I Thought You Quit.... Phoenix Coyotes Links

Yeah so by know you all probably know about the Phoenix Coyotes situation with Jim Basillie. Well if you are looking for more in depth reading, Here are some quality links:

- A solid summary by James Mirtle (From The Rink).

- The NHL is apparently really pissed off about this and this will all be heading to court (Mirtle - From The Rink). A couple of things about this...

I received the email he mentioned to by their marketing team, which kind of shocked me that I was considered a "popular hockey blogger." Still, that only shows that I can't do this daily because I was so far behind on the news that by time I read my email the news was a day old.

But more importantly is the power battle that is going on between the NHL and Basillie. Basillie has a little bit of leverage here because he has offered to pay certain debts (already), and has essentially put in the hands down best offer for the club with a clause that they have to move to Southern Ontario. BUT... the NHL has the legal rights to the club when Jerry Moyes basically gave up a couple of months ago. And there is no chance the courts will turn against that. This should be fun to watch...

- A Coyotes Call to Arms at Five For Howling.

- A small timeline of all that's gone on with the Coyotes since January (Puck Report)

- The official news release that I received (Canadian Press). Still can't believe they sent it to me.

So that's that. I'm considering a comeback now (it always seems to work this way, doesn't it?) for something small, but I would have to figure out how much time I could dedicate. You'll know by Sunday.

The Thursday Memo

News and Notes from around the Business World of Hockey.

- The NBC Stanley Cup Finals broadcast schedule, and the problems with it (Puck The Media).

- Jack Carnefix, the senior vice pres. of communications/new media for the ECHL, clarified to Mirtle yesterday about the reason as to why ECHL teams are dropping fast (From The Rink):

"Travel costs are not really an issue as teams from the East and West are not required to play each other during the regular season," Carnefix said. "Even for teams in the West who fly more frequently, travel costs are approximately 8.5 per cent of their budget.

"The overall reasons for most minor league teams ceasing and suspending operations are financial, however, it has more to do with attendance than travel costs. It is a very tough time for minor-league sports."

- St. Louis Blues President John Davidson will join Commissioner Gary Bettman on his weekly show, 'NHL Hour' (NHL.com). The show should be available for podcast on Friday. From my experience watching Ranger games, Davidson is a class-guy who has definitely revived the Blues and their fans the past couple of seasons, and I would not be surprised to find the show littered with business talk.

- The International Olympic Committee has approved Hockey Canada's new logo (CTV). It has not been revealed yet, but the new brand look will most certainly sell well in 2010.

- Finally, play some office hockey today:



This will be my only post today, unless there are updates floating around to be added. I will not be around until Sunday, as a minor road trip is planned for Friday night. The joys of college.

Marketing the Game: Celebrities and the NHL

Vince Vaughn at the 2009 Winter Classic.

One of my roommates here at school is an Ottawa Senators "fan." I use the quotation marks because he doesn't watch any games during the season, he only knows three to five current players on the roster, and above all has absolutely no clue where they are in the standings. All that matters to him is two things. First, Mike Fisher stays with the team. And second, the Senators win in our annual trip to Scotiabank Place when the Rangers visit the Sens in October or November of each season (three years and running the Rangers have lost this game, kill me now).

I subjected you to all of that because he just started talking the whole Mike Fisher-Carrie Underwood relationship thing/fling/news; weeks after I mentioned it to him. This got me thinking about other NHL celebrity fans. Jeremy Piven has been interviewed at least once if not twice at Ranger games this year, both of which seemed forced and awkward. Spike Lee was also caught at the garden as well. I've seen Pat Sajak at Kings and Capitals games, and plenty of stars showed up for the 2009 Winter Classic at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

Do not get me wrong, having Celebs at the games are great. It no doubt brings attention to the game along with probably making a couple of fans out of dumb Americans that follow celebrities. But like I said above with the Jeremy Piven-New York Rangers interviews, most interviews just seemed forced and fake. I guess what I'm really trying to get at is, the NHL seems so desperate when it comes to recognizing public figures at its games. Personally, I think the NHL should be very nonchalant about it. Sure, do a story about them at the Winter Classic and ask some simple questions. Sure, take a picture of Hilary Duff and Carrie Underwood once or twice and ask them their opinions during the game. But after that, just let them be. I understand celebrities are used to attention, but don't bring it to them when they are trying to relax watching a great game in a great sport that is under-appreciated to begin with.

