Great Sports/Business Article in the Economist
- Thread starter william_adams
- Start date
In the USA its everybody's Bett"man"
As someone within the Hockey Business World, and also a fan of the sport. I shake my head sometimes at the perception of the true hockey fan-the average ticket buyer and the hard working guy/gal just wanting to be close to there favorite player or team. The new NHL has bought into the NFL business plan (Hush, Hush) and geared there new rules around Gambling. In general terms a flag in football can change the outcome of a game(score), and with the new rules penalties can now be called or not called on a whim-changing the momentum and controlling it also. The game has taken on a new phase of control from the head office down. Team growth will now depend on who wants to watch and who wants to make money. Rear ends in each seat have now taken a back seat to business. The NHLPA has spoken often about this subject and was playing there cards correctly until they wavered under Goodenhows direction (example) During the lockout the NHL owners would have loved to say that small market teams would and cannot compete with larger market teams because of lack of revenues! The statement was not raised/surfaced because lets say the “players†& the NHLPA got together and decided it was in there better interest to strategically place the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Calgary Flames and let them go through to the Stanley Cup (both small market franchises). How many people actually believe the two worst teams financially speaking could make it past everybody without some help. The above is just my opinion and can and will not be supported by all parties mentioned and will always be debated as fiction, fact or just an opinion.
P.S. Ottawa vs San Jose this year…any bets?
Gary- Toronto
william_adams said:
As someone within the Hockey Business World, and also a fan of the sport. I shake my head sometimes at the perception of the true hockey fan-the average ticket buyer and the hard working guy/gal just wanting to be close to there favorite player or team. The new NHL has bought into the NFL business plan (Hush, Hush) and geared there new rules around Gambling. In general terms a flag in football can change the outcome of a game(score), and with the new rules penalties can now be called or not called on a whim-changing the momentum and controlling it also. The game has taken on a new phase of control from the head office down. Team growth will now depend on who wants to watch and who wants to make money. Rear ends in each seat have now taken a back seat to business. The NHLPA has spoken often about this subject and was playing there cards correctly until they wavered under Goodenhows direction (example) During the lockout the NHL owners would have loved to say that small market teams would and cannot compete with larger market teams because of lack of revenues! The statement was not raised/surfaced because lets say the “players†& the NHLPA got together and decided it was in there better interest to strategically place the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Calgary Flames and let them go through to the Stanley Cup (both small market franchises). How many people actually believe the two worst teams financially speaking could make it past everybody without some help. The above is just my opinion and can and will not be supported by all parties mentioned and will always be debated as fiction, fact or just an opinion.
P.S. Ottawa vs San Jose this year…any bets?
Gary- Toronto
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Northern Dancer
The future ain't what it used to be.
william_adams said:
Thanks Billy !!! It is a good read. I do not understand though why Leagues do not use the selling of players or draft picks (assets) for cash as the fairest way of revenue sharing. It would benefit small market teams (i.e. Pittsburgh) which has an abudance of assets but not the revenue base to substain it. If for example each team were allowed every 4 years (just a number out of the air to preclude the possibility of a complete fire sale by one team, ala the Oakland A's under Finney back in the 70's) to sell an asset (either a player or a first round pick) then does not that help everyone. For example if Pittsburgh had the ability a few years ago to outright sell Jagr (instead of trade him for nothing in a salary dump) for 15mm or more (Lindros and Gretzky's price) then perhaps they would not have had to dump Kovalev a couple of years later. Seems to me a system like that would benefit big market teams who have to compete every year and thusly do not get a chance at the Crosby's of the world and would allow small market teams to generate cash to substain there other assets.
