What are most teams in America revenue wise compared to Canadian teams? Should we relocate all teams in America that don't make as much as Canadian teams?
Emphatic
NO. If a franchise can break even overall without taxpayer subsidies, let it stay. If it can't survive without sucking enough money out of a city to downgrade the city's credit rating, the city council has a fudiciary duty to exit the arrangement by all legal means. See
https://www.moodys.com/credit-ratings/Glendale-City-of-AZ-credit-rating-600023953 The actual reports are paywalled, but the one-line summaries are telling...
- 08 Jul 2013; Sector Comment; Vote by Glendale, Arizona to Support Professional Hockey Is Credit Negative
- 15 Jun 2015; Sector Comment; Glendale, Arizona, Votes to Put Its Subsidy to Pro Hockey Team on Ice, a Credit Positive
In plain English...
- Financially supporting the Coyotes means that it costs COG more to sell the same amount of municipal bonds.
- Withdrawing COG financial support for the Coyotes reverses that effect, and brings down the interest rate that Glendale has to offer in order to attract bond buyers.
This affects taxes that COG has to charge residents. Notice how the most vocal supporters of the Coyotes subsidy at the recent meeting were non-residents; i.e. non-Glendale-taxpayers? In a fan forum, hanging on to the team at all cost (literally) is often advocated. In a
BUSINESS forum, cold hard business facts should be the main focus.
And it isn't about revenue, it should be about Net Income.
The Coyotes are among the worst, if not the worst, in NHL team net income. A big loss, even after a sweetheart $15 million AMF that no other team gets. Florida, may show worse attendance, but...
- the owner has stopped papering the place, and slapping full-price season ticket holders in the face by giving away a bunch freebie or near-freebie tickets. I'd be interested to see what the Coyotes' attendance would look like if it adopted the same painfully honest reporting policy as Florida.
- The Florida operation is a lot better off than Arizona, but only because of non-hockey event bookings. Actually, Jobing.com/Gila_River_Arena used to do a lot better than now, but non-hockey event bookings have cratered since the NHL took over. See http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showpost.php?p=78074045&postcount=616
Year; World ranking in the Pollstar non-sporting event attendance count; Arena name/location; Attendance. Note the collapse...
- 2008: #59 Jobing.com Arena Glendale, AZ 200,377
- 2009: #58 Jobing.com Arena Glendale, AZ 208,877
- 2010: #80 Jobing.com Arena Glendale, AZ 150,661
- 2011: #177 Jobing.com Arena Glendale, AZ 52,628
- 2012: #166 Jobing.com Arena Glendale, AZ 68,550
- 2013 (To end of September, 2013): #158 Jobbing.Com Arena Glendale, AZ 47,427
Before anyone starts blaming the recession, consider how the competition down the road has been doing...
- 2008:#86 US Airways Center Phoenix, AZ 135,960
- 2009:#100+ US Airways Center Phoenix, AZ <136,077 (not in Top 100 list)
- 2010:#95 US Airways Center Phoenix, AZ 125,438
- 2011:#47 US Airways Center Phoenix, AZ 288,214
- 2012: #38 US Airways Center Phoenix, AZ 334,194
- 2013 (To end of September, 2013): #49 US Airways Center Phoeniz, AZ 194,617