Hypothetically, could the league survive without the Leafs?

[HookeyPlayer]

Just putting this out there and don't mean any disrespect to any of the other teams.

But out of the 4 professional sports leagues in North America, there just doesn't seem to be a single marquee team as crucial to the health of the league as the Leafs. Seriously after all the losing this team has endured in the past, its simply amazing that the ACC was always full of people. Without the Leafs, the league may have been on a level similar to MLS.

What do you think, not sure if anyone has the numbers to back this up?

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[Erdinger]

Just putting this out there and don't mean any disrespect to any of the other teams.

But out of the 4 professional sports leagues in North America, there just doesn't seem to be a single marquee team as crucial to the health of the league as the Leafs. Seriously after all the losing this team has endured in the past, its simply amazing that the ACC was always full of people. Without the Leafs, the league may have been on a level similar to MLS.

What do you think, not sure if anyone has the numbers to back this up?

Knicks and Cubs are other examples of marquee losers.

 

[Paxon]

Of course the league could survive without the Leafs

 

[Diatomic]

the answer is : Obviously

We haven't won a cup for since 1967 and before last year haven't made the playoffs for a decade, the league was still making money and fully operational.

 

[Radiohead]

the answer is : Obviously

We haven't won a cup for since 1967 and before last year haven't made the playoffs for a decade, the league was still making money and fully operational.

Playoffs or no playoffs, the Leafs were still in the league. He meant if the league were to remove the Leafs completely out of the picture.

 

[Woodman19]

Yes of course they would. The salary cap however would noticeably go down and the players wouldn't like that.

 

[TheKule]

Leafs fans, on a personal level, subsidize massively the struggling american franchises.

 

[Garbs]

Of course, the revenue just wouldn't be as high.

 

[Woodman19]

Leafs fans, on a personal level, subsidize massively the struggling american franchises.

I would argue that the Leafs vanishing would help the small market teams as it would drastically reduce the cap floor and allow them to pay the players less as well. The Leafs being overwhelmingly more profitable then everyone else skews the numbers for the entire league.

 

[My Sweet Shadow]

Tough to say. According to Forbes, the Leafs accounted for about 5.4% of the league's revenue last year. So I would assume that the cap would drop by about 5% (some of the slack would be picked up by fans shifting to other teams). However, revenue sharing would also drop a fair amount, since the combined revenue of the top 10 teams from drop from $1.126B to $1.071B, or about 4.9%. In the end, I think you would see similar results as what happened this year; basically the top 3rd of the league would be crammed up against the cap and have to shed some of their secondary players, the bottom feeders would get less from revenue sharing, but would be able to spend even less on salaries, and the middle teams would be stuck trying to find a balance between compensating for less revenue while staying competitive.

 

[Erdinger]

Tough to say. According to Forbes, the Leafs accounted for about 5.4% of the league's revenue last year. So I would assume that the cap would drop by about 5% (some of the slack would be picked up by fans shifting to other teams). However, revenue sharing would also drop a fair amount, since the combined revenue of the top 10 teams from drop from $1.126B to $1.071B, or about 4.9%. In the end, I think you would see similar results as what happened this year; basically the top 3rd of the league would be crammed up against the cap and have to shed some of their secondary players, the bottom feeders would get less from revenue sharing, but would be able to spend even less on salaries, and the middle teams would be stuck trying to find a balance between compensating for less revenue while staying competitive.

5.4 % seems to me to be a bit low but I'm no expert. With 30 teams the average would be 3.333% and I have to assume teams like Phoenix, Ottawa,Florida,St.Louis and Dallas and others contribute way below that.

 

[hoglund]

It would survive, but many teams would have to lower their "premium" game prices, eg Buffalo always has higher prices when they come to town, I'm sure there are other cities that do that as well when the Leafs come to town.

 

[Confucius]

The league would survive without the Leafs; maybe. What if the Leafs played in another league and generated the same income for the other league. Such as tv contract, local business and national fan following. The NHL without a team in Toronto, would generate very little income from Canada. Yup we are the center of the Hockey universe. Only a couple of teams might offer star players what the Leafs could.

 

[My Sweet Shadow]

5.4 % seems to me to be a bit low but I'm no expert. With 30 teams the average would be 3.333% and I have to assume teams like Phoenix, Ottawa,Florida,St.Louis and Dallas and others contribute way below that.

Well...not sure what to say...those are the numbers. NYI are the lowest at 2.3%, so the Leafs produce over 2.3x the revenue of the lowest team, which is quite substantial.

You might be thinking about operating income; the Leafs made $48.7M last year...the next highest was Montreal at $29.7M and only 3 others made more than $20M. 11 teams actually lost money (which includes Florida, St. Louis, etc.). But revenue is the way they calculate the cap and revenue sharing numbers, so that's what I was focusing on.

 

[Disgruntled Observer*]

Interesting question.

I think the league, as we know it, would be finished.

The cap woul decrease so substantially that the khl would be a much more viable option for star players. Once the NHL starts losin it's star players, attendance nd ratings would drop at shocking levels and... I don't know. I honestly think the league maybe would fold without the leafs.

 

[HEAVY DUTY]

yes it would survive

 

[Namejs]

LOL. That's a ridiculous question.

Nothing would change in the long-term.

At first the salary cap would decrease by 5%, but the overwhelming majority of fans would switch to new teams, as obviously a new or even a couple of new franchises would be created in Toronto to replace the Leafs.

If Toronto would be sucked into another dimension, obviously the salary cap would go down a little, a few more fringe NHLers (nothing substantial) would go to Europe/KHL, but overall nothing would change.

 

[Trapper]

No there would only be like 12 people left to watch hockey. 11 Hab fans and that sad guy waiting for Quebec to get their team back.

 

[Run705]

Tough to say. According to Forbes, the Leafs accounted for about 5.4% of the league's revenue last year. So I would assume that the cap would drop by about 5% (some of the slack would be picked up by fans shifting to other teams). However, revenue sharing would also drop a fair amount, since the combined revenue of the top 10 teams from drop from $1.126B to $1.071B, or about 4.9%. In the end, I think you would see similar results as what happened this year; basically the top 3rd of the league would be crammed up against the cap and have to shed some of their secondary players, the bottom feeders would get less from revenue sharing, but would be able to spend even less on salaries, and the middle teams would be stuck trying to find a balance between compensating for less revenue while staying competitive.

Factor in that Leaf fans wouldn't just magically disappear. Most would become fans of other teams throughout the league.

 

[Phion Keneuf]

honestly, probably not

salary cap would go down, players salaries would go down, which could lead to another lockout

 

[Mindrust]

the answer is : Obviously

We haven't won a cup for since 1967 and before last year haven't made the playoffs for a decade, the league was still making money and fully operational.

Yes, they were. A large portion of it off the Leafs franchise.

 

[goonx]

would there be a MLB without the red soxs?

NBA without the LA/Chicago/Miami?

Ofcourse there would. Just wouldn't be as popular and the revenues would be way down.

Players would make less (naturally) and owners as well. Less hockey players around the world because of less influence and also less money in the pot to feed these guys.

50 marlies/leafs would not have a job or bump someone else from their job.

KHL would be more popular/powerful than it is right now.

 

[MiniMoose]

Yeah

 

[Remuskokafication]

Does Toronto have a team in a bizarro league or is hockey just banned here?

cause that really changes the question

 

[Diatomic]

Yes, they were. A large portion of it off the Leafs franchise.

Not really, the leafs are valuable but if you look at everything into context their probably only 10% of the leagues revenue, probably less than that.