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PeterSidorkiewicz
HFWF Tourney Undisputed Champion
72projectmgr said:As someone within the Hockey Business World, and also a fan of the sport. I shake my head sometimes at the perception of the true hockey fan-the average ticket buyer and the hard working guy/gal just wanting to be close to there favorite player or team. The new NHL has bought into the NFL business plan (Hush, Hush) and geared there new rules around Gambling. In general terms a flag in football can change the outcome of a game(score), and with the new rules penalties can now be called or not called on a whim-changing the momentum and controlling it also. The game has taken on a new phase of control from the head office down. Team growth will now depend on who wants to watch and who wants to make money. Rear ends in each seat have now taken a back seat to business. The NHLPA has spoken often about this subject and was playing there cards correctly until they wavered under Goodenhows direction (example) During the lockout the NHL owners would have loved to say that small market teams would and cannot compete with larger market teams because of lack of revenues! The statement was not raised/surfaced because lets say the “players†& the NHLPA got together and decided it was in there better interest to strategically place the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Calgary Flames and let them go through to the Stanley Cup (both small market franchises). How many people actually believe the two worst teams financially speaking could make it past everybody without some help. The above is just my opinion and can and will not be supported by all parties mentioned and will always be debated as fiction, fact or just an opinion.
P.S. Ottawa vs San Jose this year…any bets?
Gary- Toronto
Ottawa-San Jose because both are quality teams who could easily make it to the cup finals based on their talent and chemistry?
I think the new NHL CBA is a good one. It is better off that these "smaller" markets (I.E not NY, Chicago, LA, Philly, etc) win because when you look at the cup history there are so many markets that have not won it yet. Once you win a cup people actually know what it is all about. Hard to explain.
A good article... I liked the note on the NFL's continued labor peace being due in part to the short careers of players, and resulting high turnaround in the PA. Something that had never occurred to me. The point about Los Angeles being deliberately left without a team was an interesting one, too. I wonder if Bettman's comments about all the cities that have expressed interest in NHL franchises is his attempt to try the same thing to get an arena in Pittsburgh?
One thing I feel they didn't delve into enough for comparison purposes b/w the leagues is TV revenues. The fact is that the NFL is the only league that can negotiate its entire broadcast schedule as a single entity, because they have so few games, and the interval required between them (1 week) makes for perfect TV scheduling - Sunday afternoons, when networks generally don't air original programming. It's the perfect deal for broadcasters. The other leagues have too many games scheduled too frequently to be negotiated as a single package, without resorting to local deals to pick up the slack and broadcast games the networks won't take, which leads to revenue disparities due to market size. Of course, they could share all TV revenue, but that will probably never happen.
Another inherent advantage for the NFL is gambling. By its nature, football has high point totals and relatively few scoring plays, which gives you the ability to make point spread and over/under bets (in a meaningful fashion - not like "O/U 6" for hockey
). In the same fashion, its offensive stats (yards/catches/points) make for ideal fantasy teams. The article didn't really touch on gambling's influence on the NFL's prosperity, which is another huge advantage it has over the NBA/NHL/MLB.
One thing I feel they didn't delve into enough for comparison purposes b/w the leagues is TV revenues. The fact is that the NFL is the only league that can negotiate its entire broadcast schedule as a single entity, because they have so few games, and the interval required between them (1 week) makes for perfect TV scheduling - Sunday afternoons, when networks generally don't air original programming. It's the perfect deal for broadcasters. The other leagues have too many games scheduled too frequently to be negotiated as a single package, without resorting to local deals to pick up the slack and broadcast games the networks won't take, which leads to revenue disparities due to market size. Of course, they could share all TV revenue, but that will probably never happen.
Another inherent advantage for the NFL is gambling. By its nature, football has high point totals and relatively few scoring plays, which gives you the ability to make point spread and over/under bets (in a meaningful fashion - not like "O/U 6" for hockey
). In the same fashion, its offensive stats (yards/catches/points) make for ideal fantasy teams. The article didn't really touch on gambling's influence on the NFL's prosperity, which is another huge advantage it has over the NBA/NHL/MLB.
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Relative to the NFL and NBA, the NHL is still unfriendly to gambling, isn't it?72projectmgr said:
How is this different than in the past?72projectmgr said:
I'd like to use that caveat for several of my posts.72projectmgr said:
Out of couriocity, who are the Toronto 72's and what does the project manager do?
