Part XV: Phoenix - the battle of evermore (UPD #443ff 14-Dec agenda/lease links)

[RECCE]

Hi folks.
Question from a Phoenix Saga novice struggling to understand the situation:
If in fact this Hulsizer fellow is truly worth 300M, how could he ever hope to cover the Coyotes losses for the duration of the lease?
1. Assuming he keeps the team in Glendale for another 7 years one would assume losses related to the team would eat up a good chunk of his total net worth.
2. Is the COG somehow guaranteeing he doesn't lose money? If so why is it so hard to find an owner. 3. Lets start a consortium right here,I would happily invest in a hockey team thats guaranteed against losses and could be moved to Mississauga or Houston in 7 years and would make money hand over foot.
Not being snide, I'm dead serious.

1. The way he's talking it sounds like it'll be more like 25 years than seven, unless there's a relocation clause in there (will we ever know? ) EDIT: What Ches said

2. I think most here wouldn't be able to say either way with any certainty, the details of which should come out on the Dec 14th CoG meeting, no?

3. I'd love to but, someone has to lend me the money.

 

[Alberta Yote]

Hi folks.
Question from a Phoenix Saga novice struggling to understand the situation:
If in fact this Hulsizer fellow is truly worth 300M, how could he ever hope to cover the Coyotes losses for the duration of the lease?
Assuming he keeps the team in Glendale for another 7 years one would assume losses related to the team would eat up a good chunk of his total net worth.
Is the COG somehow guaranteeing he doesn't lose money? If so why is it so hard to find an owner. Lets start a consortium right here, I would happily invest in a hockey team thats guaranteed against losses and could be moved to Mississauga or Houston in 7 years and would make money hand over foot.
Not being snide, I'm dead serious.

Is Hulsizer worth $300 mill or is that someone's guess? Is his wife also worth another $300 mill as they seem to list themselves as quite seperate when talking about their roles as "co-founders" of their main company?

I fully expect that his lease with COG will guarantee that he will lose much less than previous owners or this makes no sense for him at all. How much less? That is the question everyone here wants the answer to. As for eating up his net worth, as he is worth $300 mill (or whatever) at age 40, which appears to have been largely earned on his own, I'd guess he is still making money and building that worth. I don't think he's retiring from what has made him successful just to try to make it big as an NHL team owner.

 

[NHLfan4life]

I guess who really cares how much he's worth or how much he'll lose...as long as he buys the team. He has a great attitude and the right direction when it comes to "winning fans back". This ownership situation has alienated a lot of fans.

I have all the confidence that if MH truly follows through on his plan, the fans will start showing up again like they did for the first 5 years. With a good president and an even better product on the ice, it's all there for the fans to soak in. They need to get some players like Tkachuk and Roenick to give them some personality again.

As for the Winnipeg fans, good luck again. I'm not sure I understand all of this Canada vs. America stuff but any good news about the Coyotes staying or the deal getting done is met with negativity (not to be confused with skepticism) that over powers your message. We love our Coyotes. They're not the only game in town which probably distracts from the whole story but we want them to stay. In fact, I have yet to run into anyone, even my Canadian friends and co-workers, that want them to leave.

Now back to your regularly scheduled speculating....

 

[kingbrutis]

Hi folks.
Question from a Phoenix Saga novice struggling to understand the situation:
If in fact this Hulsizer fellow is truly worth 300M, how could he ever hope to cover the Coyotes losses for the duration of the lease?
Assuming he keeps the team in Glendale for another 7 years one would assume losses related to the team would eat up a good chunk of his total net worth.
Is the COG somehow guaranteeing he doesn't lose money? If so why is it so hard to find an owner. Lets start a consortium right here, I would happily invest in a hockey team thats guaranteed against losses and could be moved to Mississauga or Houston in 7 years and would make money hand over foot.
Not being snide, I'm dead serious.

