kdb209
Registered User
- Jan 26, 2005
- 14,870
- 6
HansH said:The issue isn't that Winninpeg and QC don't "deserve" NHL teams -- we're explaining to the Maple-Leaf waving, flag-draped Canadians the economic realities of why they won't be the next cities to get relocated teams... and what we get in response is "nyah nyah nyah, I can't HEEEEARRRR you because Canada's hockey knowledge is 1337 yo".
The economics of the situation (a relocated team, a ready-made arena with suitable capacity, and the potential to make money) dictate that Winnipeg is #4 on the relocation list (#5 if and when QC were to ever get a suitably sized arena), and QC is completely and totally out of the running until they get an arena... and then they'll still have missed out on opportunities #1 and #2 -- because by then, any owner selling or moving will have taken the opportunities offered by the already-built arena in Houston, and the arena in KC that will be built several years before the first layer of ice could be dreamed of in QC. Portland, I'm iffy on -- Allen has been really quiet of late, and the Rose Garden might be a good facility, but the arena ownership/lease situation still strikes me as a bit hinky. But with brand-new arenas and motivated interest, Houston and KC, with their larger capacities and corporate bases, will beat Winnipeg hands down, every single time, because it is GUARANTEED that a team there will be in the bottom third in the league in attendance.
IF, by some thunderstroke, no team has relocated by the time a mythical QC arena were to be constructed, then that situation could be revisited... but not UNTIL THEN.
You don't have to like it. You can curse Bettman and Southern expansion all you like. But these are simple, cold, hard, economic facts. Alexander is not going to buy a team to put in Winnipeg. Anschutz is not going to enable Baldwin or some other owner to buy a team and put them in QC.
How much clearer can it be made to you people? Money talks. Period. And right now, it's promises and dreams in QC, and an impossibility in Winnipeg. Within five years, one or both of KC and Houston will have teams -- and unless both of them already have them, Winnipeg will still be stuck with the AHL.
Very well put.
To clarify the Portland situation - Paul Allen is out of the picture, which is actually good news, since he was the single biggest impediment to expansion/relocation to Portland. He had publically stated an antipathy to the NHL, and as long as he controlled the Rose Garden, you weren't going to see the NHL in Portland.
This past January, Paul Allen gave up control of the Rose Garden through bankruptcy. The company he set up to finance, build, and operate the Rose Garden declared bankruptcy to get out from onerous construction debt. Control of the Rose Garden passed to the creditors/bond holders who hired a subsidiary of Comcast/SMG to operate the arena (and to look for more tenants and to fill more dates) - yes the same Comcast/SMG that owns the Flyers, operates the <whatever the new Spectrum is called these days>, and owns OLN. Paul Allen's Trailblazers are now just tenants in the Rose Garden, with potentially the worst lease in professional sports - all of the Luxury Box, Advertising, Parking, and most other non-gate revenues passed to the new arena owners/operator.
I had Portland handicapped as the #1 in the relocation derby until Les Alexander (owner of the Houston Rockets and primary leaseholder of the new Toyota Center) stepped up as a potential owner - a bigger market with an owner who already controls a building. Houston jumped to the top of my list.