They are incompetent. At least two of the ASG inherited their money. That doesn't qualify them to be smart businesspeople.
If you lived here you'd see it. A competent owner wouldn't keep the same GM for eleven years after only one trip to the playoffs, then reward him with a promotion. When they fired Hartley after a handful of games a few years ago, they had the same clown coach the team for the remainder of the season. They let Kovy, Hossa, and Savard leave. Marketing was non-existent. The arena is becoming shabby.
Want me to tell you about the Hawks?
Lots of people inherit money. They inherited their money, and still have something like ASG. They're not failing in their other endeavors. And for the record, the Nashville Predators have kept Barry Trotz as their coach for the entire existence of the franchise, and they haven't been a rip roaring success either. They also didn't LET Kovy, Hossa, and Savard leave. They traded them, because had they not, they WOULD have left. The arena also has nothing to do with the performance of the team. Given the performance of the Thrashers, and Hawks...they were probably losing so much money that it would be stupid to fathom building a new arena for a couple of losers. That's usually something you do after you start to win.
Depends on how you use the word "incompetent" in this situation. They ARE incompetent because they do not know how to run a sports team(2 including the Hawks. They would be better off without them) and spend too much time arguing with each other(they sued their majority owner).
These are the same guys that intentially sabotoged their owner product just because they didn't want them. And they wonder why they have lost money. They are idiots in that sense.
They can't expect to have a good product if they refuse to market it and put money into it. Instead, all they did was just leave it be and hope for the best.
The only thing Bettman and the league could have done was fix this before it got too out of hand. A$G has everyone exactly where they want them. And they don't care how many people they screw in the process, as long as they get a nice big paycheck.
I think it's a crap situation when you have multiple owners. If they don't get along, things are going to run amok. No doubt. I still think anyone that feels an owner would sabotage their own team because they didn't want them, is foolish. There is absolutely NO ONE ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH...that intentionally loses MILLIONS of dollars. NO ONE. They don't wonder why they lost money either. They know. Saying they put no money into it is ridiculous too. It's not like these players play for free.
When you say "the only thing Bettman and the league could have done was fix this before it got too out of hand", how do you propose they'd have done that? Tell me. What could the league have POSSIBLY done?
It's amazing you think that businesses are out there to do anything but look out for their own best interest. They're losing millions, and the only thing YOU see, is them screwing everyone else. I suppose on the flip side, if everyone else was having a grand ole time, it'd be ok if they were losing money, because everyone else was happy, right? I wonder if some of you realize that this is the BUSINESS of hockey section, and that running a club at the NHL level is a business. Big business. The fact people think they're owed something is amusing.