To kinda address this, no one really knows how the team is doing financially. The $25 mil figure was from Moyes. If you know anything about businesses or businessmen it's rather easy to make the books like like anything you want. When you are leasing from multiple businesses that you own, you set the rates and can pay yourself anything you want. That was then.

I'm sure they are loosing money now, but much of the fat has been trimmed by the NHL. The ticket prices are higher and attendance is up 8% over last year. It's not a Canadian market and never will be. It's kinda like comparing the Cowboys market to the Dolphins. Both NFL teams, but that why there is revenue sharing.

When the new owner is finalized, and the team makes a push for the playoffs, things will start to roll better than last year. I believe the last 15 games were sold out.

There has been 0 promotion on this team all year, except for the Dale Jr thing.

Point being, things are finally looking up for this horribly run team. Any one that is a NHL fan should be somewhat happy for us, the fans and season ticket holders.

 

[cheswick]

I'm sure they are loosing money now, but much of the fat has been trimmed by the NHL. The ticket prices are higher and attendance is up 8% over last year. It's not a Canadian market and never will be. It's kinda like comparing the Cowboys market to the Dolphins. Both NFL teams, but that why there is revenue sharing.

When the new owner is finalized, and the team makes a push for the playoffs, things will start to roll better than last year. I believe the last 15 games were sold out.

A few corrections. Its a little under 7% over last year at this point in time. (After 11 games 10410.8 vs 9736.1)

And it was the last 4 games that were sold out, far cry from 15.

 

[bleed_oil]

To kinda address this, no one really knows how the team is doing financially. The $25 mil figure was from Moyes. If you know anything about businesses or businessmen it's rather easy to make the books like like anything you want. When you are leasing from multiple businesses that you own, you set the rates and can pay yourself anything you want. That was then.

I'm sure they are loosing money now, but much of the fat has been trimmed by the NHL. The ticket prices are higher and attendance is up 8% over last year. It's not a Canadian market and never will be. It's kinda like comparing the Cowboys market to the Dolphins. Both NFL teams, but that why there is revenue sharing.

When the new owner is finalized, and the team makes a push for the playoffs, things will start to roll better than last year. I believe the last 15 games were sold out.

There has been 0 promotion on this team all year, except for the Dale Jr thing.

Point being, things are finally looking up for this horribly run team. Any one that is a NHL fan should be somewhat happy for us, the fans and season ticket holders.

I'm not interested in the semantics of “being happy” or “unhappy” with what happens with the Phoenix franchise, but simply trying to understand the finances involved. Also revenue sharing and the degree of revenue sharing is a transient and is not guaranteed for anything beyond the end of the CBA. You can be certain that the top half of NHL teams will fight hard to eliminate or decrease revenue sharing during negotiations for the next CBA.


Anyways to the topic at hand, it would seem that the COG will be (in large part) guaranteeing the team will not lose money. Concurrently, it's puzzling that finding a new owner is so difficult.
Obviously until the final lease comes out no one really knows what the city and the new owners are agreeing to.
If in fact he will keep the team in Phoenix for 25 years, I can see the risk involved and why someone would not want to invest in said team. But if the lease is like previous proposed leases (or at least what I’ve heard of previous proposed leases) and the COG gives the probable owner an out clause at some point in the next 5-10 years, buying the team seems to be a no-brainer because there are some markets where the team would instantly be worth double the initial invested capital (guessing 140-170M)

BTW if the guy’s truly worth 300M (the only number I’ve read of so far) I cant see how he buys this team and funds losses for anything longer than the immediate future, this would lead me to conclude that the proposed lease agreement will severely limit any downside for him. It takes a sharp finance mind to make 300M by the age of 40 so this guys clearly no fool. Also I don’t for a second believe that hogwash about being in it for “the love of the game”. At the end of the day money talks and you can bet there’s some profit motive in this deal.

 

[Faltorvo]

I can't help but feel that it's all now on the side of the COG court.

And possibly quit literally.

Could the delay and silence from the politicians , which is concerning, be an effort to find the legal/political angles needed to allow what could be a bitter pill to swallow or even possibly an illegal pill?

