The Money and Relocation Situation
If you are a Phoenix Coyotes’ fan, I’ll leave you to read these articles from The Globe and Mail.
The first one is penned by Steven Brunt, calling the Bettman era an unequivocal failure. Next, from the same Globe and Mail, another article by Allan Maki detailing how the NHLPA boss Paul Kelly wants more franchises in Canada. The final article comes from the Canadian newspaper The Province calling for the NHL to begin a northward expansion and place franchises north of the border.
There are two similar themes to these articles. First, Canada should have more hockey teams. Second, according to Paul Kelly, NHLPA boss, one of them should come from the “failed” market of the southern expansion, which includes Phoenix, Arizona.
What is the first indicator of a declining market share? Usually, it’s attendance and the Coyotes have one of the lowest in the NHL right now.
What people fail to realize is that attendance figures for hockey clubs have always fluctuated with franchises that have not won. Take a look at this chart compiled by Andrew Dallas Stars page. What do you notice?
Sure that Phoenix has struggled to put fans in the seats, but what about the Vancouver Canucks? Their attendance has fluctuated where they were below the league average. Was there talk of relocation?
The Ottawa Senators were an expansion franchise for the 1992-1993 season. By all rights, that should have been labeled a failed experiment and Bettman should have pulled out that franchise immediately. Now, after making playoff runs and an appearance in the Stanley Cup finals last year, the attendance problems went away.
Of course, it doesn’t come to the real issue (except where people in seats equals more revenue) of the Collective Bargaining Agreement and revenue sharing. The Canadian franchises, where revenue is at its highest for a variety of reasons, have supplemented the struggling franchises and people aren’t happy about it.
It’s a catch-22. If teams can’t spend money on talent, then they are not competitive. If they are not competitive, then people do not show up to games, if people do not show up to games, then teams can hemorriage money. Then…well, you get the point.
But, if there was a way to share revenue, because having competitive teams is good for the sport, people will show up if they think their team has a shot to win the Stanley Cup, and so on, the money issues will take care of themselves. Unless, the economy is down and no one has money to spend, which is the case right now in the U.S. and Detroit has seen that effect this season.
It’s not that easy but everyone likes to make these issues a slam dunk and not think about the larger concepts. Using the logic of people not coming to the arena and spending money, and if the attendance issues are a barometer of that effect, then I guess Vancouver should lose its team because they have been under the league average for awhile as well.
However, it’s the revenue sharing concept that get people going and that right now, the Coyotes benefit from it as they rebuild their franchise from a joke into something bettter.
What will it take for the Coyotes to leave? As I wrote six months ago, to have the Coyotes move would take close to a billion dollars, which combines both the cost of the team and with breaking its lease with the city of Glendale. I’m not sure the price tag is worth it.
If the Coyotes can’t make it work in 30 years, then take them away. However, I’m sure that we’ll see the same thing Pittsburgh has seen with its young team and I’m confident that the fans will come out and we’ll take less of the handout.
Besides, I’m sure there will be other franchises in the same situation someday and will need the assist.
For another take, view Coyotes Corner with Richard Nickerson:
Excellent point on the “billion dollar” buyout. It will not happen — the City of Glendale covered themselves very well for just this type of scenario.
Bettman is correct is in his assumption that to get the big TV bucks (like the NBA) they need teams in major US markets. His problem has been the way they have tried to sell the game to Americans. Televising them on obscure cable networks (Versus) is not going to help. They need the games on ESPN (or at least ESPN2) and they need to be in HD. High definition makes the games much more TV-friendly.
In Phoenix the answer is simply winning. Phoenix fans show-up for winners. Steady winning like the Suns have done is rewarded with season-long sell-outs. The wrong path is that of the Diamondbacks who won it all in 2001 and had great attendance for a couple of years. But they bottomed out and the fans left. Now they have to win them back but this time they have a young team and are trying to do it the right way. I would also like to see the Coyotes more involved in the community with youth hockey and off-season appearances. I would like the games on a radio station that reaches ALL of the valley and I would like to see a weekly show dedicated to the Coyotes and hockey on FSN or even better, one of the network stations. We are still growing the roots of hockey in the valley and it will take a lot of preaching to convert the sun-worshipers into puck-heads.