It does make a difference, but still - until Mario swooped in, the Pens were basically goners. Now they're one of the league's most successful franchises, and all it took was drafting the greatest hockey player of our generation and winning a couple of Stanley Cups...
Don't get me wrong - it's a nightmarishly steep hill to climb. But it's not an impossibility to save the Coyotes, and the people who say the market will never work are simply wrong, no matter how often they say it.
Well, we
have - but the local ownership was in it for real estate and tax breaks, not to run a sports franchise. Neither Ellman nor Moyes wanted to be hockey owners, and they treated the team accordingly. Ellman got out as soon as he broke ground at Westgate - Moyes hung on as long as he could milk the team for his paperwork and office space.
The "local consortium" that has been theorized would have to be of the same caliber that turned the Predators from a perennial relocation target and fish-out-of-water story in-market to one of the league's most unique success stories. Not impossible, but thus far I haven't heard any details that point to it going this way.