Would foisting this on everyone as close to Christmas as possible hold some advantages if the Hulz offer slipped into the world of lawyer/politician play on words?

I'm willing to bet that this vote comes on the heals of a emerge 24 hr notice proclamation and it happens as close to Christmas as possible.

If i have a distasteful bill of goods to sell, my strategy would follow that course.

Short notice on the heals of a very very distracting time of the year and interestingly enough in the heart of the giving , cheerful festive season.

Does anyone here remember the Tet offensive during the Vietnam war?

Many of you have pointed out many of the key variables in the terms of out clauses , CFDs , gift clauses , GWI, Arizona laws.

I believe the corner has been aptly painted.

The only way i see this making it's way thought the GOC is if they pull out some lawyer mumbo jumbo like they did with the $25m escrow.

 

[Fidel Astro]

I have all the confidence that if MH truly follows through on his plan, the fans will start showing up again like they did for the first 5 years. With a good president and an even better product on the ice, it's all there for the fans to soak in. They need to get some players like Tkachuk and Roenick to give them some personality again.

The better product on the ice has done nothing so far to attract more fans. As I've said before, I'm skeptical that the announcement of a new owner will be of interest to more than the die-hard fans, maybe a small number of former STHs, but that's it. If the average guy on the street didn't care about hockey or was only lukewarm about the sport in the first place, the fact that there's a new suit in the Phoenix boardroom isn't going to change his opinion.

That being said, a lot of Coyotes fans have been using "bad ownership" as an excuse for the team's problems, so I guess if Hulsizer does buy the team, as a "good" owner, we'll be able to see once and for all whether fans were staying away due to the ownership situation or whether they were staying away because Phoenix is not a good hockey market.

As for the Winnipeg fans, good luck again. I'm not sure I understand all of this Canada vs. America stuff but any good news about the Coyotes staying or the deal getting done is met with negativity (not to be confused with skepticism) that over powers your message. We love our Coyotes. They're not the only game in town which probably distracts from the whole story but we want them to stay. In fact, I have yet to run into anyone, even my Canadian friends and co-workers, that want them to leave.

The "Canada vs. America stuff" is really easy to understand. At the most basic level it goes like this: you took our ****, we want it back. That's obviously an extremely simplified version, but part of the reason the "Canada vs. America" stuff has been amplified over the last little while is because there are a number of US teams that are obviously struggling in cities where hockey is (and never will be) a dominant part of the culture.

Those of us in NHL-starved, hockey-mad Canadian cities see the NHL going above and beyond to save these teams, which seem to be mostly ignored by the population down there, and it's frustrating, because we know that another Canadian team would immediately be successful. ...yet the league still shuts us out, despite the fact that the current Canadian teams are at the top in terms of revenues and attendance, the majority of NHL players are Canadian, and on and on.

It just kind of seems like a lot of what the NHL does is a big "**** you" to Canada, and fans in cities with failing teams -- while they are of course in favour of keeping the teams where they are -- don't help when they try to come up with constant excuses rather than acknowledging that maybe hockey just isn't that important in their region.

 

[Alberta Yote]

That being said, a lot of Coyotes fans have been using "bad ownership" as an excuse for the team's problems, so I guess if Hulsizer does buy the team, as a "good" owner, we'll be able to see once and for all whether fans were staying away due to the ownership situation or whether they were staying away because Phoenix is not a good hockey market.

This right here. This is why I really, really want this deal to go through.

No more excuses if it does.

 

[Fidel Astro]

This right here. This is why I really, really want this deal to go through.

No more excuses if it does.

Unfortunately, they'll probably just change their minds and start saying Hulsizer is a "bad" owner and it'll be the same "no one comes to the games because of the bad ownership" crap again.

 

[AllByDesign]

Bleed_Oil:

I reccomend that you grab a rather large candle, brew 5 or 6 pots of coffee. Light said candle, and start reading through the last 37 thousand posts on the topic. By the time the coffee and the candle are gone you will be up to speed. I don't think it is humanly possible to completely answer your questions.

