Thursday, May 21, 2009
Kotz / Sports / The Economy More Talk of the Predators Moving to Canada
Posted by Pete Kotz on Thu, May 21, 2009 at 5:35 AM
Which explains why the Globe & Mail once again raises the possibility of the Nashville Predators moving to Ontario. The Phoenix Coyotes have filed for bankruptcy, and Jim Balsillie, whose money comes from the BlackBerry empire, is hoping to use a bankruptcy court to bypass league relocation rules and bring the Coyotes to Hamilton, Ontario. Does this sound familiar?
The NHL would naturally prefer that the league, not a bankruptcy judge, be the final arbiter on who plays where. The NBA, the NFL, and Major League Baseball have all filed briefs in support. Especially in this economy, no league wants a wayward owner moving a team to God-knows-where simply because they're broke. The Omaha Patriots anyone?
But if Balsillie's play in Phoenix doesn't work out, the Globe & Mail has the Predators on its short list of alternative targets. Says the paper:
The Predators bragged this season that they will turn a small profit. But that's only because they squeezed their payroll, bought their own tickets and raked in more than $20-million (all currency U.S.) from their NHL partners in revenue-sharing and escrow payments from the players, in addition to the regular shared NHL revenues like broadcasting...
The Preds, of course, deny that they papered the house last year. But Nashville remains one the NHL's smallest and weakest markets. Even with a young, competitive, highly rootable team, they still managed to barely meet minimum attendance requirements for revenue sharing. And a business plan contingent on the largess of more profitable teams isn't exactly the freeway to prosperity.There is also a bankruptcy court involved with this team. At stake is the share of the team owned by William (Boots) Del Biaggio III before he flamed out into bankruptcy and pleaded guilty to one count of fraud. It is the biggest single slice of the team and would put its winner at the top of the group of owners.
Before Moyes came calling last month, the Del Biaggio shares were Balsillie's preferred target, according to those who know him. They could be again.
Though the Globe & Mail story seems speculative at best, there's a good chance Predators fans will be reading these stories for years to come. At least until someone either makes the team a financial success, or decides to stop trying.
Comments (3)
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Uh, Hamilton is not exactly god-knows-where. I don't expect Americans to understand Canadian geography the way we do for US cities (which are, after all, much more prominently mentioned in North American media) but just to be clear, Hamilton is to Toronto as Newark or Nassau County is to New York. It would target the southern and western parts of the Toronto metro region while providing a source of renewal and regional pride for a small city. It's actually a smaller city than, say Winnipeg, but one that lies within a very large media and corporate market, one that is easily double that of most US hockey markets. (This is why Balsillie is targeting Hamilton over former NHL cities Winnipeg or Quebec.)
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The stretch of the Golden Horseshoe along the QEW from Hamilton to Mississauga is a total shit-hole.
And it's hardly shocking that the Canadian press reflects the sentiments of most of its readers that the NHL should not exist in the US outside of Original Six cities and maybe Buffalo. You might find a few fans who are OK with Minnesota and Pittsburgh as well (though when the Penguins were having financial problems they were slobbering over relocating them).
On the other hand, they think any Canadian town with a population greater than 10000 should have a team before any US city south of Chicago.
Fuck them and their tuques. Enjoy your curling, bitches.
I've been to Hamilton quite a few times, Skyscraper, and believe it would provide greater economic success than perhaps all of the southern teams right now. The god-knows-where thing was meant as a general reference, not specifically to Hamilton. But I just can't see the league allowing someone to encroach on Buffalo's market share. A second team in Toronto seems like a more passable idea.
