, try to calm down a little on this stuff. You're posting so many pithy one liners because you're friends with an owner or whatever. It's starting to get silly with the childish nicknames.

[Manhattanboy]

Originally Posted by corporatejay

How many times does he need to say it in order to ease your own ridiculous insecurities?

Every time? I will acknowledge that my insecurity on the matter is borderline neurotic.

Here's hoping for some progress early in the new year.

[Parallex]

Colby Cosh‏
@colbycosh
PHWA Injury Report: E. Francis day-to-day with upper-body injury from carrying unrealistic quantities of water

I lol'ed.

[GreenLantern2814]

Originally Posted by Manhattanboy

In his latest comments about the Seattle arena plan would it have killed Mayor McCheese to at least publicly acknowledge the importance of the Flames to this City?

Yup am grasping for any straw now.

What the Flames "mean" to Calgary is immaterial to the negotiation. If Gary and co had cared about what hockey "means" to people, they wouldn't have shut down the league three times in 25 years. But they did, because they needed to look out for their bottom line.

Nenshi's job is to responsibly administer the city's funds. You can argue he's good or bad at that, but he can't suck at it while not caving for a bad deal to keep a luxury entertainment product in town.

It really does seem, based on available information, that the city and the team are quibbling over the remaining third of financing for a project in Victoria Park.

Split the difference and put some shovels in the ground.

[iggy_oi]

I can’t be the only one who actually gets a kick out of all this posturing?

[troutman]

Dowbiggen used to threaten all the time that the Flames were on the verge of moving - never happened. Click-bait.

[stone hands]

Originally Posted by Parallex

I lol'ed.

This has to be one of the most savage tweets of all time

[Joborule]

Originally Posted by troutman

Dowbiggen used to threaten all the time that the Flames were on the verge of moving - never happened. Click-bait.

Exactly. This is just gaining views for Francis. Whether he truly believes it or not, he wins since people are viewing the article and about him.

[theinfinitejar]

Could the Flames not have waited 24 hours after Spector embarrassed himself and the Edmonton media before sending their designated water carrier an article to publish. Couldn't they give Francis a day of not being the biggest hack in the province?

[Kjesse]

Not that I've read many Eric Francis articles over the years, because I think they're generally garbage and tend to not be informative, but reading this one makes me ask a question.

Has Francis always been a sentence-is-a-paragraph guy like Rick Bell? Reading that format makes it seem like he's pining to take over Bell's place. Can one actually aspire to that?

Style writing aside, Francis demonstrates a lack of understanding of the basic issues involved here. And he comes across as a shill for the owners.

Spector and Francis should launch a new publication, perhaps called the Spector-Francis Sports Times, or something, and then at least less bandwidth would be wasted. Their new publication would become a 'no click' zone.

[PeteMoss]

2 articles in 3 days for Postmedia about the Flames about to move. Flames ownership must love having them in their pocket so they can get these moving threats out without taking the heat themselves.

[Loyal and True]

Francis is all about Drama and attention for himself. He wants nothing more than for Calgarians to think he is tight with the owners.

[DiracSpike]

Originally Posted by _Q_

Weird article.

Because the Flames are worth a lot, Houston is more likely to buy them? Which school of economics says that?

It's kind of a fools errand guessing at what franchises will sell for. The hurricanes recently sold for a lot more than their Forbes valuation. Regardless, a lot of the owners bought in for 16M in 1980 and I believe Edwards got in for 40M, so whatever value you place on an NHL franchise all these guys have made at least an order of magnitude on their original investment.

Why do people have the impression there is some kind of queue for relocation?
There's no priority waiting list. The coyotes were the team that was going to move to Winnipeg right up until the moment they weren't.