NHL Hockey thread

[Valmy]

The dynamics are completely different.  The City of atlanta couldn't care less.  The arena owners want them OUT as they already have the Hawks as an anchor tenant.

I thought Tom Glavine was going to bat, so to speak, for them.

[Barrister]

The dynamics are completely different.  The City of atlanta couldn't care less.  The arena owners want them OUT as they already have the Hawks as an anchor tenant.

I thought Tom Glavine was going to bat, so to speak, for them.

He doesn't have the money.

The problem with all these scenarios is you'll find lots of people willing to try and save the local team.  They might throw in a buck or two.  But nobody in either Atlanta or Phoenix is willing to wring a nine-figure check with their own money.

[Barrister]

More Atlanta news:

Vote in Arizona could go long way in determining fate of Thrashers
3:14 pm May 9, 2011, by Chris Vivlamore

The clock could start ticking on the Thrashers this week – and it could move quickly.

On Tuesday, the city of Glendale will vote on whether to pay another $25 million to the NHL. That money would be used by the league-owned team, rescued from bankruptcy in 2009, for operating expenses and would keep the financially struggling team in Arizona for one more season. According to several media outlets, the proposal is expected to pass.

Last week the city of Glendale paid the NHL $25 million for operating losses for last season.

The NHL is looking for an owner that will keep the team in Glendale. Efforts to sell to Chicago businessman Matthew Hulsizer have been ongoing for months in a complicated deal that has a local watchdog group threatening legal action.

The Phoenix franchise has been eyed by prospective buyer True North Sports and Entertainment, which would purchase the team and move it back to Winnipeg where it relocated from in 1996. However with the Coyotes staying in Arizona for at least another year, True North will likely turn its efforts, quickly, to the Thrashers, who have been for sale in earnest for several years. The Atlanta Spirit, owner of the Thrashers, Hawks and the operating rights to Philips Arena, have been looking for a buyer and/or investors and have said relocation is a possibility. Co-owner Michael Gearon Jr. told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in February and again last week that there is a "sense of urgency" to find a solution to the financial losses suffered by the team. The Thrashers could fetch upwards of $170 million from True North with the NHL getting around $60 million as a relocation fee.

The Thrashers are not expected to be sold for that much to a buyer that would keep the team in Atlanta. Team president Don Waddell has been actively working with groups interested in purchasing the Thrashers. He told the AJC this week that there are currently two groups, both out of town, interested in purchasing the Thrashers and keeping them here. However, talks have not progressed beyond a preliminary stage. The clock on getting such a deal done could start with the Coyotes situation settled, at least temporarily.

The situation brings up three main issues concerned with the Thrashers.

1. Are the Spirit committed to selling to an owner that will keep the team in Atlanta even if it means turning down a potential offer and extending the search process? If offered such a sale price from True North, the owners could stand to make more money, minus capital calls, than their original cash investment in all three entities.

Co-owner Bruce Levenson and Gearon have said that keeping the Thrashers in Atlanta is their first choice. However, they have also made it clear they no longer desire to bear the financial responsibility of a franchise that is losing money, up to $130 million over the course of their ownership according to court documents. That figure does include the fact that a portion of arena revenues go directly to bond payments.

By selling and relocating the Thrashers, the Spirit does stand to lose additional revenue. It would lose a pro-rated amount on the $10 million annual naming rights to Philips Arena without an NHL occupant. It would also lose revenue associated with having 41 dates in the arena.

2. Will the NHL work with Atlanta, as it has with Phoenix, to avoid franchise relocation?

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman has stated, on several occasions, that the NHL currently has no plans to relocate any franchise. The league has certainly worked to keep Phoenix in Arizona. While the league may not be willing to take on any financial responsibility for Atlanta, it could turn its full attention to helping resolve the ownership situation once the Phoenix situation, job No. 1 right now, is settled. Or not. The league could give its blessing to the Spirit to open talks with True North.

It would be puzzling if Bettman and the league dedicated months to trying to resolve said situation in Phoenix and not have a strong interest in keeping a team in Atlanta, the No. 8 television market.

