Does Katz Care About The Oilers? Or Does Katz Care Only About The Money?

[Beerfish]

He wants to win but he cars more about his friend in the org more than winning it is as simple as that.

 

[Canovin]

Honestly the situation could be worse. We could be the Houston Oilers right now if we had a different owner

 

[McShogun99]

Yes, because the really good ufa’s usually sign one year contracts. With the northernmost city in the league, in a Canadian market.

We didn’t need the “good” UFA’s. We needed depth UFA’s. If you go big game hunting for UFA’s you end up with players like Lucic, Clarkson etc. You’re paying them top dollar for what they did on their former team. Every year there’s a bunch of depth guys and veterans signing 1 year deals or show me deals. Just google 2017 UFA signings. You’re saying we couldn’t use guys like Kunitz, Wingels, Vanek on cheap 1 year deals?

 

[McJadeddog]

I imagine Katz cares deeply. But his unwavering faith and loyalty to all things OBC is deeply damaging to this organization.

Yeah, I would suspect he cares a LOT more about both (obviously more about the money, lol) than the average fan does. The problem is exactly as Spawn stated: Katz is a jock-sniffing fan-boy for the OBC, and can't get past that to see that they are *severely* hurting the organization.

The solution would be to fire every single person in the entire management group that has worked for the Oilers in the past in any capacity. This will never happen as long as Katz owns the team.

 

[nightfighter]

Hey it could be worse. We could have Melnyk as an owner.

 

[Jimmi McJenkins]

Who knows. I mean a group of people could get together and buy him out, then run the team right.


Edit: No matter the "attachment" you feel you have to the team, you realize it's an optional Hobby right? Like you get this isn't anything close to an obligation.

 

[PaPaDee]

Katz's priorities (in order):

-Living out his dream of having former Oiler hall-of-famers working for/with him
-Making money
-Winning

 

[redgrant]

Daryl Katz cares only about living vicariously through the youth he never had. He gets to surround himself with his heroes and get rich off the back of taxpayers.

Im not a billionaire but if I was and I bought the Oilers Id take the following steps to show fans I cared about the product on ice:

Phase 1 - Scorched Earth Tactics
1. Fire Lowe, McTavish, Coffey, Nicholson All Coaches, Howson, Keith Gretzky, Chiarelli and underpreforming scouts.
2. Let Joey Moss and other long time staff be retired with honor. No relics from the 90s or 80s at all.
3. No Chiareilli or Lowe family members at any facet of the organization. Guys like Mclellan's dad whos working in player scouting fired.
4. Most of the scouts fired.
5. Fleming fired - AHL management gutted.

Phase 2 - Managerial Rebuild
1. Gretzky is retained as an ambassador and that is all - because he is Gretzky. No managerial decisions whatsoever.
2. Proper GM is hired. Someone with a proven track record who has done well with what he is given. Briesbois/Fenton/Futa etc. Throw money at them. Promise full autonomy. Note that all the Mct and Lowes are gone.
3. Assistant GM is someone quite young that understands the game in 2018. Dubas/Chayka type that can develop the AHL team and handle the drafting and development.
4. Massive money to the best scouts money can buy. Massive bonuses for when scouts find diamonds in the rough.
5. Lay out strict plan that the objective of the AHL team is to develop talent not ice 27 year old wingers with no chance of the NHL.

Will Katz do even 1 of those? Of course not.

 

[snag]

Kind of pathetic the man is a billionaire yet still a jock-sniffer.

This sums it up....has the son....the billionaire....and his posse

 

[ToeMcDrag83]

Whatever he he cares about, I can say for sure the fans are not on that list at all.
And that is the most blunt trickle down effect seen throughout the organization.

 

[Tobias Kahun]

Money and hanging out with his boyhood heroes

 

[Jet Walters]

Katz's priorities (in order):

-Living out his dream of having former Oiler hall-of-famers working for/with him
-Making money
-Winning

You forgot sex with Brazilian models............allegedly. What ever happened with that lawsuit? I haven't heard anything about it since the story broke.

 

[Drivesaitl]

The OP it titled as either/or paradigm. Nothing prevents Katz from caring about the OBC and caring about making money off of his ownership. The Oilers, and the funded new arena and Katz tower city that he's building is obviously about the money and the Oilers were simply used as grease for all this.

