Rumors Go Where Bettman Goes

Wednesday it was Phoenix, Thursday it was Nashville, and yesterday was Carolina. That was the route of Commissioner Gary Bettman, and each day he was in each city stories broke on different NHL franchises and their financial concerns.

Bettman stated yesterday to the Tampa Tribune that the Lightning are fine financially. A little tidbit of detail was shed yesterday by the Tribune:

The team also recently announced that all building employees must pay to park starting March 1 and paychecks to the players - normally direct deposited - were live checks withheld until after 1 p.m. during the past two pay periods. Those situations help churn the talk of financial instability, which Bettman said is unfounded.

Naturally, that might cause some rumors, Commish.

Commissioner Bettman in a press conference you can watch here had a some business news to relay:

- "Real" growth, which was projected earlier at around 7%, is now being projected from 4-5%.
- The test for the economy and the NHL will be the sale of playoff tickets.
- Carolina will get an All-Star game, but he did not say when. (Sporting News, for a link)
- "We're not thinking about an NHL Division in Europe" - Good, to me.
- Bettman would like to see the number of games in the NHL Prmier increase.

Morning Roundup

I managed to find the Versus ratings for the All-Star game this morning...

USA Today reports the overnight coming in at 0.8 (616,000 households), a 12% increase from last season. Nothing to brag about, as the X-Games outdrew the game by .2, but it still hung around with a regular-season match.

moving on...

Ken Campbell of The Hockey News says that the "free lunch is over" for NBC in regards to the NHL TV rights deal.

I'm late on this, but Campbell says FOX is apparently interested in bringing back the NHL. (Insert goofy fighting robot joke here). Campbell explains how I feel about a new TV-rights deal well here in this paragraph:

A new deal likely wouldn’t be a financial bonanza for the league, but it would provide some revenues and, more importantly, place some tangible value on the television product. Even though all facets of the business are bound to be hurt by the economic downturn, the NHL sees its television presence as an area of potential growth, particularly with the upcoming 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.

This was a setup that lead to more interesting news, though:

Speaking of outdoor games, look for next year’s to be played between the Montreal Canadiens and Boston Bruins at the 69,000-seat Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass. The league has come to the conclusion that the outdoor games work much better in a football stadium than a baseball venue and a Montreal-Boston game would be great for ratings on both sides of the border.

I completely agree. There was nothing wrong at Wrigley, but to me playing in a football stadium year in and year out is just a no-brainer. More fans for a bigger gate receipt and the venue is already basically setup.

Check back later.

Clarification and another CBC-Bettman Interview

Just a clarification on my All-Star "Idea" from yesterday (see below).

I understand the All-Star Weekend format will most likely not be changed (especially anytime soon, with the show Montreal put on and the game itself last night). It is a cash-cow for the city that hosts it and it is very important for fanfare. The weekend alone brought in at least 10 Million for the NHL in sponsorship money, too.

Either way, it was a great game and a solid weekend. I'll be looking for the TV Rating it drew on Versus ASAP, as nothing was in today's Sports Business Daily.

Before the game last night CBC's Ron MacLean spoke with Gary Bettman for about nine minutes. Here it is:


Highlights from the Business standpoint:

- Economic "growth" of 5-6% for this year.
- Bettman confirmed high Escrow possibilities
- A top revenue-sharing team could be getting 17 Million Dollars this season. Wow.
- Bettman: "I believe that Relocation is only a matter of last resort..."
- Bettman stated that Balsillie "bailed out" on the two franchises he pursued.

A great interview. No real shocking news, but some clarifications from the head poncho.

A quick edit: I forgot to mention a quick Attendance stat.

There were 31 sellouts last week, the most since I started tracking sellouts in late December. The reason I say this?

Well there were only games from Sunday through Thursday because of the break. Quite a successful mini week. Total Sellouts for the season number at 361 now.

Something more later.

Great Gary Speaks and My Opinion on the All-Star Weekend

Gary Bettman clarified some situations Saturday night about Phoenix, Nashville, Expansion in Southern Ontario, and the NHL in General.

On the Coyotes, Bettman said there are no plans to relocate them, or any team for that matter. He also said that "...there are some cash-flow issues." I'd say that's a safe statement.

Bettman said the following about the reports of Nashville buying their own tickets to qualify for revenue-sharing:

"They did not do it last year and they have not done it this year. We monitor very closely how clubs report [revenues],'' he said. "We are not going to encourage anyone to play games with the rules, in particular how it relates to revenue sharing."

As for Southern Ontario, he said that putting a team in such a market is "...not that simple." For once, I do agree with Mr. Bettman. Everyone looking from the outside in doesn't understand that relocating a franchise is so much easier said than done. Hell I don't even really know what it completely takes. Mr. Bettman did insinuate though that Hamilton would need a new arena if it became a possibility.

And Finally, Bettman predicts growth of around One percent. Some see this as a bad thing, but I don't really understand how, as a hockey and NHL fan, one cannot be grateful that the economic downturn hasn't struck down on the "smallest" of the big four.

Either way, some interesting comments over a slow All-Star break. Speaking of which...

I came up with this "idea" over the Summer 0f 2008 after the first Winter Classic. As a kid, I always liked watching the Skills Competition over the All-Star game. I watched the Skills last night and I will try to catch the game tonight. Either way, this weekend is important for fanfare and especially important for the kids, who are the future support of the league. So, here's my idea.

Scrap the actual game all-together. You move the new "Winter Classic Break" to start on Christmas day, going until New Years Day, when the league resumes play. You do the "Winter Classic Skills Competition" at the site of the Outdoor Classic either on the afternoon of New Years Eve or the night of December 30th.

Every major sport has a debate over whether to have an All-Star game or not every season, and with the success of the Winter Classic, you could use the outdoor game to highlight the league and what it stands for.

Maybe I'm just talking crazy, but I don't see how it couldn't work. I understand the All-Star weekend is also a lot about the money it brings in to the city that hosts, so once again it is easier said, than done.

Check back tomorrow and then Tuesday for another edition of Playing Below Capacity.