So let's meet back here, say 3 days from now?

 

[blasted]

Unfortunately, they'll probably just change their minds and start saying Hulsizer is a "bad" owner and it'll be the same "no one comes to the games because of the bad ownership" crap again.

Considering how difficult it was for us to sell out numerous Jets games you arrogance on this matter is quite laughable.

 

[AllByDesign]

I guess who really cares how much he's worth or how much he'll lose...as long as he buys the team.

Coyote's fans should care. You've already witnessed what happens when one rich guy goes broke. As a resident of Glendale you're dollars are also at stake on this. Above all you should want the right owner, the right process, and the right scenario. Your fandom and your tax dollars are at stake.

I'm not sure I understand all of this Canada vs. America stuff but any good news about the Coyotes staying or the deal getting done is met with negativity (not to be confused with skepticism) that over powers your message. We love our Coyotes.

As a fan, of hockey. More so than a Canadian, I have been pulling for Phoenix through this. I believe the sport is important enough to flourish in even the most unlikely of places. I think the sport is big enough to overcome the debacle your city has provided in this gong show.

You may view what you read from my fellow countrymen/women as just negativity. I say you are blinded by self-interest. Make no mistake. I may be for the saving of the Coyotes, but the entire flub in this situation has been perpetrated by the people of Phoenix. Wether it be an owner, or city councilperson, right down to the patrons. Don't look at this as a Canada vs. USA fight for hockey. If you do indeed get your second chance, I do hope to see that all have learned something valuable from what has transpired, for from what I have been reading I can see that only RR has any actual handle of what is at stake.

 

[Whileee]

On that note, do we know exactly where Hulsizer stands with the possibility of playing out of market home games in Saskatoon?

It was a key component of Ice Edge's bid, and considering Hulsizer essentially seems like an extension of their bid (it's probable that he's working off their initial MOU), so I wonder where Hulsizer stands on the issue?

I really was being facetious. I can't imagine that the Saskatoon option is back on the table. If it is, then I take back any kind words I have shared about Hulsizer.

 

[Killion]

But if the lease is like previous proposed leases (or at least what I’ve heard of previous proposed leases) and the COG gives the probable owner an out clause at some point in the next 5-10 years, buying the team seems to be a no-brainer because there are some markets where the team would instantly be worth double the initial invested capital (guessing 140-170M).

BTW if the guy’s truly worth 300M (the only number I’ve read of so far) I cant see how he buys this team and funds losses for anything longer than the immediate future, this would lead me to conclude that the proposed lease agreement will severely limit any downside for him. It takes a sharp finance mind to make 300M by the age of 40 so this guys clearly no fool. Also I don’t for a second believe that hogwash about being in it for “the love of the game”. At the end of the day money talks and you can bet there’s some profit motive in this deal.

Bingo!. I bolded it all because you nailed it. First of all, very few wealthy art patrons buy canvases or sculptures, antiques or rarities because "they love them". No, they do it for the "investment". It is neither an act of emotion nor benevolence (not always, but 99.9% of the time its strictly business). They may detest the subject or style; store it in a secured facility, left to appreciate in value. Hulsizer has stated that he looks at this like "collecting art". OK then. So its cold, emotionless, strictly an investment that will appreciate. Couple of twists however;

It can be acquired using (OPM) other peoples money (yes, he has partners & bankers so just how much of his own capital gets invested is highly questionable), losses are covered through the CFD & or the COG up to a point, the balance retrieved when the "asset" becomes "portable" through relocation himself or sale for relocation, provided of course their isnt a huge turnaround at the gate in Phoenix over the next few years (which is possible IMO). This is all very similar to Reinsdorfs offer, whereby JR was financing the bulk of his $103M investment, partners & the COG required to pay the balance on the then $170M sticker price (with Glendale also covering losses through years 1-5).