This isn't really a big issue, but it just seems like anytime a famous face is in the Garden during a Rangers game, they have someone sticking a mic in their face and asking awkward questions about their next entertainment ploy. I guess I just don't want to drive away any star power the league has to begin with. The league should act like the cool older brother to the group of little sister and friends, where they say hello, talk to them from now and then, but at the same time just let them be most of the time.

Any thoughts on the issue for the few of you loyal businessmen/women out there?

The Friday Memo

News and Notes from around the Business World of Hockey

Slow day today, and with my first free weekend in a while, I'm not sure how much I'll be around until Sunday.

- One thing I do plan on doing is catching the NCAA College Hockey Tourney on the various ESPN networks. If I was home I would be able catch em all, but ESPN 2 will do for today and tomorrow.

- An updated look at the NHL and Olympic situation (Globe and Mail):

"But Bettman said: “It's not so easy to simply say ‘Let's go to the Olympics'. We shut down our season for two weeks to 17 days and there is a momentum to our season that is lost...it all comes to a screeching halt and we go off to the Olympics.

“No other league stops to go do this. In fact, baseball doesn't do it and it's no longer an Olympic sport. This is hard, it's not always a good experience and the benefits we've sometimes seen were not always worth what we've had to sacrifice."

Personally, I am more for a soccer-style setup where only 4-5 (its actually 3 in soccer) senior-team (top leagues) professionals can play for their country, while the rest are prospects. But we will save that debate for the long days of the off-season.

- Commissioner Bettman re-states that the Coyotes will be staying in Phoenix (ESPN):

"Our goal is to bring in new capital and make this franchise solvent," Bettman said Thursday night while attending the Coyotes game against the Edmonton Oilers. "That's our direction, and at this point moving the franchise elsewhere is not on the table."

The Coyotes have reportedly lost $200 million since current owner Jerry Moyes brought the team in 2001, and are projected to lose another $30 million this season."

- Finally, the NHL takes men and makes them "real men:"

NHL Nearing A Business Peak?

The 2008 All Star Game in Atlanta

The NHL is on pace for another record season in terms of overall revenue, ticket sales, average attendance, and TV ratings (the last since the lockout). The economy has reached new lows and every expert is forecasting hard times for the sports industry. How much danger is our sport in? A little, I think.

First, lets take a look at the Hockey Related Revenues of the past decade (click to enlarge. NOTE: the pre-lockout revenues are totals of team revenues, thus making them estimate/ballpark figures. Exact figures were not available to me):



Since the lockout, the NHL's revenue has grown just over 16% to about $2.6 Billion. Everyone has heard Commissioner Bettman's projections for this year, starting at definite growth to recent reports indicating flat or slight loss of revenue. In this economy, staying at a flat rate around the current $2.6 Billion would definitely be a great accomplishment. If the league comes through with a 1% growth as I have projected, it would be another added success for the league. But, until the economy recovers (which may take 3-5 years), I do not see the NHL growing more than 1-2% in terms of revenue per year. At the same time, if the NHL were to flatten or drop in revenue for the next couple of seasons, it wouldn't surprise me the least because I think the NHL is reaching a business peak either now or in the near future.

Why do I think this? As it says right on the homepage of this site, 43% of the leagues revenue in 2007-2008 came from ticket sales. The NHL is a gate-driven league, and I don't think anyone is in a position to argue against this. Take a look at the NHL average attendance over the years (click to enlarge):



The league average attendance is at an all-time high, and if the pace continues for the rest of this season, the league will set a new record along with most likely passing the NBA in average attendance. But, say the season ended yesterday and the 17,338 average stood for this season. The NHL does not have much room to move to expand in terms of attendance, as the average capacity in the NHL is 18,446 (take average of NHL Arena capacities). Thus, unless teams are selling over 100% capacity (which some do), the NHL average attendance cannot go any higher than 18,446.

