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Post by dbp1990 on Jan 13, 2009 13:20:49 GMT -5
How is this team going to last?
It sounds like they've sold their soul to too many interests in order to stay afloat, someone's going to lose hard in the end!
WPGISNHL's prediction of Feb/Mar/Apr for something big might be unfolding right here.......NOW!
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Post by ~Jiffy~ on Jan 13, 2009 13:27:19 GMT -5
I sincerely hope that there is no bail out.. and I really hope that we get them.. just so history can repeat itself vise versa.
Oh.. i ll have to take the day off work.. when Winnipeg gets the Jets back....
GOd.... what a day.
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Post by ~Jiffy~ on Jan 13, 2009 13:28:05 GMT -5
I forgot what my prediction was... i remember... i said something like 2010 or 2011.
I think.
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Post by hawker14 on Jan 13, 2009 14:08:57 GMT -5
How could hockey not be working in the desert ?
This is shocking ! lol
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Post by ~Jiffy~ on Jan 13, 2009 14:32:16 GMT -5
it truly is isn't it.... just shocking... wow
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Post by Jimmy21 on Jan 14, 2009 15:02:32 GMT -5
Playoff's or Bust
The one saving grace for the Phoenix Coyotes this season could be a playoff berth, but even that may still leave them on the brink of extinction.
There is an old tenet among hockey operators, and it is the same whether you’re talking about the Fayetteville FireAntz of the Southern Professional Hockey League, or the Phoenix Coyotes of the National Hockey League.
It goes something like this: Assuming an operator can afford to start the season, he should be good ‘til just after Christmas.
When the season ticket deposits are not strong enough, when the corporate sales are too few, when the walk-up ticket sales aren’t as strong as they need to be, year-end is about the time when the money runs out.
So it is a predictable course that the Coyotes are on this season, with rumours of their demise punctuating the first half of the season. The buzz began in early November that the Coyotes were on the verge of missing payroll; that their employees had been handed an across-the-board pay cut; that scouting had been cut way back.
Then it was just after the new year that the news officially broke, in an excellent bit of work by the Globe and Mail, that the Coyotes had indeed secured an early delivery of its share of league broadcast, merchandise and other shared revenues ahead of schedule.
So does that mean the league is indeed covering the Phoenix payroll?
Well, it’s all a matter of semantics, isn’t it?
But is that old hockey tenet once again proven true?
You bet it is.
"It was usually right after the New Year," said Sportsnet analyst John Garrett, the once-upon-a-time World Hockey Association goalie that us sports writers have on speed dial for days when the topic turns to ‘folding hockey teams.’
He played for the Minnesota Fighting Saints, tended goal for the Toronto Toros and their reincarnation as the Birmingham Bulls and cashed pay cheques from both the New England and Hartford Whalers.
Garrett could have sold advertising space on his suitcase to Coleman or North Face, he saw so many clubs fold up like a tent.
"Shakey Walton," Garrett began, referring to the Folding Saints best player, Mike Walton. "He had his contract set up where he got half his money in August, and half his money on January 1st. So he was paid up by January 1, before everyone else."
In those days that was known as a veteran maneuver. Today, with the NHL Players Association far more advanced and billions in league revenues to be had, the players are going to get paid.
But the trouble still starts on Jan. 1. That much has not changed at all.
"Year-end is Dec. 31," Garrett said. "They could usually scratch and claw, get their way through the end of December. But the New Year starts and they’ve got nothing to start with.
"When you’re not drawing well enough, you’ve used up any playoff revenue you might have had from the year before. You’re scrambling, looking for more investors, and if they aren’t there, you’re in trouble."
He was talking about teams like the New York Golden Blades, the Denver Spurs and the San Diego Mariners.
But Garrett’s words apply perfectly to the Coyotes, who, rumour has it, have been phoning a particular Western Canadian suitor weekly with pleas to step in and assume control of – and responsibility for – the team.
Unless that suitor is institutionalized, it’s doubtful he’ll buy in.
Sources say the Coyotes are still dispensing free tickets like Pez candies in the desert, walking into restaurants and handing diners free tickets while they eat.
The trickle-down effect of that practice however, is devastating.
Outside Jobing.com Arena, prospective ticket buyers are intercepted by scalpers. Or worse, by people who have extra, free tickets. So instead of a visit to the team ticket window, the cost of a pair of ducats is a trip to the beer stand for two pints of gratitude to the "seller."
The one saving grace this season has been the Coyotes first foray into playoff contention in years, but even that may still leave them on the brink of extinction.