So ya, it would appear that the plan here is to use OPM, have Glendale somehow or other back the CFD in order to cover losses years 1-5 with portability thereafter. This shocks?.

 

[lockstock]

As a fan, of hockey. More so than a Canadian, I have been pulling for Phoenix through this. I believe the sport is important enough to flourish in even the most unlikely of places. I think the sport is big enough to overcome the debacle your city has provided in this gong show.

You may view what you read from my fellow countrymen/women as just negativity. I say you are blinded by self-interest. Make no mistake. I may be for the saving of the Coyotes, but the entire flub in this situation has been perpetrated by the people of Phoenix. Wether it be an owner, or city councilperson, right down to the patrons. Don't look at this as a Canada vs. USA fight for hockey. If you do indeed get your second chance, I do hope to see that all have learned something valuable from what has transpired, for from what I have been reading I can see that only RR has any actual handle of what is at stake.

I would disagree with your 2nd point. The NHL shares a lot of the blame for failings in the desert. A team never should have been rushed to a new market like Phoenix. If Phoenix had been given a few years to get an arena built and stable ownership in place BEFORE moving to the valley, we probably wouldn't be in this situation. But the Jets needed to move immediately. Every move in the saga of the Coyotes has been a last minute act of desperation. While that still hasn't changed, at least this time the NHL has held the reins for the last 2 years to make sure (hopefully) that this gets settled the right way. Either it will be handed over to someone that can make it work or they'll sell it to a guy with 23 billion dollars.

 

[AllByDesign]

First of all, very few wealthy art patrons buy canvases or sculptures, antiques or rarities because "they love them". No, they do it for the "investment". It is neither an act of emotion nor benevolence (not always, but 99.9% of the time its strictly business). They may detest the subject or style; store it in a secured facility, left to appreciate in value. Hulsizer has stated that he looks at this like "collecting art". OK then. So its cold, emotionless, strictly an investment that will appreciate. Couple of twists however;

I may not be the oldest bloke around here, but I've been around enough to know that when I smell Schmidt there is a turd somewhere near by.

If the deal closes, there will be a sweatheart included. Hulsizer is no Philanthropist, and he wants his pound of flesh.

 

[Fidel Astro]

Considering how difficult it was for us to sell out numerous Jets games you arrogance on this matter is quite laughable.

Who's talking about attendance at Jets games? The Jets don't have anything to do with any of this right now.

-The Coyotes are continuing to struggle in terms of attendance. Many Coyotes fans place the blame on "bad ownership."

-I think that even if Hulsizer, the so-called "good owner" buys the team and fails to turn things around, attendance will continue to suffer and fans will start to include Hulsizer in that "bad ownership" category.

The only positive, to me, that can come out of Hulsizer buying the team is that we will find out very soon if "ownership" really is keeping hordes of Coyotes fans away, and if bringing a new owner in will result in considerably greater attendance.

I don't think it will, because I think the issue is that Phoenix is a bad hockey market, and will fail regardless of owner.

Now what the **** does any of that have to do with the Jets?

 

[rt]

An anti-Coyotes stance is a very easy one to take. If pro-Coyotes posters are correct, it will take at least a few years to right the ship in Phoenix, and prove their point. By then, everyone will have moved on, and nobody will care to revisit any of this. Of course, if things don't turn around quickly enough, and it fails in Phoenix, you will of course get your precious "I told you so". Pretty nice deal, if you ask me. Maybe I should switch sides.

 

[chewson]

The better product on the ice has done nothing so far to attract more fans. As I've said before, I'm skeptical that the announcement of a new owner will be of interest to more than the die-hard fans, maybe a small number of former STHs, but that's it. If the average guy on the street didn't care about hockey or was only lukewarm about the sport in the first place, the fact that there's a new suit in the Phoenix boardroom isn't going to change his opinion.

That being said, a lot of Coyotes fans have been using "bad ownership" as an excuse for the team's problems, so I guess if Hulsizer does buy the team, as a "good" owner, we'll be able to see once and for all whether fans were staying away due to the ownership situation or whether they were staying away because Phoenix is not a good hockey market.



