The Monday Memo

News and Notes from around the Business World of Hockey.

- Coming up this week: Check back later today for an opinion piece on Celebrity NHL fans ... Wednesday begins a new month, which means fresh monthly attendance reports either then or Thursday ... Finally, the week will wrap up/start with the usual bi-weekly Second Half Attendance Boost update. And on another note, I'm getting into crunch time here at school, so please excuse my absenteeism at some points until May 1st. After then, its all playoff hockey, summer jobs, and this site. Thanks for reading as always.

- The Dallas Stars are on the block for minority ownership (Dallas News):

"Hicks (Tom) also owns the Dallas Stars. He said he owns 95 percent of both teams (Texas Rangers) and is willing to let up to 49 percent of each club be owned by limited partners, allowing him to keep majority ownership. He anticipates owning 51 to 60 percent when the process ends."

- There has been many rumors of the AHL establishing a Western Conference due to the number of West-coast NHL teams that affliate with East-coast teams, but AHL President Dave Andrews pours some cold water on that (Masslive.com):

"Not so, says league president Dave Andrews.

"We are not pushing, nor can we," he said. "Only Edmonton can make the decision regarding when or if they want to activate the franchise. If they do make that decision, it would be up to our Board of Governors to act on it. The Oilers would need league approval regarding where they might want to place the franchise."

- NHL TV Ratings are consistent, but tiny (Sports Media Watch):

"Of the fifteen non-Winter Classic regular season telecasts on NBC in the past two seasons, only one has drawn a 1.0 rating. The majority of games have drawn a 0.8 rating, with two games this season drawing a 0.9."

- Last week was the public information session meeting for the Lighthouse Project on Long Island, and Nick says the project is now at a crossroads, in a good way (Let There Be Light(house)):

"Over 1,000 people jammed the Marriott ballroom last night to attend the Lighthouse Development Group's 180th community outreach meeting. It was billed as a public information session, and those who may not have been as informed on the project could have come away learning quite a bit. For me, it was bits of information surrounded by....a pep rally."

- Finally, Molson Canadian Beer thinks players should have more curve on their sticks:



More later.

- Update, 2:30 PM:

Scott Burnside at ESPN reports that the Coyotes are on pace to lose up to 40% of their revenue-sharing allotment this season because of failed goals for ticket sales. Along with this, the NHL supposedly condemned the club for going out of the box with its recent ticket promotion involving Smirnoff liquor. Finally, sources think there will be changes in ownership, "sometime between the start and finish of the playoffs (between mid-April and the beginning of June)"

- Note: The editorial on Celebrities in the NHL will come tomorrow, around noon. So please do come back.