So, what can the NHL do to continue/keep its growth and revenue going? There are simple and raw ideas everywhere such as relocation, contraction, expansion, and taking a cut to get back on ESPN. I have three keys that I think will keep the financial stability of the league up along with possibly fueling the league for future growth when the economy turns around.

• Be Very Cautious with the Salary Cap
  

Since being implemented in 2005, the NHL Salary Cap has jumped nearly $20 Million from the original $39 Million in '05-'06 to this seasons $56.7 Million. Raising the cap at $5-6 Million a year is something I never understood. What is the big rush? It seems as though the league has forced some giant contracts with such rapid inflation of the cap. Next seasons salary cap will suffer because of these jumps, as the cap will either stay flat or drop.

Just google something about bad or worst sports contracts and you will get millions of opinions on the worst ones ever signed or how huge deals are killing sports. As a Ranger fan, I cringed when I heard the amount Wade Redden got this summer. The economy slow down which is no doubt having an influence on the cap might be the best thing for it, as a couple of seasons of the cap staying flat or dipping probably wouldn't be the worst thing to happen to the league. At the same time, don't get me wrong, a top NHL player making $7 Million a year compared to Manny Ramirez making over $20 Million a year isn't fair. But you have to consider the economies at scale.

• Get Creative with Television

As the late Jack Fallah would agree with me, Hockey and Television was not a good mix from the start. It has gotten better, much better, but at the same time Hockey and Television has never really taken off, with the exception of the mid-'90s on FOX. What do I mean by creativity? How about splitting networks, adding networks, or just getting back on FOX or ESPN? At the same time, I think the broadcasting of hockey could benefit from new technology. Mr. Fallah never liked how the camera would zoom too far in on the puck, not allowing him to see players away from the puck, which is where an important part of Hockey is played, and I would have to agree.

Look, the NHL on TV is like a marriage for business purposes. Of course it helps and the relationship is OK, but everything is not there. I do not have any magic answers, I just wish the NHL would get creative and serious in exploring their options for broadcasting the league.

• The Obvious, Fix Two Franchises A.S.A.P.

I saved the most obvious for last. To me, some money the NHL earns falls between the cracks because of how much the league has to support struggling franchises in certain markets. Every league has gone through situations like this, and some successful franchises this season were once in trouble no less than 5 to 10 years ago. But, with the economy struggling to early 1990's levels, stopping the bleeding would greatly benefit the league on the bottom line. There could be many ways to do this, and I'm not sure what would be the best and most efficient, but something has to be done.

In general, I think the league is looking up and is in good position to deal with the economic struggles. I see no real reason as to why playoff ticket sales will struggle (besides the markets being in the toilet), as many fans save up for this certain time of year. Bettman and company are saying the playoff tickets will be an indicator for next season. I somewhat agree with this, but retaining current season ticket holders will be an even bigger indicator. If many teams do not reach a flat level of retention, the NHL could experience its first drop in average attendance in three years.

Sources:

Attendance: Andrew's Stars Page
Revenues: Andrew's, Daniel Tolensky
TV Ratings: Andrew's

Busy Day - Coyotes Update

Sorry about not posting all day, I had a busy day starting in the morning and has really turned sour with some family-related news. Not much to report anyways besides Nashville-relocation rumours that started out of nowhere just because Gary Bettman visited Tennessee and hosted his XM radio show, NHL Hour. (TSN, NHL.com).

Work calls at 3:30, so maybe something later tonight, but otherwise enjoy your Friday evening.

- Update: 10:30 PM EST

Want to buy the Coyotes and move them out of Phoenix? I hope you have at least a Billion dollars...

