CXLVIII - NHL BOG approves sale and relocation of Coyotes to Ryan Smith, league announces establishment of franchise in Utah

aqib

Registered User
Feb 13, 2012
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Going to be honest, I have never really understood why fans of the Coyotes are so wedded to getting to have the Jets history as part of their franchise

I could not care less what the Detroit Pistons did in Fort Wayne, what the Detroit Lions did in Portsmouth, or what the Red Wings did as the Victoria Cougars



I don’t think this is a remotely fair comparison

Learn your history! Fans keep NFL's Portsmouth Spartans alive

Just kidding. I actually know one of the guys in the article
 

LadyStanley

Registered User
Sep 22, 2004
106,615
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Questions still unanswered:

Utah is VGK TV territory. (As is Idaho, Montana based on their summer promo "bus trip" with mascots, TV announcers, promo team members, and a player who flew in.) And what is happening (temporarily) with Arizona's TV territory?
Will Vegas be getting a slightly larger chunk of the $200m relocation fee to compensate? Will there be an overlap? Will the league/BOG be redrawing lines?

Players' relocation costs are covered by CBA (13.7/14.3). What of the other hockey ops employees?
 

Jetsfan79

Registered User
Jul 12, 2011
3,644
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Winnipeg, MB
AM was asked about the unpaid bills during one of his recent interviews. I believe it's was from a radio station interview. I'm at work and will post the link ànd time index soon unless someone beats me to it

If you watch carefully in that interview, there's seens to be a quick edit right after he denied the unpaid bills. It was not elaborated on .As if they were being careful on what aired on the clip.
 

BacktoLurking

Registered User
Dec 12, 2021
9
23
It's funny, he could have had a team so much cheaper years ago and it bit him in the ass.

Ain't no bargains anymore. You have to pay up to get anything and values aren't going down.
Fertitta showing up on one of the business channels a few months back and saying that sports franchise values were so high that they were dividing people into classes of billionaires that could/could absolutely not afford to own them was a sign, I think.

My guess is that Fertitta thinks the NHL desperately wants to be in the market and should cut him a deal to enter it, and the NHL thinks that they need to keep franchise values rising. This seems like quite the impasse! I'm not sure it'll be broken in the next decade, honestly.
 

dj4aces

An Intricate Piece of Infinity
Dec 17, 2007
6,275
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Questions still unanswered:

Utah is VGK TV territory. (As is Idaho, Montana based on their summer promo "bus trip" with mascots, TV announcers, promo team members, and a player who flew in.) And what is happening (temporarily) with Arizona's TV territory?
Will Vegas be getting a slightly larger chunk of the $200m relocation fee to compensate? Will there be an overlap? Will the league/BOG be redrawing lines?

Players' relocation costs are covered by CBA (13.7/14.3). What of the other hockey ops employees?
I don't see how Vegas is entitled to anything, being that Las Vegas is well over 50 miles away from Salt Lake (city limits to city limits, the distance is roughly 344 miles).

As for Arizona's TV market, I imagine it could be similar to what happened here in Atlanta when the Thrashers left, where both Carolina and Nashville televised some games in the area. Today, some of their games are still televised here, though that may change when Atlanta receives a team. So if I'm Vegas, Anaheim, and Los Angeles, I'm looking to offer games in the area.
 
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LT

Global Moderator
Jul 23, 2010
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Fertitta showing up on one of the business channels a few months back and saying that sports franchise values were so high that they were dividing people into classes of billionaires that could/could absolutely not afford to own them was a sign, I think.

My guess is that Fertitta thinks the NHL desperately wants to be in the market and should cut him a deal to enter it, and the NHL thinks that they need to keep franchise values rising. This seems like quite the impasse! I'm not sure it'll be broken in the next decade, honestly.

Fertitta's going to hit an 11 figure net worth in the next few years. He can absolutely afford to pay whatever the NHL wants him to. It's a matter of him actually choosing to do so now.
 

BacktoLurking

Registered User
Dec 12, 2021
9
23
Fertitta's going to hit an 11 figure net worth in the next few years. He can absolutely afford to pay whatever the NHL wants him to. It's a matter of him actually choosing to do so now.
Oh, a hundred percent, he can pay it.

I just think of super-wealthy people, and many of them didn't become wealthy by treating a 1.3B dollar purchase like it was easily affordable. I think Fertitta's cheap as hell, is what I'm saying, and while he can pay it, he's not anywhere near seeing the value proposition at that price, which explains his complaints about rising costs of acquiring and owning a sports franchise.
 
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Fidel Astro

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Aug 26, 2010
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www.witchpolice.com
Conversely I don’t understand why fans of any team think it’s so important to “reacquire” the history of a previous franchise.

Would anyone’s fandom be diminished because the team they love and root for now doesn’t hold the stat records of the prior franchise decades earlier?

It doesn't diminish anything, but it would be nice to have... especially considering how the current Jets franchise has gone out of its way to focus on the city's hockey history, which the fans definitely appreciate (throwback uniforms, Jets Hall of Fame numbers in the rafters, Dale Hawerchuk statue, etc.)

I can only speak for myself, as a Winnipegger who supported/supports both incarnations of the Jets, but I'm interested in the history. I like to look up the stats and see where the current members of the Jets stack up historically... but not against members of the Thrashers, I team I never watched.

I don't care where Josh Morrissey's stats line up on a list that features (insert Thrashers defenceman here... see, I can't even name one!) but I am interested in where he slots in alongside guys like Teppo Numminen, who wore the same sweater, playing for a team with the same name, in the same city.

