Mayor:
On one hand you post and claim the Leafs only making 14.4 million in profits is wrong on my part and to quit consulting John Spano (not Spanos) on financial matters, yet in your so-called homework there it is once again the Leafs operating profit from the same source as I used (Forbes) which shows the Leafs 2002-03 profit: 13.8m
Thanks for contradicting yourself, and proving my point.
Mayor of MacAppolis said:
See the list of the worst contracts I provided, which is similar to the article written a few months back, "The twelve contracts that ruined NHL hockey" and take note of the number that were provided by the Leafs. The teams you list lost money because of their own damn stupidity. Toronto played the game by the way current market conditions dictated and NEVER spent outside their means.
So let's see if I have this correct. You now claim the Flyers, Avs, Ranger, Blues, Stars, Wings lost money because of their own stupidity yet all you could do is blame expansion teams for hockey's problem and set up your contraction list of teams that decide to actually run their team as a business.
Your own misguided sense of entitlement seems to be your only homework. This is too easy..
Mayor of MacAppolis said:
The ticket prices were cheaper. Minor league. Isles play to 90% capacity? Not in 2004
http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/attendance?year=2004. Narrowly missed 90% in 2002, but I'll give you credit for that season. Not in 2001:
http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/attendance?year=2001. The Nassau Mausoleum seats 16297 and 14 400 is 90%. They didn't even approach that number between 1989 and 2000. So in 2 seasons of the last 16 they reached 90% attendance, which for their building doesn't even meet the NHL average = Minor leagues!
First off your 2003-04 Espn avg included only a 40 game season and did include a game in a blizzard where only the paid attendance was posted. That game had only 3,000 people attend on 12/7 against Chicago, which counted against the season avg.
Second the Nassau Coliseum capacity was around or slightly above 15,000 for several years, as the building changed it became 16,297 which was reduced to 16,234.
Finally you should know the difference between fans not attending out of indifference vs fans staying home to intentionally punishing unprecedented bad ownership. If the teachers union decided to ice a 15m dollar for close to a decade Maple Leaf fans would also stay home to intentionally punish ownership in Toronto also.
Isles television ratings doubled during this time which you forgot to mention.
Mayor of MacAppolis said:
Again blaming Toronto. Take a look at some of the info above and again realize the Leafs never did anything they couldn't afford and were more reactionary than proactive. They followed the lead of teams that are now crying poor.
Unfortunately the business on the whole could not afford it and were all paying for the Leafs reaction today. Aren't we?
Robert Reichel, Ed Belfour, Brian McCabe. Didn't Gary Roberts get a three hundred percent increase? How many star contracts from other teams were or are being paid by the Leafs: Francis, Nolan, Leetch, Nieuwendyk, Klee..How much did the lastest Doug Gilmour re-union tour cost?
Instead of looking at your homework, I decided to do something
else. I went back to look at the Leafs profits and revenue in 97-98:
Even with a new building the Leafs only make about ten million more in profit than they were making almost nine years ago.
http://www.hockeyzoneplus.com/$reven_e.htm
I wonder how much expansion revenue kept the Leafs out of the red in those days if they were making an operating profit of only two or six million.
Mayor of MacAppolis said:
I meant by how deluded the fans were, but take it however makes you feel better. The Habs fan motto is we have a hell of a past and a bright future. too bad they can't figure out the present.
What's the Leafs future without a spending advantage? What was their past when they had one besides jumping from conference to conference. I like the Isles a lot better than the Leafs coming out of this lockout.
Good luck getting people to pay those ticket prices to see a youth movement after a few bad seasons in Toronto. Maybe then we can talk about the Leafs being entitled to the number one pick...