The Thursday Memo

News and Notes from around the Business World of Hockey.

Slow, slow day so far.

- A look at the Escrow Situation along with some reporting on TV Revenues of four major sport leagues in the US (National Post):

"The players are having 22.5 per cent of their cheques deducted and put into an account with J.P. Morgan until the league determines what the actual revenues from this season have been. Once decided, the players will then be getting some of that money back, but the whack to their bottom line is expected to be substantial.

"Our best estimate at the moment is about 13 per cent will be what the players will eventually lose," says Kelly

...

"In terms of national revenues per season, the NFL is at $3.7 billion (US), major league baseball is $1.37 billion, the NBA is at $930 million and the NHL, with RDS, CBC, NBC and Versus all in, is at just $225 million," says Kelly. "There's a lot of reasons for that, but it's the single biggest drawback we're facing in the league right now."

The NHL makes 24% of what the NBA makes, 16.4% of MLB, and 6% of NFL. Downright puny. Remember my theory on the NHL being near a business peak? This is what I'm talking about. Yes, it is great that the league is filling two-thirds of its arenas on a regular basis but in terms of revenue growth without TV the league is going nowhere fast. Do I wish the NHL could make 3.7 Billion on TV? Sure. But its a special "niche" sport for a reason, I guess.

- Want your kid to go to school to learn hockey? How's $32,000 (Canadian) a year sound? (Metronews.ca)

- Finally, Bobby Granger bumps into Henrik Lundqvist:



More later.