3. There may not be enough time to get a sale and relocation completed in time for next season. Time figures to be an issue to sell and move the Thrashers to Winnipeg – or another city. The sale of a professional sports team is not an easy, nor a quick, process. The length of time it has taken to resolve the Phoenix situation would leave a short turnaround. However, the framework possibly in place on a Phoenix-Winnipeg deal could be used to move things along with the Thrashers. A similar situation occurred when the Spirit purchased the teams and rights to the arena after negotiations with Dallas businessman David McDavid were not completed.

The sale of Phoenix would help recoup the losses, footed by the NHL owners, from rescuing the franchise from bankruptcy and running it for two seasons. However, the league may not be in a hurry to relocate to a Winnipeg. They could wait another year to see what happens in Phoenix.

If the Thrashers were to leave for Winnipeg, there would almost certainly need to be a conference re-alignment to accommodate the move.

http://blogs.ajc.com/atlanta-thrashers-blog/2011/05/09/vote-in-arizona-could-go-long-way-in-determining-fate-of-thrashers/?cxntfid=blogs_atlanta_thrashers_blog

[Barrister]

And yet more Atlanta news.

Lessons learned in Phoenix?
STEPHEN BRUNT | Columnist profile | E-mail
From Tuesday's Globe and Mail
Published Monday, May. 09, 2011 6:39PM EDT
Last updated Monday, May. 09, 2011 6:42PM EDT
20 comments
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We have just passed the two-year anniversary of Jerry Moyes taking his Phoenix Coyotes into bankruptcy, having decided it was his only way out.

(The team's former owner was right, by the way.)

Tuesday, the political leadership in Glendale, Ariz., seems certain to make sure this tawdry little drama will continue for at least 12 more months, when they vote to throw another $25-million (U.S.) into their massive, good-money-after-bad sinkhole, committing to covering the Coyotes' losses for the 2011-12 NHL season with absolutely no assurance the team won't pack up and move the minute it is completed.

That's $50-million, straight up, in handouts, not counting the cost of the arena, and not factoring in the $50-million cheque Jim Balsillie had promised to write Glendale if he had been successful in acquiring the team and moving it to Hamilton – or $200 for every hockey-oblivious man, woman and child in the small, suburban city.

Whoever is your elected representative – yes, even in Toronto (yes, even the Brothers Ford) – sleep a little easier understanding it could be worse. Your tax dollars could be in the hands of these people.

So just what have we learned here?

A whole bunch of things, none of them flattering to the NHL or the people who operate it, who have had the dirtiest of their dirty linen aired, have watched franchise values erode in marginal markets, have allowed their weakest link to distract everyone from their core strengths as a sport business, and who – directly and through their loyal minions – have told dozens of little white lies about "irresponsible reporting" and rosy finances and prospective buyers lining up.

(A personal favourite: "Interestingly, [the Coyotes'] gate receipts are up 12 to 18 per cent over last year. Their attendance is up. They are not on life support. There are some cash-flow issues that we're helping them with. We haven't made any formal loans to that franchise. All of that speculation is wildly exaggerated." – NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, 2009.)

We have learned the Atlanta Thrashers must be in significantly worse shape than the Coyotes, that they must represent a whole other level of unsalvageable, which really, is hard to imagine. Because there are no patsies offering bags of money in Georgia, the league needs a solution there, pronto.

We have learned other than Winnipeg, there is not a single place in North America where the NHL could relocate a team next fall. Even in Kansas City, where there is a brand-new empty arena awaiting a tenant, no prospective owner has stepped forward. Same goes for the familiar list of possibilities: Houston, Portland, Seattle, Las Vegas, etc. If any of them had the wherewithal, they'd have a hockey team by now. In fact, they'd have their choice.

We have learned the true value of the Coyotes in Glendale is zero – actually, something less than zero, since no prospective investor has offered to put their own money into a deal, leaving Chicago businessman Matthew Hulsizer with the only offer to "buy" the team, underwritten by a $116-million municipal bond issue and a $97-million management contract. In the end, even he got cold feet.

We have learned Arizona Senator John McCain's decision to select Sarah Palin as his U.S. presidential running mate in 2008 suddenly makes a lot more sense coming from the same person who claimed the loss of the hockey team would result in the loss of a thousand jobs.