The Oilers are just filler. Content. An anchor. Or at best a crowbar for leveraging City Council and populace. The Katz district plans were the driver for Katz all along. Remember the Oilers org was briefly considering taking their ball to Seattle to play with it if Edmonton didn't concede. What a sordid episode that was. Worse than Puck and Houston. At least in Pucks case he always needed money and was cash desperate. Katz makes these kind of moves just because he can.

The Oilers were simply used as catalyst for much better deals on financial real estate investment plans. Much of it greased with public money and City Hall catering to it. You'll likely be hearing more back stories about all the concessions made in the coming decades.

But most posters should remember that they wanted all this. Well, you got it.

 

[snag]

You forgot sex with Brazilian models............allegedly. What ever happened with that lawsuit? I haven't heard anything about it since the story broke.

IMO there was a credibility problem....

 

[Jet Walters]

IMO there was a credibility problem....

CreditCardAbility might have made it go away.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Parody often gives glimpses of real life. Its that nature which makes some forms of parody so good. You take on some basic truths, magnify them, and turn it into comic antic hilarity. Similar to how well done Caricatures merely amplify features that are visible.

Everything one needs to comprehend about Katz ownership of the Oilers is parodied in Slapshot and the owner of the Charleston Chiefs. Except its Katz as the owner using the team as some kind of for profit pawn and he's got the kid with the weird fro seeing how many jelly beans he can shove into his gob in the living room who's fighting with himself for the remote control..

If fans knew more about the general run of the mill owners and what their real plays were, and real motivations were, there would be a lot less pro sports fans, just saying..

 

[Jet Walters]

Parody often gives glimpses of real life. Its that nature which makes some forms of parody so good. You take on some basic truths, magnify them, and turn it into comic antic hilarity. Similar to how well done Caricatures merely amplify features that are visible.

Everything one needs to comprehend about Katz ownership of the Oilers is parodied in Slapshot and the owner of the Charleston Chiefs. Except its Katz as the owner using the team as some kind of for profit pawn and he's got the kid with the weird fro seeing how many jelly beans he can shove into his gob in the living room who's fighting with himself for the remote control..

If fans knew more about the general run of the mill owners and what their real plays were, and real motivations wee, there would be a lot less pro sports fans, just saying..

Leave the kid (although not a kid anymore) out of it. You don't need to take shots at the owners son.

 

[Hynh]

The oilers are a toy to him. He's the kind of person that would buy an i9 and gtx titan V to play minecraft.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Leave the kid (although not a kid anymore) out of it. You don't need to take shots at the owners son.

Not sure if serious.

I merely invoked the kid in providing PARALLEL atmosphere to the slapshot derived theme. Without saying anything inappropriate and that was tame compared to the same scene in the most popular hockey or sports movie in history. Which lampoons the owners kids.

 

[Gone]

We have the worst owner really. He is a big shot, got the rink done, drafted McD, doesn't care after that. He knows the money is flowing in. He could really care less if the oilers actually win games.

He wan'ts to hob nob in LA, thats about it.

This is it really, while ticket holders continue to pay for the garbage these guys put on the ice, he couldn't care less. As fans, if you want the Oilers to become a winning franchise, the best thing you could do is stop going to the games. Then you would get the owners attention.

 

[Gone]

How much is he raising ticket prices next year?

Im sure there is room for another nickel to squeeze out of the fans.

Wouldn't be upset if Mcdavid took a jab at management or even Katz at this point.

3%

 

[snag]

CreditCardAbility might have made it go away.

LOL....that too....but there was a major credibility problem with that girl and her loser hubby.

 

[Quality Oil]

It's only a matter of time until his kid with the fro is our GM.

 

[PBandJ]

He only cares about money and sipping wine with his 80's heroes. Winning is all the way on the bottom of the list for him.

A consortium of HF posters could run this team better than that moron. I'm stunned he's been able to run anything bigger than a lemonade stand.

 

[I am the Liquor]

We didn’t need the “good” UFA’s. We needed depth UFA’s. If you go big game hunting for UFA’s you end up with players like Lucic, Clarkson etc. You’re paying them top dollar for what they did on their former team. Every year there’s a bunch of depth guys and veterans signing 1 year deals or show me deals. Just google 2017 UFA signings. You’re saying we couldn’t use guys like Kunitz, Wingels, Vanek on cheap 1 year deals?

I'm saying they would consider signing with us a last resort. What don't you understand about that?