Montreal and Toronto are worth ore than Florida could ever make, but I digress... I disagree with your point about the NHL not letting the Panthers leave. Arizona is Bettman's pet project, that's why he's so stubborn about letting them leave. Florida is not a Bettman related team. If you look at Hartford, Winnipeg, and Quebec, the NHL did nothing to stop that from happening. Atlanta is unknown, because unfortunately nothing could be done since A$G had arena rights.
I don't think he cares about the Panthers as he does the Coyotes.
what bettman is doing has absolutely NOTHING to do with the Coyotes being his "pet project"
i follow the sports business very closely. i have a degree in sports administration and have been employed with professional teams before (not the panthers, though)
to make a long story short, bettman's job is essentially to make the NHL as profitable as possible. in order accomplish this, he needs to secure (lucrative) national television deals. that's where the big money is made.
Canada and the United States each have their own national television deals with the NHL. the difference between the two is pretty simple though: Canada is pretty much maxed out. adding an 8th, or 9th team to Quebec City or whatever other Canadian city will not do much to improve the contracts the NHL already has with CBC/TSN/RDS/ etc. Canada is going to watch hockey...and as unfair as it is for the diehard fans in those cities, the NHL as a business doesn't need them for two reasons: #1 - the remaining cities without teams just aren't very big and #2 the NHL knows that they're going to watch regardless of if they have a local team there or not. local viewership may increase with a local team, but not nearly enough to justify losing an American market ...(and i'll explain why below.)
The US TV deal, on the other hand, is incredibly underwhelming. The NHL is getting peanuts compared to what the other 3 major sports in this country make with their national broadcast deals. the only way to improve what they get from NBC (or any other potential future bidder) is to increase their viewership potential IN THE UNITED STATES.
that means major TV markers like Phoenix, and yes, South Florida, are critical to the potential development of the NHL product/business. the more eyeballs, the more TV sets, in a certain market, the more potential for growth. IT'S THAT SIMPLE. it doesn't matter if it ****ing snows in that market or the arena is built in the middle of a desert. if there's a large population with millions of TV sets there, ANY/ALL PROFESSIONAL SPORTS BUSINESS WILL NEED TO HAVE A STAKE IN THAT CITY.
attendance figures mean very little. they mean almost nothing actually to the NHL business. to the Florida Panthers business it means everything, because that's one of our only 3 ways of securing income
on our own (without revenue sharing). but the NHL? it means just about nothing. so we're drawing 15,000 to watch a terrible team play hockey? who cares? what did chicago draw when they were terrible? what did boston draw when they were terrible? it was less than us.
people will point to Atlanta and say, well, the NHL moved from there with little fight so your premise is wrong. but they're wrong. they're comparing apples to oranges.
if the NHL had it's way, they never would have left Atlanta, either. but they were put in an impossible situation by the former ownership group of the Thrashers. that ownership group also owned the Atlanta Hawks and the Phillips arena, where the Thrashers played in.
That means if they were to sell the Thrashers to a local ownership group, the new ownership group would have to sign a lease to pay at the Phillips arena (similar to what the Marlins used to to at Sun-Life Stadium or whatever the hell it's called now). That means split revenue (at best) for parking, concessions, etc.
These teams are bleeding money as they are. No sane businessman is going to invest in a team that has to sign a lease to other businessmen to play there. The leases teams sign with counties are almost always very team friendly. Leases that teams sign with other teams are never friendly. Ask the Marlins, who got ZERO revenue from concessions, parking, etc.
our lease here is as friendly as it gets. the Coyotes actually have a terrible lease in Glendale and Bettman has been fighting tooth & nail to get their politicians to alter it so the NHL can keep them there.
Do you think it's a coincidence it took the NHL like 3 years to find a suitable ownership group for the Coyotes, but as soon as a "For sale" sign went up on the Panthers they were sold immediately? It's the lease. Simple.
are the panthers struggling financially? yeah, they sure are. but that doesn't mean the NHL will want to move them anytime soon. if things don't change in the next 5 years, and we continue to be terrible on the ice and crowds continue to be small....and Viola gets sick of losing money the NHL will just find the next billionare who wants to own a professional team even if it means losing $10 million a year. just like they did after Huizenga got sick of losing money. And Cohen. And Viner.
any person that disagrees with any of this is just flat out ignorant about the way professional sports work. in the end, even though they are the majority, their opinions don't matter one bit. so these morons in Canada can keep thumping their chest every time they hear news like this from us...it's not going to change anything. They still have no idea what they're talking about, and will likely continue to be clueless as long as they live. Ignore them. you can't cure stupidity.