The "Canada vs. America stuff" is really easy to understand. At the most basic level it goes like this: you took our ****, we want it back. That's obviously an extremely simplified version, but part of the reason the "Canada vs. America" stuff has been amplified over the last little while is because there are a number of US teams that are obviously struggling in cities where hockey is (and never will be) a dominant part of the culture.

Those of us in NHL-starved, hockey-mad Canadian cities see the NHL going above and beyond to save these teams, which seem to be mostly ignored by the population down there, and it's frustrating, because we know that another Canadian team would immediately be successful. ...yet the league still shuts us out, despite the fact that the current Canadian teams are at the top in terms of revenues and attendance, the majority of NHL players are Canadian, and on and on.

It just kind of seems like a lot of what the NHL does is a big "**** you" to Canada, and fans in cities with failing teams -- while they are of course in favour of keeping the teams where they are -- don't help when they try to come up with constant excuses rather than acknowledging that maybe hockey just isn't that important in their region.

AMEN!! Canada has been screwed over by the NHL, particularly the people of Hamilton, Quebec City, and Winnipeg. The NHL never came to the rescue of the Jets or Nordiques while they searched for new ownership, as they did with the Coyotes, purchasing and managing the team in the meantime. And the Coyotes had a bonafide offer from Balsillie to move the team to Hamilton, which the NHL blocked. It seems Bettman has two stragies for struggling franchises: The Canadian strategy and the American strategy. The former being when a club struggles, move it to the US. The latter being when a club struggles, do everything possible up to and including buying and managing the team, but don't let it move to Canada.

How would Americans feel if for example the NFL relocated the Buffalo Bills to Toronto and the Minnesota Vikings to Montreal and the teams consistently lost money and played in 1/2 empty stadiums, but refused to move them back to the US because they wanted to turn Canadians into NFL fans and get a Canadian TV contract?

They would probably say Canadians were in posession of WMDs and invade the Great White North!

 

[gollybass]

AMEN!! Canada has been screwed over by the NHL, particularly the people of Hamilton, Quebec City, and Winnipeg. The NHL never came to the rescue of the Jets or Nordiques while they searched for new ownership, as they did with the Coyotes, purchasing and managing the team in the meantime. And the Coyotes had a bonafide offer from Balsillie to move the team to Hamilton, which the NHL blocked. It seems Bettman has two stragies for struggling franchises: The Canadian strategy and the American strategy. The former being when a club struggles, move it to the US. The latter being when a club struggles, do everything possible up to and including buying and managing the team, but don't let it move to Canada.

How would Americans feel if for example the NFL relocated the Buffalo Bills to Toronto and the Minnesota Vikings to Montreal and the teams consistently lost money and played in 1/2 empty stadiums, but refused to move them back to the US because they wanted to turn Canadians into NFL fans and get a Canadian TV contract?

They would probably say Canadians were in posession of WMDs and invade the Great White North!

Dont you understand why the NHL is fighting for Phoenix? Quebec and Winnipeg didn't have NHL arenas and were not building new ones. Glendale built an arena. If the NHL ran out it would set a dangerous precedent and you sure as hell wouldnt see cities helping build new arena's for teams.

 

[Fugu]

AMEN!! Canada has been screwed over by the NHL, particularly the people of Hamilton, Quebec City, and Winnipeg. The NHL never came to the rescue of the Jets or Nordiques while they searched for new ownership, as they did with the Coyotes, purchasing and managing the team in the meantime. And the Coyotes had a bonafide offer from Balsillie to move the team to Hamilton, which the NHL blocked. It seems Bettman has two stragies for struggling franchises: The Canadian strategy and the American strategy. The former being when a club struggles, move it to the US. The latter being when a club struggles, do everything possible up to and including buying and managing the team, but don't let it move to Canada.

