Are the Devils in bankruptcy trouble? UPD: Chambers to pay $25m to exit?

[GKJ]

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/devils_in_the_red_Mi3p63lfff0OCTWRIdroxH

The New Jersey Devils training camp doesn’t open until tomorrow but already the three-time NHL champs are skating on thin ice, The Post has learned.

The attendance-challenged, heavily indebted team missed its Sept. 1 loan payment, giving its lenders a breakaway chance to push the team into bankruptcy, a source with direct knowledge of the situation said.

“The Devils are blowing up,†the source said.

The team’s financial hardships could also affect Newark’s four-year-old Prudential Center, the Devils’ home arena. Team-owned Devils Arena Entertainment operates the $375 million building and guarantees the Devils’ loans and, therefore, is in danger of also going bankrupt.

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[Vikke]

I just read that. Interesting to say the least.

 

[njdevil26]

Not surprising... Ever since the arena opened there have been reports of the team not paying rent, taxes, utility bills, among other things... Also having one of the most expensive rosters in the league, not having a fan-base that bothers to show up, and only having 9 home playoff dates in four years doesn't help either.

Seton Hall basketball brings in almost no revenue, the indoor soccer team was dismantled, the NY Liberty are obviously not a profitable operation, and the Nets may not play at all this year. It is one of the most active arenas in the country but it's just not helping.

The team reports they have sold over 1,700 seats to season ticket holders this off-season plus the original 7-8k. I was confident that the team would be solid this year before the news of losing Zajac until 2012 most likely...

This is not as bad a situation as it seems. The team is expected to post profits this year for the first time since the arena opened. This whole situation is probably due to the economy and empty seats more than anything. If the team has a good year and gets some playoff dates things may be a little less grim.

They need more concerts and big acts... maybe I'll suggest Dave Matthews Band to play a three night stay! The last time they weren't able to sell out a show was probably 20 years ago.

 

[dronald]

Two tweets by James Mirtle after he posted the same article.

mirtle James Mirtle
If the Devils are going up for sale, it's not a great time with Phoenix, St. Louis and Dallas continuing their long searches for owners.


mirtle James Mirtle
And it's proof, once again, that it's not just the sunbelt teams that struggle. Islanders, Blue Jackets, Devils all in tough right now.

 

[BLONG7]

Never understood why their fans don't go to the reg season games...great new facility, and 12-13 thousand fans show up?

It's a gate driven league where it seems about half of the teams carry the entire league...

 

[cassius]

Never understood why their fans don't go to the reg season games...great new facility, and 12-13 thousand fans show up?

It's a gate driven league where it seems about half of the teams carry the entire league...

Expensive tickets and their conservative style of play is the reason why attendance is so low.

 

[njdevil26]

EXACTLY. They continue to sexually assault fans when it comes to ticket prices. They were advertising a new "tiered" price plan that would make games more affordable to fans. Once they rolled it out, I almost threw up looking at it. The CHEAPEST price level is the same exact prices for last year. Then there are two higher levels that raise prices.

The Devils had the top four corners of the arena with 10$ seats for the first three years. They weren't available to season ticket holders and you had to go to the box office on the day of the game to get them. Now they are gone. The CHEAPEST games (Tues, Wed, against Carolina, Florida and the like) are now 20$. They go up to 30 and I think 35 for games against the Rangers/Flyers/Penguins. Fri/Sat/Sun games are now upper tier so they are more expensive.... it's horse **** frankly. The team took a huge dump last year and really embarrassed themselves and the fans. So they repay the fans' loyalty by raising ticket prices significantly AGAIN. I love the players on the team but I hate the management I really do.



Think THIS is fair for a team struggling with attendance?

 

[Freudian]

The last thing the league needs is another team in financial trouble.

I wonder how hard the owners will push for a reduction of salary costs in the new CBA.

 

[GentlemanOfLeisure]

Never understood why their fans don't go to the reg season games...great new facility, and 12-13 thousand fans show up?

It's a gate driven league where it seems about half of the teams carry the entire league...

a family of 4 tickets for halfway decent seats will run 400 including transportation costs and snacks.

400 bucks. for me that's one game a year.