I can't imagine fans in Phoenix gave a crap about players like Hawerchuk or Steen, for example -- guys who were retired before the team even relocated. Why would they? They have no connection to them whatsoever. I'm sure they have their own players they'd like to celebrate. If Phoenix gets a team again, let them celebrate players like Doan, who meant something to their community and probably still do.

The players and traditions from Jets 1.0 clearly still mean a lot to Winnipeg. The fact that both Winnipeg NHL franchises are called the Jets makes it even more of an obvious decision to give us the history, especially with the Coyotes staying dormant for a while.

The call for Winnipeg to formally be given the Jets history has nothing to do with erasing the Coyotes -- those of us who were around in '96 will never forget that the team moved -- but it's about letting the fanbase have the records and history that no one else really needs or wants. A small gesture that would mean a lot to people here.
 
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GindyDraws

I will not disable my Adblock, HF
Mar 13, 2014
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Apparently no one from Houston came calling to wave a billion dollars under their nose.

That might have made a titch of difference.
Tillman clearly wants a team, but he has never screamed "I need the NHL in H-Town this second!", more of a half hearted "I bad want hockey now, me sick" as if he's reading from cue cards.

Its all based on either extending the value of the Toyota Center, getting a new arena built, or shutting out another buyer in town as what are they gonna do: play at NRG Arena?

I still think Houston is getting a team with Atlanta sometime in the next 2-3 years because of the expansion fees and because of the Arizona quandary, but the league isn't going to make it obvious.
 

StreetHawk

Registered User
Sep 30, 2017
26,196
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Fertitta showing up on one of the business channels a few months back and saying that sports franchise values were so high that they were dividing people into classes of billionaires that could/could absolutely not afford to own them was a sign, I think.

My guess is that Fertitta thinks the NHL desperately wants to be in the market and should cut him a deal to enter it, and the NHL thinks that they need to keep franchise values rising. This seems like quite the impasse! I'm not sure it'll be broken in the next decade, honestly.
This is ultimately a reality that the NHL faces being 2nd to an NBA market.

Houston, SLC, Atlanta, Portland, Milwaukee, etc. who have NBA teams, it comes down to 2 options for an NHL team.

1) NBA owner since they would likely control the arena management agreement or own the building. So, the NHL only gets into the market if that owner both wants a team and is willing to pay the price the NHL wants.
2) Non NBA owner would have to look into building another arena, most likely in a different county/city than the NBA arena is located, which is what they are doing in ATL.

Like the PHX Suns prior owner Sarver, he didn't want a new arena to share with the Coyotes, as they got most of the arena revenues. They had zero desire to cut their percentage in half.

So, going to be interesting to see how expansion unfolds for the NHL. From an Arena POV, it makes more sense to consolidate both teams into 1 building.
 

Melrose Munch

Registered User
Mar 18, 2007
23,681
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Tillman clearly wants a team, but he has never screamed "I need the NHL in H-Town this second!", more of a half hearted "I bad want hockey now, me sick" as if he's reading from cue cards.

Its all based on either extending the value of the Toyota Center, getting a new arena built, or shutting out another buyer in town as what are they gonna do: play at NRG Arena?

I still think Houston is getting a team with Atlanta sometime in the next 2-3 years because of the expansion fees and because of the Arizona quandary, but the league isn't going to make it obvious.
Well they're not in 3 of the top 10 media markets, so you're right. If you don't have a team in Phoenix, Atlanta, Houston, are you major league?
 
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Melrose Munch

Registered User
Mar 18, 2007
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Fertitta still looking for a bargain deal. That Mason-Dixon comment is still costing him.
Agreed, but given what just happened he should be. We all know the Coyotes are not worth 1.2 billion.
An update on Fertitta:

"While Houston Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta has been vocal about his intentions to bring an NHL franchise to Houston, he said in a statement to the Houston Business Journal that he was unable to bid for the Coyotes organization as "the NHL views Houston as expansion target, removing the ability for us to purchase and relocate an existing team.""

Houston should get something fresh and new.
 

TheLegend

Megathread Gadfly
Aug 30, 2009
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Agreed, but given what just happened he should be. We all know the Coyotes are not worth 1.2 billion.

Not in Arizona right now for sure. But if Meruelo were to get everything back up an running in five years with a state of the art area and ED in the package the value jumps exponentially.

There's another thing to consider in that Atlanta is sitting there looking at all this. The league had to protect the expansion price in some way.

Houston should get something fresh and new.

Any new market at this stage should.
 

Major4Boarding

Unfamiliar Moderator
Jan 30, 2009
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Who is the owner?
Owwwwwnnnnnns OOOWWWWNNNNSSSSS!

Denis.jpg


Trade me right f***ing now!

Ooops! Wrong context
 

KevFu

Registered User
May 22, 2009
9,207
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Phoenix from Rochester via New Orleans
After watching/hearing him talk, probably a good thing he wasn't out front and center. He's not a good speaker at all.

Most tech nerds aren't.


BTW, the story of how Smith came to own the Utah Jazz is pretty incredible.

Larry & Gail Miller were the original owners of the Jazz and as Larry got older he turned down a half dozen or so offers to buy the team, because he wants the team to stay in Salt Lake forever.

Smith got rich and became a minority investor in the Jazz (and minor league baseball team).

After Larry Miller passed, Real Salt Lake was for sale. Smith asked Gail if she wanted to buy the team together and fold them into one sports organization with the Jazz. Gail felt that was giving up control of the Jazz and said no thanks.

"If we gave up any control, we'd sell the whole thing," she said.
"Is that an option?" Smith replied.
"Are you making an offer?" Miller said.
Smith looked up the Forbes value of the Jazz and offered that.

They closed in like three weeks. A condition of the sale was the team remaining in Utah.
 
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