How would Americans feel if for example the NFL relocated the Buffalo Bills to Toronto and the Minnesota Vikings to Montreal and the teams consistently lost money and played in 1/2 empty stadiums, but refused to move them back to the US because they wanted to turn Canadians into NFL fans and get a Canadian TV contract?

They would probably say Canadians were in posession of WMDs and invade the Great White North!

Come now. I think Hamilton and anything in the greater TO area isn't blocked by US owners. I personally think you don't need to cross the border to find the culprit.

As for Quebec City and Winnipeg, you can start by blaming the currency that led to problems in those days, a lack of an arena and/or local owners.

I don't think anyone will argue, including Bettman, that perhaps more could have been done AT THAT TIME to try to keep those teams in Canada. There was no cap or revenue sharing at the time, and the owners in those days maybe didn't consider the benefit to fighting for a location. Let's not lose sight of the fact that the current batch of owners isn't the same as when those decisions were made. Bettman also may not have felt like he had the capital at the time to go down that path, assuming he'd considered it as an option. Isn't it worth something that he's admitted to the error?

 

[RECCE]

An anti-Coyotes stance is a very easy one to take. If pro-Coyotes posters are correct, it will take at least a few years to right the ship in Phoenix, and prove their point. By then, everyone will have moved on, and nobody will care to revisit any of this. Of course, if things don't turn around quickly enough, and it fails in Phoenix, you will of course get your precious "I told you so". Pretty nice deal, if you ask me. Maybe I should switch sides.

OK, seems like the Phx posters here have it made, they say it takes time but if in three years things still haven't worked out they'll just say more time is needed.

So, put a number on it, I'm more than willing to follow it and that way we all can reference your post, just in case anyone wants.

But hey, who am I kidding, you won't put a number on it anyways.

Maybe I should switch sides, pretty sweet deal having an open ended time frame.


EDIT: Another drive by?

2nd E: Of course, the easy way out is to log off after you've been called on a post, rather than just answer the question....

 

[Agalloch]

AMEN!! Canada has been screwed over by the NHL, particularly the people of Hamilton, Quebec City, and Winnipeg. The NHL never came to the rescue of the Jets or Nordiques while they searched for new ownership, as they did with the Coyotes, purchasing and managing the team in the meantime. And the Coyotes had a bonafide offer from Balsillie to move the team to Hamilton, which the NHL blocked. It seems Bettman has two stragies for struggling franchises: The Canadian strategy and the American strategy. The former being when a club struggles, move it to the US. The latter being when a club struggles, do everything possible up to and including buying and managing the team, but don't let it move to Canada.

How would Americans feel if for example the NFL relocated the Buffalo Bills to Toronto and the Minnesota Vikings to Montreal and the teams consistently lost money and played in 1/2 empty stadiums, but refused to move them back to the US because they wanted to turn Canadians into NFL fans and get a Canadian TV contract?

They would probably say Canadians were in posession of WMDs and invade the Great White North!

Have you heard about the Senators and Oilers' stories ?

Did you know that Quebec and Winnipeg didn't have a modern 'NHL' arena at the time and Quebec still don't ?

 

[AllByDesign]

I would disagree with your 2nd point. The NHL shares a lot of the blame for failings in the desert. A team never should have been rushed to a new market like Phoenix. If Phoenix had been given a few years to get an arena built and stable ownership in place BEFORE moving to the valley, we probably wouldn't be in this situation.

Shoulda coulda woulda.

The NHL should be blamed for allowing someone from Phoenix to buy the team and move it there. They then allowed those owners to sell it to another person from Phoenix, who in turned sold it to another person in Phoenix before assuming ownership to save the team. Yes blame the NHL... at least Jets and Coyotes can agree on who to blame for their hockey woes... heheheh

Yep... The NHL was nothing but rush rush rush on this Coyote thing. They just shoved the team up the publics perverbial behind. Its amazing that even 9,000 people show up with the inconsideration that has been shown to that market.

I apologize for my blatant sarcasm, but this mind numbing.