We have learned the Goldwater Institute taxpayer watchdog group was wildly underestimated by the NHL, and is certainly not (in the words of NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly) "irrelevant."

We have learned the NHL owners, who have already sunk $140-million into buying the Coyotes, and more to cover losses beyond $25-million, are willing to follow their commissioner even farther down this dead-end road, despite having been assured they would be in and out and made whole by now. (They will be placated to some degree if the league can turn around and charge the prospective Winnipeg owners a "relocation fee" for Atlanta, which in itself will be worth more than the team's actual market value.)

Head coach Dave Tippett and company worked miracles with the Coyotes the past two seasons. But imagine what's coming with no extra money to build or market the franchise, with the NHL just trying to hold losses down and get to the finish line, with yet another deadline looming. It will redefine "lame duck."

Winnipeg, you're still going to get your hockey team. It just looks like it will be a different hockey team.

Quebec City, if you can get the money and arena together by this time next year, say hello to Les Coyotes.

[CountDeMoney]

NHL blew up too much, too fast.  You have to treat expansion like the NFL does: like the precious civil jewels that they are.*




*Except the way Tagliabue did it.  You fuck, I hope you rot in hell.

[BuddhaRhubarb]

Ok so I guess it's the Canucks in 27 games. Or at least Kesler in 27. The dude is a machine. If only the Sedins could halfway match his intensity, they'd be unstoppable.

[Neil]

Another victory for cheapshots and bullshit over skill and heart.

[Barrister]

According to HNIC's Elliote Friedman:

4) Interesting: Word is The Raine Group, which is handling the sale of the Atlanta Thrashers for Atlanta Spirit LLC, is telling prospective buyers the team can be moved because having those dates available for other events (ie. concerts) is a better financial option than hockey. Neither a phone call nor a follow-up email were returned by 10 p.m. ET Monday.

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/blogs/elliottefriedman/2011/05/keefe-has-coaching-chops-plus-30-thoughts.html

[Jacob]

Another victory for cheapshots and bullshit over skill and heart.

Why are you posting about The Back Alley in the hockey thread?

[Barrister]

There are a TON of stories flooding the 'Net about the vote in Glendale - and every single one of them conects the situation to Atlanta / Winnipeg.

From TSN:

Also paying close attention will be hockey fans in Winnipeg, who've been through more ups and downs these past few months than they'll ever have to endure if they actually have a team to follow.

A 'no' vote tonight would likely send the Coyotes back from whence they came all those years ago, with another name change surely awaiting them in the Manitoba capital.

A 'yes' vote would secure the Coyotes in Arizona for a year but wouldn't altogether dash Winnipeg's hopes. The Atlanta Thrashers are also for sale right now, and the current owners are anxious to sell before incurring another year of losses in Georgia.

Though time in running out, the Thrashers owners could sell the team to Winnipeg's True North Sports and Entertainment for relocation. But a deal would have to happen quickly in order for the team to be set-up in its new home for the 2011-12 season.

Not the kinds of dramatics hockey fans are used to at this time of year.

But just like in the playoffs, the end is always unpredictable.

http://tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=365255

[BuddhaRhubarb]

Another victory for cheapshots and bullshit over skill and heart.

really? I've watched every game and there have been about the same amount of cheapshots on either side. Pushing someone down with your stick and two hands, or grabbing someone by the collar and hauling them to the ice appears to never get called when it's within 15 feet of the net. (against any team.) That's not hockey.

[Ed Anger]

Beeb makes me want to hate hockey.

[Barrister]

Beeb makes me want to hate hockey.

I'm starting to think this could be the week. 

Of course there was a time in April I thought was the week too.

and in March.

But this time I think this might be it.   

[viper37]

I maintain my comment quoted for prosperity

[Barrister]

I maintain my comment quoted for prosperity

As if you could hide from it now.

I was worried for a day or so.  The NHL has used Winnipeg as leverage in Phoenix, so if Glendale was just buying itself a single year's grace the league might still need the leverage.

But it's a ten year deal (with a total cost to Glendale of $250 mil - it boggles the mind, but whatever).  The league doesn't need the leverage anymore.  So they can let Atlanta move to Winnipeg, which supposedly has been the plan all along.