The ‘Yotes have won just six of 20 on the road this season, and open a four-game trip in Minnesota Tuesday night. Then they come home to play Detroit and Anaheim, before a road game in San Jose.
The team does not have a single beat writer who travels with them now, and should the Arizona Cardinals beat Philadelphia to extend their season to the Feb. 1 Super Bowl, the Coyotes will have trouble making the front page of their own web site for the rest of the month.
Of course, some things have changed from Garrett’s day. The Coyotes will finish the season in Phoenix.
When teams like the Spurs, Fighting Saints or Indianapolis Racers closed up shop midway through the season in the mid-70s, the stakes were a lot smaller. There were no long-term arena leases, like there is in Glendale. There were no luxury suite owners, no corporate sponsors, no television deals that would have to be honoured.
A mid-season fold-up of the Coyotes would make for disastrous international headlines for the NHL, not to mention the precedent that would be set for owners in other trouble spots such as Florida, Tampa Bay, Atlanta, Nashville and Long Island.
The Coyotes will finish this season, to be sure. But will they start up again in the fall of ’09?
That’s an even money bet these days.
Mark Spector is the lead columnist for sportsnet.ca
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Post by mcguire4 on Jan 14, 2009 15:21:54 GMT -5
holy shyte!
that bolded print just gave me shivers.
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ribs
Veteran Member
Posts: 116
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Post by ribs on Jan 14, 2009 15:45:02 GMT -5
Any chance that "Western Canadian" suitor is True North?  |
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Post by Jimmy21 on Jan 14, 2009 15:57:12 GMT -5
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Post by jhendrix70 on Jan 14, 2009 16:27:30 GMT -5
Don't Think This has been posted yet: January 1, 2009 Winnipeg's Last Great Sports Conversation of 2008It is fitting, in a way, that the final big sports conversation in Winnipeg in 2008 has something to do with the return of the Winnipeg Jets. It’s not: Will new head coach Mike Kelly turn around the Blue Bombers? or Will Winnipegger Jonathan Toews get the Blackhawks back to a Stanley Cup for the first time in 47 years? or Will Winnipeg’s concussed Corey Koskie indeed try to play for Team Canada at the World Baseball Championship this spring? Nope. It’s the middle of the hockey season and once again, Winnipeggers are talking about the Jets. Whether they think it’s just crazy talk or a legitimate discussion doesn’t seem to matter. The apparent financial failure of the Phoenix Coyotes combined with the thought that an impending collapse in the desert might allow the ‘Peg to one day get another shot an NHL team, has citizens taking sides in the debate once again. Interestingly, as the stories swirl about the Coyotes’ most recent flirtation with bankruptcy, the local political big wigs all seem to be on the same side. If somebody out there wants to move a team to Winnipeg or sell one to the local burghers, the politicos will do all they can to make it happen. “You know that in the right situation, I’m on board,” said Mayor Sam Katz who, ironically, is spending the holiday season in Scottsdale, Ariz. “I know there are plenty of arguments against a team ever returning, but if it ever appeared as if one might, I believe the city would be on side.”
Considering that one of Katz’s strongest rivals, far-left city councilor Dan Vandal, once wrote a letter to the then-struggling Pittsburgh Penguins asking Mario Lemieux, the Pens president and CEO at the time, if Winnipeg might purchase the team, suggests that council would probably support the mayor.
Meanwhile, Premier Gary Doer, has never wavered in his support of the NHL’s return to Winnipeg. He’s one of the few people who believes that the 15,001-seat MTS Centre, a rink built for an AHL team, could easily support an NHL franchise.
In fact, Doer has always said, “If the Coyotes are losing all that money and they’d like to come back to where they started, Winnipeg and Manitoba would welcome them with open arms.” And, one supposes, open wallets. This latest round of “Can the Jets return?” started with the news last week, first published in the Arizona Republic, that the Coyotes will likely lose $30 million US this year and that the team’s owner, trucking magnate, Jerry Moyes, was facing financial problems with his core business, Swift Transport. If the Coyotes do lose $30 million US this season, that will bring the total to almost $500 million US since the team left Winnipeg in 1996. People tend to forget that there have been three ownership groups in Phoenix and the original proprietors, the pair who took the team out of Winnipeg — Richard Burke and Steven Gluckstern — have been out of hockey for nearly a decade. The Coyotes have been a failure on and off the ice and reports from Larry Brooks in the New York Post last week suggested that the NHL has already started a financial bailout in the desert. Why they’d want to save that mess is anyone’s guess, but the likely reason is that commissioner Gary Bettman’s long-held belief that hockey could work in non-traditional markets in the southern United States, must be protected at all costs. In the meantime, Winnipeggers still hope and pray and talk. Maybe the downturn in the U.S. economy is the start of a return to sanity and maybe, one day, big league hockey will come back to the people who actually care about it. www.rivercitysportsblog.com/winnipegs-last-great-sports-conversation-of-2008/ |
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Post by gee on Jan 14, 2009 16:29:49 GMT -5
who can it be NOW! WOOT!
