Oilers and (lack of) Financial Incentive - a hypothesis

[Cawz]

Disagree. These mythical "bold" moves would have occurred if they cared about winning.

Well, I also disagree, as the team is playing so bad that they would get pennies on the dollar. Do you really think they could improve the team by trading players at near their lowest value?

They screwed up by hiring Eakins and the whole team regressed to a point where no-one would give full value for any Oiler player (not to mention no player would waive his no-trade clause to come to Edmonton, which limits trade partners).

They should tell the team that if they raise the play (and value), they will get traded off this God-forsaken team. That should be a huge incentive.

 

[Gone]

This thread is halfbaked.

While its true that all tickets are sold its also true that there have been games this year with up to 5K empty seats.

Gate is only one source of revenue. All of Concessions, Booze sales, Merchandise sales and parking take a hit if thousands of people are not showing up. Merchandise sales would have to be hurting right now. I can't imagine anybody right now having an Oiler they want to buy a jersey of.

So the Oil are missing out on a lot of revenue. Not to mention playoff revenue.

Biggest impact on the bottom line will be currency fluctuations, unless the Oilers hedged a large part of their payroll.

 

[chrisj]

$80? Where does that number come from? Would think it's much more.

You're right. I just wanted to put a number at the lower end to be safe.

Whats 2.7million of 2.8 billion or whatever he's worth? Like someone who only has a 500,000 dollar house to their name throwing away 500 bucks.

Trust me - he cares about that $2.7 million (especially when it is significantly more for a cup win). You don't become a billionare by not caring about a few million.

 

[McBeastMode]

Nothing will change, until Katz moves into his new Arena..

Soli..where is the GDT for today..You always step up to the plate and post one..

 

[oobga]

Trust me - he cares about that $2.7 million (especially when it is significantly more for a cup win). You don't become a billionare by not caring about a few million.

Yeah, no business owner no matter how rich just shrugs off millions of lost revenue that there is an obvious reason for losing it. Playoff revenue however is not really lost revenue, it's a lost bonus. I'm sure Lowe and MacT are full of excuses why the Oilers aren't in the playoffs, we hear most of them, I'm sure they go into great detail with their bullcrap talking to Katz. As long as the regular season tickets are all sold, Katz is probably sitting pretty without playoff revenue, he doesn't even know what having playoff revenue looks like yet either

As other have pointed out though, thousands of seats have been empty lately, so that's a bit of lost money for what people buy attending games but not close to what Katz will lose if he can't sell all the tickets. I'm sure there is a lot of analysis happening with Katz's people right now about the outlook next year and I hope it's all looking really bad and it'll force some action (maybe it already has and that's why Nicholson has been pulled in, Rishaug suggested that on the radio a while back). There are tens of millions of revenue Katz can lose if fans finally get fed up and tickets don't get sold for next season.

 

[coolwasabi]

Sigh, I wish people would stop bringing this 'theory' up. It doesn't make a lot of sense.

1. Everyone involved are very competitive people.
2. The team is going pretty close to the cap, so it's not like they are skimping on costs.
3. The team would make a lot MORE money if they were winners.

What incentive is there to lose? Absolutely 0.

Fact is, this is just an unbalanced roster, and management miscalculated in throwing the kids in to a position of leadership too early - it's a lot harder to ignore the 'right' way to play when there is a team of angry veterans looking at you in your first couple years, than when you are the obvious best players and leaders of the team and just have a few plugger veterans yapping at you. I understand your point about giving the kids big salaries too quickly, but they were getting paid millions no matter what, 6 million rather than 2 million doesn't change your attitude much I don't think.

They'll figure it out eventually, but they definitely prolonged the suckitude by some decisions that did not work out.

+1

agree 100%

 

[kurt]

Everyone involved may well be competitive people, but are they capable? The results suggest otherwise.

If fans want changes, the biggest message they can send is with their wallet. Why on earth are single game tickets still being purchased?