Major Junior vs Minor Pro

[Canadiens1958]

Definition

I believe the Calgary Hitmen generate a revenue of $10 mil. On the other hand, the Val d'Or Foreurs generate a revenue of $400,000.

CHL is not governed by a CBA that defines hockey related revenues so the CHL numbers have to be taken with a grain of salt.

$400,000 over 40 games including pre-season and possible playoffs comes down to $10,000 per game. Even at $5.00 a head at the turnstile that is only 2,000 paid admission(CHL tickets cost more).

So before you consider various sponsorship deals, sovenir, apparel,restaurant, league licensing revenues, arena advertising, program advertising, signage, NHL developmental revenues and bar revenues, possible parking revenues plus other potential revenue streams,you top $400,000.


Properly accounted each CHL team should generate north of $1 million without much effort.

 

[saintflannel]

CHL is not governed by a CBA that defines hockey related revenues so the CHL numbers have to be taken with a grain of salt.

$400,000 over 40 games including pre-season and possible playoffs comes down to $10,000 per game. Even at $5.00 a head at the turnstile that is only 2,000 paid admission(CHL tickets cost more).

So before you consider various sponsorship deals, sovenir, apparel,restaurant, league licensing revenues, arena advertising, program advertising, signage, NHL developmental revenues and bar revenues, possible parking revenues plus other potential revenue streams,you top $400,000.


Properly accounted each CHL team should generate north of $1 million without much effort.

My numbers are from an estimation from the CHLPA a couple of years ago.

 

[TonyTinglebone]

Trying to think of when minor pro competes against major junior thought of the Quebec Remparts & Quebec Citadelles. Ironically the Citadelles had better attendance in the head to head years but did not last.

The maritime provinces of Canada have also had almost all of the former AHL teams replaced with QMJHL teams and have been relatively successful; however most of these locations had high percentages of their buildings full with the AHL teams prior to the moves as well.

Halifax Citadels - Halifax Mooseheads
Moncton Hawks - Moncton Wildcats
Cape Breton Oilers - Cape Breton Screaming Eagles
PEI Senators - PEI Islanders/Rocket
Saint John Flames - Saint John Sea Dogs

As others previously stated this didn't work out in St. John's

 

[Frankie]

Yes, this surprises me as well. I'm also surprised that there isn't much local coverage for the AHL from the sounds of the posts in this thread.

there might be a handful of ahl games on cbc and/or sportsnet 360 here in Canada throughout the season, but that's about it.

starting tomorrow night, sportsnet will have a major junior game on each Friday night, and of course they cover the entire memorial cup tournament in may. the ahl finals are not on national tv and barely even get mentioned in any sports highlights.

if I was the multimillionaire and had to choose between major junior and the ahl, another reason i'd go with junior is the possibility of hosting a memorial cup. a huge event in this country, brings tremendous publicity and money to the host city and team.

 

[Frankie]

As others previously stated this didn't work out in St. John's

it didn't work out for a few reasons. I think major junior could absolutely work in st.john's (why not? it works in other cities of similar size and economic fortune), but the fog devils arrived at the worst possible time and they did a lot of things wrong.

 

[BigZ65]

The major junior teams seem to print money just fine. Go do an audit on the Hunter brothers on London.

Terrible example. You pick a team in a big city with no competition for sports entertainment dollar and a great building to make that statement? That would be like basing the financial health of the NHL on the Maple Leafs.

Talk to the people who operate in Prince George, Kootenay, Swift Current, Prince Albert, Brandon, Moose Jaw, Owen Sound, St. Catharines, Val D'or, Rouyn-Noranda, Victoriaville, Bathurst and so on. I think their money printers are jammed.

 

[IceCapsFanNL]

it didn't work out for a few reasons. I think major junior could absolutely work in st.john's (why not? it works in other cities of similar size and economic fortune), but the fog devils arrived at the worst possible time and they did a lot of things wrong.

Or, maybe, just maybe, this just isn't a market for the Q.

 

[aemoreira1981]

I am mildly surprised that the Hershey Bears don't have a TV contract for their immediate area, though.

This especially. For a team and brand that is so established, you'd think that at least they'd have a local college calling the games on community cable using students.

As for the Maritimes, I would think that the reason why major junior thrives and minor pro does not is because of costs in running the team. Major junior is also a bus league. Someone mentioned the Val d'Or Foreurs...how do they survive with such small revenues? At least teams like the Oil Kings and the Hitmen have deep-pocketed owners.

 

[Frankie]

Or, maybe, just maybe, this just isn't a market for the Q.

maybe, but that wouldn't make much sense. no reason it couldn't work in st. john's.

 

[IceCapsFanNL]

QMJHL budgets have to be smaller than AHL budgets since ticket prices are less. CHL hockey is tenuous at best here due to the fact that a Q team can't bus everywhere. A theoretical QMJHL team would have to charge much higher prices than I think the market would stand.

 

[TonyTinglebone]

QMJHL budgets have to be smaller than AHL budgets since ticket prices are less. CHL hockey is tenuous at best here due to the fact that a Q team can't bus everywhere. A theoretical QMJHL team would have to charge much higher prices than I think the market would stand.

Wasn't there an issue as well with them have to help with the travel cost of visiting teams? Or was that just the complaints coming from other teams.

Not only did St. John's turn out to be a bad market but none of the other teams would want them back in the league anyways.

 

[IceCapsFanNL]

Wasn't there an issue as well with them have to help with the travel cost of visiting teams? Or was that just the complaints coming from other teams.

Not only did St. John's turn out to be a bad market but none of the other teams would want them back in the league anyways.

From my understanding the IceCaps pay 30 K to visiting teams per two game set, and are still near the top of the league in profits.

I am not sure with lessened revenues that would be the same if we have a QMJHL team.

 

[jayme2017]

QMJHL budgets have to be smaller than AHL budgets since ticket prices are less. CHL hockey is tenuous at best here due to the fact that a Q team can't bus everywhere. A theoretical QMJHL team would have to charge much higher prices than I think the market would stand.

There are some Chl markets that are stronger then some Ahl markets.