I'll quote this and run through my version of the calculation again. These are NOT gospel. They are meant to be "ballpark"
First, NHL owned the team for 4 years before they sold to IA. They asked Glendale for 25M twice in that time, so I am going to call 25M the 'average losse' for those 4 years. Here we go....
Initial purchase price: 140M out of BK
Losses for 2 of the 4 years NHL owned the team (other 2 years covered by Glendale): 25M *2 = 50M, except that one of those was a lockout year, so I will discount this to 40M
Now, IA ownership......
2013-14....Admitted 35M in losses, 15 of which was claimed to be solely as result of a contract buyout. 35M
14-15. No contract buyout, but slightly higher player costs, and maybe some interest. I would say 22M
At this point IA lost the 15M/yr AMF with Glendale. And, the FIG debt was retired. At this point, I am going to begin including interest in the calculation, because I am sure that the league is not paying with their own cash....Let's assume they get 4% money.... Total debt load at this point....237M or so.
My best calculations suggest that, since they were still managing the arena, for the next year, they were only out about 5M more than the year before. Thus:
15-16. Since the prior year was about 20M, this one would be about 25M + interest. Let's put the interest in a separate place. 237M at 4% is about 9M. Total debt load: 262 (+9)
16-17. No AMF at all. Another 5M down the drain. That makes losses about 30M + interest. Interest now about 10M. Total investment load: 292 (+19)
17-18. Same as 16-17. 30M + interest, but that interest would now be about 12M. Total: 322 (+31).
And, there is a 16M discount for the Vegas expansion fee.
So, I'm trying to be fair here. These numbers are NOT golden, of course. But, I think they must be pretty close.
They suggest about 30M year in losses.
I'm assuming there is interest to be paid on that as well.
And, a total of about 340M already sink into the team.
But, here's the other side. I'm trying to positive in those calculations. They could easily be off by a total of 50M too low, and in that case the total investment is about 400M.
Count more of the same for next year and it MIGHT (notice I said might) be 450M or more.
At that point, the value of the franchise is NOT keeping up with the load on it. And, that's why some of us think that next year is very important for the future in the Phoenix area.