 

[GentlemanOfLeisure]

Devils arent an attendance driven team. Their ticket prices are astromonical so 15,000 for a Devils home game vs. the Penguins will generate them more money than the Buffalo Sabres would generate if the Sabres sell out a game with 19,000 fans.

Also, Devils have one of the best cable packages in the league. Their MSG deal is a moneymaker to say the least and their TV ratings are better than 2/3rds of the league.

 

[njdevil26]

a family of 4 tickets for halfway decent seats will run 400 including transportation costs and snacks.

400 bucks. for me that's one game a year.

I didn't even see them advertising more than 1 or 2 family pack games last year.

Think about it this way... A family of four wants to grab tickets on Ticketmaster and go to a game. Almost the cheapest seats run $40 each. Then you have TM fees... $46 per ticket... x4= 184. Add gas, tolls depending on where you live, parking for $15-20 or train for 10$ per person round trip AT LEAST. THEN you worry about food at the arena. A burger and fries is 10$. So yeah... after all is said and done it's about 3-400 dollars to bring a family of four to ONE Devils game.

 

[njdevil26]

Devils arent an attendance driven team. Their ticket prices are astromonical so 15,000 for a Devils home game vs. the Penguins will generate them more money than the Buffalo Sabres would generate if the Sabres sell out a game with 19,000 fans.

Also, Devils have one of the best cable packages in the league. Their MSG deal is a moneymaker to say the least and their TV ratings are better than 2/3rds of the league.

Just think of how much more money they could bring in if fans could actually afford to attend games.

My girlfriend and I went to the Red Bulls game Saturday. Paid $15 each for seats in the lower level, 13 rows off the field. Drove and parked for free in Ironbound and walked over to the stadium. Food for the both of us was $10 each. There's $50 for an entire event plus food. You can get one Devils ticket for that... maybe.

 

[GentlemanOfLeisure]

I didn't even see them advertising more than 1 or 2 family pack games last year.

Think about it this way... A family of four wants to grab tickets on Ticketmaster and go to a game. Almost the cheapest seats run $40 each. Then you have TM fees... $46 per ticket... x4= 184. Add gas, tolls depending on where you live, parking for $15-20 or train for 10$ per person round trip AT LEAST. THEN you worry about food at the arena. A burger and fries is 10$. So yeah... after all is said and done it's about 3-400 dollars to bring a family of four to ONE Devils game.

The game I went to last year was Oct. 26th vs. Buffalo. Paid 300 bucks for myself, my wife and daughter. That was the game MacLean healthy-scratched Kovalchuk and the team lost 5-1 and it wasn't even that close. Team showed 0 effort and it was 4-0 by the 5 minute mark of the 2nd period.

300 bucks in my eyes completely wasted. think I'll do that again this year???

 

[njdevil26]

The game I went to last year was Oct. 26th vs. Buffalo. Paid 300 bucks for myself, my wife and daughter. That was the game MacLean healthy-scratched Kovalchuk and the team lost 5-1 and it wasn't even that close. Team showed 0 effort and it was 4-0 by the 5 minute mark of the 2nd period.

300 bucks in my eyes completely wasted. think I'll do that again this year???

I remember that game. It was maybe the funniest game I've ever been to. When the Devs were down 4-0 in the third, the fans behind the goal started chanting "SCORE ONE GOAL, SCORE ONE GOAL!" And they scored right away haha. Then Buffalo scored 20 seconds later to make it 5-1 haha. That was right before they started giving out free tickets to the next Buffalo and Edmonton games. Where they had contests on Twitter and anyone that entered won lower level tickets.

 

[MasterDecoy]

EXACTLY. They continue to sexually assault fans when it comes to ticket prices. They were advertising a new "tiered" price plan that would make games more affordable to fans. Once they rolled it out, I almost threw up looking at it. The CHEAPEST price level is the same exact prices for last year. Then there are two higher levels that raise prices.

The Devils had the top four corners of the arena with 10$ seats for the first three years. They weren't available to season ticket holders and you had to go to the box office on the day of the game to get them. Now they are gone. The CHEAPEST games (Tues, Wed, against Carolina, Florida and the like) are now 20$. They go up to 30 and I think 35 for games against the Rangers/Flyers/Penguins. Fri/Sat/Sun games are now upper tier so they are more expensive.... it's horse **** frankly. The team took a huge dump last year and really embarrassed themselves and the fans. So they repay the fans' loyalty by raising ticket prices significantly AGAIN. I love the players on the team but I hate the management I really do.