Mike Sunnucks of the Phoenix Business Journal shed a little more light on the offers to buy the Phoenix Coyotes, claiming there are at least five serious investment group.

In addition to this, most of you know that there is almost no possible way the Coyotes can move out of Phoneix because of its ridiculous lease with the city of Glendale, Arizona and Jobing.com Arena:

Those sources, who asked not to be identified, said the team would have to pay a $750 million penalty if it broke its 30-year lease with the city of Glendale. That factor lessens the possibility of the hockey team leaving the Phoenix market.

Looks like for the time being the Coyotes will remain the Coyotes.

Thursday News & Notes

- Rangers/Flyers from last Sunday draws a 0.9 rating. Still up 13% from last seasons matchup of Stars/Red Wings at 0.8 (Puck The Media).

- Let's start the Coyotes fun! After Dredger's original TSN report, Coyotes owner Jerry Moyes did confirm that they have received interest from investors. Yes, there is an s on the end of investors (azcentral.com).

- In response to this news, David Shoalts writes an article which, oh how do you say, doubts the situation? (Globe and Mail).

"Who would make an offer on that team?" one source said, referring to the total losses of the Coyotes, said to be as much as $250-million since Moyes took control of them in 2001.

- In response to Shoalts, Odin Mercer writes on how he thinks Shoalts wove his article just to bring out more negativity around the Coyotes. I'm still laughing at the picture at this top of this article. (Five for Howling)

- Rangers @ Bruins is on tap for NBC's Game of the Week next Sunday, March 8th (Puck The Media). This Sunday it is Pittsburgh @ Washington (Capitals.com). I am so far two for two with my Game of the Week predictions.

- Update: 1:35 PM EST

Gary Bettman will host his show NHL Hour today from Nashville.

Members of the Nashville Predators organization scheduled to guest on today's show include Chairman David Freeman, President of Hockey Operations and General Manager David Poile and Head Coach Barry Trotz.

Click here if you want to listen to it at 4 PM EST. Once the NHL Network Online window loads, click on the "NHL Radio" tab and click the first "NHL Hour" tab on the right at the top of the list, and it should load.

I already sent in a question regarding some financial issues, so lets hope we hear some good stuff.

- Seeing that Alex Ovechkin might have had the goal of the year last night, I will leave you with one of his first commercials stateside from back in (I think, not 100% sure) 2007:

Monday Afternoon Roundup

Here are the top stories this afternoon around the Business World of Hockey:

- Wings @ Pens drew a 1.1 on NBC yesterday afternoon (Puck The Media)

- Speaking of marketing partnerships, MLB TV and NHL GameCenter team up to offer you a great online viewing deal (NHL.com)

- CBC posts Gary Bettman's uncut interview on CBC's "The Hour" last Thursday. (Slap Shot - New York Times) Highlights? Right off the bat the relocation/expansion talk starts, and then around the 10 minute mark some more Phoenix discussion comes up. Its a long one, but Bettman does reveal some interesting views on how he deals with certain situations and basically what makes him tick.

- In light of the Wild freezing season ticket prices, other teams are starting to announce their plans as well. The Oilers and Bruins will both be slightly increasing their tickets for next season.

I'm going to revive a little tradition which I loved that Sean Leahy used to do weekly over at Going Five Hole to keep our touch with the game fresh. Here was this past Saturday's Coach's Corner with Ron MacLean and Don Cherry:



Hopefully more later...

Report: Bettman 0 for 3 for Phoenix

Gary Bettman is 0 for 3 according to the Globe and Mail in attempts to lure owners to buy the struggling Phoenix Coyotes franchise.

The sources say the NHL commissioner was turned down by Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf, by Phoenix Suns majority owner Robert Sarver and by Ken Kendrick, the managing general partner of the Arizona Diamondbacks, on separate occasions. All three were said to have backed out after looking at the books of the Coyotes, who are expected to lose as much as $45-million (all currency U.S.) this season.

