Comments on: Report: Atlanta Thrashers could be sold for $110 million

By: rupertslander

rupertslander — Tue, 03 May 2011 19:46:41 +0000

Seattle has an archaic building and refused to build a new one to save their basketball team. They’re not going to build a new one in hopes of landing a hockey team.

Portland is not much bigger than Vancouver, which proved unable to support both basketball and hockey.

By: donttouchthedirtypenny

donttouchthedirtypenny — Tue, 03 May 2011 10:37:29 +0000

Why hasn’t the NHL considered relocation to Portland, OR or Seattle? They are good junior hockey markets, and would have a geographical rivalry with each other and Vancouver.

By: donttouchthedirtypenny

donttouchthedirtypenny — Tue, 03 May 2011 10:35:32 +0000

Too many teams and not enough viable markets. Bettman has made many blunders, but his worst was over expansion. 30 teams is way to many for any sport, let alone one that is followed closely on only half the continent. Perfect size was 24 teams. Eliminate 6 teams and disperse the players. This would concentrate the talent pool, create better hockey, maybe shorten the season — even die hard fans have trouble watching the Finals in June. Which teams to rid? Florida, Atlanta, Phoenix for starters. Other candidates: Dallas, Nashville, Columbus.

By: djdvd

djdvd — Mon, 02 May 2011 22:26:47 +0000

Time to get the whalers back!

By: James O'Brien

James O'Brien — Mon, 02 May 2011 21:53:41 +0000

I agree that the Thrashers situation is unlikely to work out, but a decent arena bargain and lower sale price at least make such a scenario more feasible. Some sports owners are comfortable with losing money (to an extent, naturally) because they consider owning a pro franchise to be a vanity property.

Naturally, there are questions regarding the Winnipeg market, too.

By: goober97

goober97 — Mon, 02 May 2011 21:09:50 +0000

Um, no. That doesn’t mean that the NHL “could work” under that proposal. Let’s follow the math, shall we?

Non-ticket revenue ~ $7 million
Let’s be unbelievably optomistic and say that the Thrashers will average 17,000 a game
Now let’s be absurd and say that they’ll average $70 a ticket (current average is just less than $50)
That will net the Thrashers ticket revenue of ~ $48,790,000
Total revenue (remembering that they don’t control the arena, so no added revenue from concessions, parking or suites) = ~ $55, 790,000
The current NHL salary cap is just shy of $60 million, so in that pie-in-the-sky projection, not including any front office costs, the Thrashers still couldn’t field a team that is at the top end of the salary cap.

Now going to current numbers (13,000 a night with an average of $50 tickets), they would bring in just $26,650,000 a year. Added to the whopping $7 mil non-ticket revenue, that $33 million wouldn’t get the Thrashers a team that makes the salary cap minimum, let alone be profitable, now would it?

Bottom line – it’s no where near profitable to own a team if you don’t own/control the building you play in. Why would anyone want to buy the Thrashers under that proposal?