• Moderators, please send me a PM if you are unable to access mod permissions. Thanks, Habsy.

Around The League - 2023-24 Regular Season

13 years is a long time when it comes to American cities.

There's a bunch of outstanding metro areas that have popped the last decade or so.

For me, that's the big plus of being a Yankee....so many places to move to....unlike Canada

There is a lot of diversity in the US for sure depending on the lifestyle you're looking for.
 
I don't agree at all. It's a major gamble with a low probability of making more than a marginal profit, if any at all.

The whole world is filled with people that have money and who are looking to find a devalued asset that they can shine up, repair and sell for a large marge (See George Gillett, made a nice $300M in profit).

And yet, finding a real owner for that franchise was been a puzzle the NHL hasn't been able to figure out going on 25 years now. Despite the media market, despite the untapped latino market, despite a whole variety of interesting and profitable things in the area.

Nobody except fringe buyers without much serious capital behind them, or a consortium of investors.

Not only are you buying a team ($300M), you're going to have to build a new arena, largely with your own money since the state/cities don't seem interested in helping out ($200M+?). You're going to have to invest in local and state-wide arenas to promoted and encourage youth participation ($20M+?). You're going to have to create community programs, local advertisement, contests, all of which are going to cost a lot of money. Then there are the operating costs of the franchise, which can get very high, very quickly.

Unless you're some multi-billionaire type, where you can stomach losing $50M+ a year for love of labor, then maybe. But those people don't become billionaires by throwing away money.

The experiment has long since failed and the franchise is in a vegetative state, living only off of a respirator.

Pull the plug and cut your losses.

They don't need all that, they just need a good team, something they never had in 25 years.

The league is not going to leave one of the biggest and fastest growing metro area in the US.
 
13 years is a long time when it comes to American cities.

There's a bunch of outstanding metro areas that have popped the last decade or so.

For me, that's the big plus of being a Yankee....so many places to move to....unlike Canada
And most of those places are down south urban centers where one would least expect such transformation as recent as 20-years ago - Nashville, Charlotte, Lexington etc.
 
  • Like
Reactions: CH1
They don't need all that, they just need a good team, something they never had in 25 years.

The league is not going to leave one of the biggest and fastest growing metro area in the US.
And one of the most diverse areas when one of the NHLs main mandates is to focus on appealing to a diverse audience.
 
They don't need all that, they just need a good team, something they never had in 25 years.

The league is not going to leave one of the biggest and fastest growing metro area in the US.
Matthews would go a longways towards making that franchise meaningful...what 3-years from UFA?
 
They don't need all that, they just need a good team, something they never had in 25 years.

The league is not going to leave one of the biggest and fastest growing metro area in the US.
They absolutely need all of that for it to be a success, and even more.

Having a winning team will definitely help, but they need a lot more than that. It's a team that (allegedly) loses tens of millions of dollars every year. Winning 48 games a year instead of 38 isn't going to fix that.

Will a good team get them a new arena for next to nothing in a good area? Doubt it. Team's going to have to pay a large chunk of the price, maybe even close to the whole thing.

The people owning that team need to do a lot investments into hockey beyond just buying the team, getting a new arena and hoping the team wins more game. They need to go hard into the grassroots, get kids involved, have arenas, youth programs run by knowledgeable hockey people (preferably former players that live in the area & want a post-retirement job).

My whole point is this: To make hockey work in Phoenix/Arizona is going to take a loooooot of money, a lot of time and if done right, is not going to give a return on investment for a long time.

So why in the world would any business savy person with deep pockets invest in this? It's almost guaranteed to be a losing proposition.

The league did leave Atlanta, though. Not because they wanted to, but that's a different issue.
 
Grassroots investments have been happening for years, where do you think Matthews come from? They already have an arena, a new one would be better but the existing one can work. First fix the team, a winning team will bring attendance, which brings money, then the team will be in a better position to negotiate an arena once they have a fan base behind them. They need proper management first.
 
Hey, Alexa. Is it a good idea to sign forwards to long-term, big money contracts when they're in the their late 20s when most of them start to have noticeable decline in their play around that time?

 
Hey, Alexa. Is it a good idea to sign forwards to long-term, big money contracts when they're in the their late 20s when most of them start to have noticeable decline in their play around that time?

Didn't he have 26 goals last season?

Nice player but another Danault.
 
Hey, Alexa. Is it a good idea to sign forwards to long-term, big money contracts when they're in the their late 20s when most of them start to have noticeable decline in their play around that time?


Hey Alexa will Nero make the same mistake with Dano
 
They're far and few.

It's like when people use high picks in the draft on the big forwarded that hits a lot, in hopes that he'll become the prototypical power forward.

Every 10 years or so, you'll get a Milan Lucic or a Tom Wilson. Most of the time, though, you end up with Michael McCarron, Tyler Biggs, Greg Nemisz, Zack Kassian, Nick Ritchie, etc
 
Back
Top