Yikes. Obviously, this just adds fuel to the fire down in the desert and may stir the interest of the NHL Board of Governors, who have obviously been keeping a close eye on the situation.

We will see what kind of response this news gets tomorrow.

Good night.

Busy Day

Busy Day for me today as I got called into work, so this will be my only post. So with that, I will leave you with some Wednesday Afternoon reading from around the Hockey Business World:

- Puck The Media takes a look at the problems behind NBC's decisions on which game to incorporate into their flex scheduling, and some options on how to improve it.

- Eric Lindros stepped down as the NHLPA obudsman yesterday. This was a newly created position for him when he accepted it, and his job was to basically overview all of new Executive Director Paul Kelley's moves, which was a tough job with sometimes strained relations between the two.

- Not business related, but nonetheless always entertaining. A fresh John Buccigross column on ESPN.

- Commissioner Bettman spoke at The Business Lecture Series in Toronto last night. Once again, he hammered home that the NHL will continue to grow this season. The main but general quote:

"This will be our fourth consecutive year of record revenue growth and, because our attendance historically increases month by month, 2008-09 also likely will be our fourth consecutive season of record attendance," Bettman said. "That said, we are, of course, faced with challenges and I focus on them every moment of every day. I see the challenges and I am extremely confident they can be overcome through hard work, through the commitment of my office and the Board of Governors to every one of our franchises in every one of our markets and through the strength of the economic system that governs the League’s relationship with the players."

Happy reading...

One quick edit: As I was updating the spreadsheet last night, we have a new low for a single game attendance; which occured last night.

The Islanders 3-1 over the Lightning last night at Nassau Veterans Memoral Coliseum was attended by only a reported 9,808 spectators:

Wow. After looking at some more photos, it did look like some more filed in, but still, that's just plain brutal. In defense, there was a snowstorm in the area last night. For more on the Islanders attendance woes, see my article from yesterday.

Now I'm late, gotta run.

Slow Day...

Slow day in terms of business news and basically stuff I can write about. I'm still waiting for some clarification on some revenue-sharing related CBA questions before I can move ahead with those plans. So far now, this is what I've got:

NHL Senior Executive Vice President of Hockey Operations Colin Campbell and NHL Senior Vice President of Hockey Operations Mike Murphy (Yes, they are different roles, apparently) will join Commissioner Bettman on his weekly hour-long talk show; NHL Hour (nhl.com).

The show encourages fans to submit questions via phone and e-mail. To submit questions to NHL Hour call 1-877-645-6696 or e-mail nhlhour@nhl.com.

Commissioner Gary Bettman will return next week to host with Bill Clement live from the NHL Powered By Reebok store in New York City.

So if you're lucky enough to have Sirius, tune into Channel 204 or 208 at 4 PM for some hockey talk. I'm sure they'll cover some business along with the hot-button issue, fighting. I'll look for the podcast later.

Other than that, I have nothing. So I decided to update you on some small stats from the spreadsheet I use to track attendance (updated recently, in the top right corner of the homepage here). First, the number of sellouts, followed by which team:

• 26 Sellouts: Calgary
• 24: Vancouver, NYR, Minnesota
• 23: Chicago, Montreal, San Jose
• 22: Pittsburgh
• 20: Edmonton
• 17: St. Louis
• 13: Boston, Buffalo
• 12: Philadelphia, Detroit
• 11: Washington
• 10: Ottawa, Anaheim
• 8: Los Angeles, Dallas
• 6: Colorado
• 4: NYI
• 3: Nashville, New Jersey
  
• 2: Carolina, Tampa Bay
• 1: Atlanta, Columbus, Florida
  
• 0: Phoenix

Riveting. A couple more fun facts:

Largest Crowd: 22,712 in Chicago. Friday, December 26th, against the Flyers. Hawks win 5-1.

Smallest Crowd: 10,183 in Uniondale for the Islanders. Thursday, October 23rd, against the Stars. Dallas wins 5-3.

That's all for now, check back later, but I'm not promising anything.

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.