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Post by pbonomo on Jan 14, 2009 16:37:52 GMT -5
Western Canadian suitor -- could be the guy in Calgary that was interested in owning a team -- can't remember the name...
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Post by WpgJets2008 on Jan 14, 2009 16:52:07 GMT -5
Tycoon angling to sink teeth into Preds ALLAN MAKI Globe and Mail October 17, 2008 at 12:07 AM EST manitobamythbusters.com/forum/index.php?topic=99.0CALGARY — Calgary businessman Brett Wilson is part owner of a 124-year-old English soccer team, a minor-league baseball team in Tennessee and, should everything fall into place, he may get a second chance to own a piece of the NHL's Nashville Predators. He certainly has the connections. An investment banker in the oil and gas industry, Wilson made headlines earlier this month when it was revealed he was the lead investor in the $97-million purchase of Derby County of the English Championship, one step down from the Premier League. What wasn't known, until recently, is that one of Wilson's partners is the Predators' majority owner, David Freeman. Wilson and Freeman met almost a year ago in Nashville and discussed a possible investment in the hockey team. Those plans were derailed when William (Boots) Del Biaggio III was sued several times over for fraud and had his 27-per-cent stake in the Predators usurped by a U.S. bankruptcy court. . . . He is also on the CBC show the Dragon's Den. Chris |
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Post by WpgJets2008 on Jan 14, 2009 17:06:20 GMT -5
I also replied in the comments section to the Scott Taylor blog (nice find Alex!): ~~~ I challenge Manitobans to get past the rhetoric on both sides of this issue and see for yourself what the actual numbers say. Even some in the local media continue to editorialize and not report the facts. Many myths have derailed this discussion: “The MTS Centre is not big enough to support an NHL franchise.” “Ticket prices would be too high. Winnipeg can’t afford it.” “Winnipeg is too small to support an NHL franchise.” “Only a small number of delusional people believe the Jets will return.” Come see for yourself and make up your own mind. Think Manitoba Can't Support the NHL? Think Again! www.manitobamythbusters.com~ The Reality May Surprise You! ~ Chris Chair, Manitoba Mythbusters |
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Post by pbonomo on Jan 14, 2009 17:15:54 GMT -5
That's the guy I was thinking of! Thanks, Chris!
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Post by dbp1990 on Jan 14, 2009 18:35:40 GMT -5
It's a MUST that this team misses the playoffs!
If they finish with no money how could they possibly start another in fall 09?
Poor poor Gretzky, oh well thats' what you get for selling out sometimes.............
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Post by jhendrix70 on Jan 14, 2009 19:38:18 GMT -5
Darren Dreger to talk about Failing Coyotes Frachise after either the 1st OR 2nd Period tonight on TSN. ( Ottawa VS Atlanta ) Someone might want to tape that..... |
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Post by TheDeuce on Jan 14, 2009 19:40:36 GMT -5
Anyone watching the Ottawa - Atlanta game? I was just watching the pregame show and they had a preview of their second intermission. Apparently Darren Dreger is going "deep in the desert" "Is the financial situation in Phoenix as bad as they say it is?".
Could be good watching!
m.
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Post by TheDeuce on Jan 14, 2009 19:42:41 GMT -5
Geez Hendrix, way to get the news out there in record time!  m. |
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Post by TheDeuce on Jan 14, 2009 21:34:22 GMT -5
Darren Dreger to talk about Failing Coyotes Frachise after either the 1st OR 2nd Period tonight on TSN. ( Ottawa VS Atlanta ) Someone might want to tape that.....Anyone else see this? What a waste of HD bandwidth! It sounded like a Bettman-approved press release. No mention of the long-term lease with the three-quarter-billion dollar penalty, no mention of the NHL being in control of economic decisions, and a lot of time spent talking about how the Blackhawks turned it around and how Phoenix could potentially do the same. They did say that current owner Moyes will likely sell out within two months, but would retain up to 20% of the team. The disaster in the desert continues... m. |
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