With all the entertaining mano-a-mano stories out there it is easy to get sidetracked into viewing the current Balsillie attempt as some personality-driven drama. It isn't. It is business.
It is being assumed that the only reason G.B. (following the McCowan Prime Time Sports tradition) is fighting Balsillie is any one of the following: ego, personal animosity, hatred of Canada, blind adherence to the "southern footprint" plan, etc. G.B. is an employee - 30 bosses (currently 29) - and is not the CEO of the NHL. His bosses are, like Balsillie, business men. Most are not as successful and many have a much shadier past, but in the end they have bought a business so what are the business advantages and disadvantages of moving a team from Phoenix to Hamilton.
Phoenix is hemoraging cash. This was bad enough when they were merely sucking revenue-sharing money from the top-earning teams like the Leafs and Canucks. It is something else entirely when the league is running the team and running up the losses and passing those losses on to 29 other teams.
With the guarantee that a team in Hamilton (or Guelph, for that matter) would make money hand-over-fist why would there be a business opposition to a move?
First question a hockey fan might ask is where is Hamilton? You think selling a Tuesday night game ticket in Dallas is hard when Phoenix is in town? Try Hamilton. Balsillie would be wise here to go with the Toronto "Tempest" ala the New York Islanders.
Secondly, well the Southern Footprint strategy of Bett..I mean G.B. is not completely nuts and while a NFL-like national TV contract seems further away than ever, a return to ESPN is not. Phoenix's TV numbers may not be great for the NHL but, as far as US ratings are concerned, they are infinitely higher than would be the case for Hamilton. It may be hard to quantify but it is a cost to the current owners.
But the big cost for the current owners will be the result of this new team's very success in southern Ontario. The Blackberries, or whatever they might be called, will be a great source of hockey-related revenues. Yay! Everyone wins, except that they don't. Any spike in league-wide revenues results in a jump in both the NHL salary cap AND the salary floor. Just because Hamilton is a great success doesn't mean that Nashville, Tampa, Atlanta and Los Angeles are happy. They now would be required to pony up more cash to hit their cap floors. Does the extra revenue-sharing money off-set this - good question - but it is the far more important question to ask when looking at this whole discussion gets down to what the league is ultimately going to do.
1 comment:
I think money may indeed be the ultimate factor in all of this.
You make some good points;
Another well-heeled team means a higher salary cap - but the fact is that Phoenix's ticket base wasn't covering 40% of their operating costs - and they weren't selling out despite a ticket price that is an average of $12 cheaper per seat than most teams.
The larger point about the ESPN deal is a valid one. Or could be. The fact is that even with the Coyotes that magical ESPN deal hasn't materialized (though I suspect it will - albeit it may well be for cheaper than what they get from Versus), and while it may not be more likely with a Hamilton team - it can't be less likely since despite 12 years in the dessert they currently don't have a deal.
Keep in mind as well that if Bettman were to about face and welcome Balsillie into the fold he could charge Ballsy for the territorial rights infringement ($75M or so) - something he may not be able to do if Bettman loses in court and Ballsy moves on his own.
Also keep in mind that the Coyotes aren't the last gasp for Ballsy. Even if he fails with this attempt, there are half a dozen more struggling owners looking to recoup their investment. Ballsy could conceivably play this game five more times - dragging out the costs each and every time.
Which is to say, that sooner or later, I think Ballsy will get his wish.
So why fight it? If MLSE is the problem (and they are)
Last but not least, while I agree that Bettman is the lapdog of the owners, he largely has carte blanche to do as he sees fit - and there is no doubt some personal animus between the two main players. How much a role that has remains to be written about, but I suspect it is not insubstantial.
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