Think THIS is fair for a team struggling with attendance?

good god @ those prices

so, does this mean more parise proposals?

 

[MaskedSonja]

I didn't realise the Dev's were that heavily indebted. I knew there was always the discussion about attendance, but that was it.

This just adds another question mark to the other teams in the league that are struggling. It's unfortunate we have to NY based/area teams struggling, and I agree with the idea that it showing it's not just the sunbelt teams struggling.


Those ticket prices: wow, those are type I expect to see in like a Toronto type market.

 

[GentlemanOfLeisure]

I don't think the team is in debt as much as people think. for 47 percent of the club Ray Chambers is asking 200 million. That's 60 million more than the entire Atlanta franchise sold for.

Who would pay that much for non-controlling interest of a hockey team????

 

[njdevil26]

I didn't realise the Dev's were that heavily indebted. I knew there was always the discussion about attendance, but that was it.

This just adds another question mark to the other teams in the league that are struggling. It's unfortunate we have to NY based/area teams struggling, and I agree with the idea that it showing it's not just the sunbelt teams struggling.

I still look at ticket prices. Tickets for the Panthers, Lightning, Blue Jackets, Stars, Coyotes, and others reflect those of teams that are struggling and need fans to come to the arena and raise revenue. The Devils seemingly price their fans out of the building on purpose.

 

[mooseOAK*]

Not surprising... Ever since the arena opened there have been reports of the team not paying rent, taxes, utility bills, among other things... Also having one of the most expensive rosters in the league, not having a fan-base that bothers to show up, and only having 9 home playoff dates in four years doesn't help either.

Hopefully they are paying their waste disposal bills.

 

[syc]

Think THIS is fair for a team struggling with attendance?

Holy smokes that's near Leaf prices. Add the style of play the Devils play and yeah it's no wonder they don't sellout.

This is going to be long year for Devils fans.

 

[GentlemanOfLeisure]

I still look at ticket prices. Tickets for the Panthers, Lightning, Blue Jackets, Stars, Coyotes, and others reflect those of teams that are struggling and need fans to come to the arena and raise revenue. The Devils seemingly price their fans out of the building on purpose.

lets not forget the 25 dollars per person NJ transit fee.

 

[MaskedSonja]

I still look at ticket prices. Tickets for the Panthers, Lightning, Blue Jackets, Stars, Coyotes, and others reflect those of teams that are struggling and need fans to come to the arena and raise revenue. The Devils seemingly price their fans out of the building on purpose.

I agree with you that. It almost seems like they are pricing to try and decrease the debt, in turn that's going to push more people away, less money-on and on it goes.

There are no easy answers.

 

[Fugu]

Expensive tickets and their conservative style of play is the reason why attendance is so low.

Didn't people predict they might have these problems when they had that new arena built? It used to be that a new building was an excuse to jack prices and get more suites into a building, then charge 2x for those as well. The economic reality in the US doesn't support that model at the moment.

I don't think the team is in debt as much as people think. for 47 percent of the club Ray Chambers is asking 200 million. That's 60 million more than the entire Atlanta franchise sold for.

Who would pay that much for non-controlling interest of a hockey team????

I think they valuation for the entire team is $200 million, with Chamber's share being $94 million then (47%).

 

[njdevil26]

lets not forget the 25 dollars per person NJ transit fee.

Ohh don't get me started on NJTransit... I live in Clark so Rahway is our train station. Two years ago, me, GF, and friends used to go into NYC all the time and hang out... a round trip ticket was $11 per person. Now, they get rid of their round trip tickets and raise prices to $8.75 per person... so it went from 11 to 17.50. It's already hard enough to live here because it's so expensive... now leaving your home to do ANYTHING is becoming too expensive too.

 

[Finlandia WOAT]

If they are in debt and they have problems with attendance, then they best thing for them to do would be to lower ticket prices.

However, as with any rational human being, when your way of life is threatened you begin to work harder at what you do to make more income. Which means that I would not be surprised if ticket prices increase because of this debt.