State of the League Address

[wolfmannick]

TAMPA, Fla. - While the Pittsburgh Penguins could be sold and the NHL may soon embark on a formal expansion process, commissioner Gary Bettman insisted neither the Arizona Coyotes nor the Florida Panthers were moving.
Bettman refuted recent reports that the Coyotes were having problems with their lease in Glendale and rumours that the Panthers could be a candidate to relocate.
"I don't know why publications make those things up, even under the guise of a rumour," Bettman said at his annual Stanley Cup final news conference. "The Panthers are not filing for bankruptcy. I don't know where these stories come from, but they're not true."
What is true is that Penguins owners Ron Burkle and Mario Lemieux hired Morgan Stanley to "oversee a review of their strategic options." Bettman deferred comment to the team, which confirmed the report about an hour after he spoke at Amalie Arena.
"We conduct periodic reviews of our business and, because we have received several inquiries about the franchise in recent years, we decided to engage Morgan Stanley for their insight and counsel," Lemieux and Burkle said in a statement released by the Penguins. "After buying the team out of bankruptcy, ensuring its long-term future in Pittsburgh and creating a strong foundation for continued success, we believe it is time to explore our options."
Lemieux said "regardless of what happens," he and Burkle would retain an ownership stake and that he would remain involved with the organization.
Prospective Las Vegas owner Bill Foley hopes to own an NHL team in the near future and on Tuesday announced that Hockey Vision Las Vegas sold over 11,500 season-ticket deposits as part of its drive. Bettman said he would report that figure to the board of governors later this month when they meet in Las Vegas.
"Assuming that number is accurate, and I have no reason to doubt that, it looks like his drive has had some degree of success, to say the least," Bettman said.
If the board is satisfied with the ticket drive, Bettman said his recommendation would be to open a formal expansion process. Having a formal expansion process would not guarantee Las Vegas getting a team but would be another step forward.
"It would just be a question of possibly looking at the expressions of interest and looking at them a little more seriously than we have," Bettman said.
During his state of the league news conference, Bettman said there would be no change to the compensation policy for coaches and executives that has come under fire in recent weeks. A team must surrender either a second- or a third-round pick, depending on timing, if it hires a coach or executive under contract, even if he had been fired.
Bettman made it clear he wasn't pleased with the rule, saying it was one general managers wanted. It's not going anywhere just yet, meaning the Edmonton Oilers will have to send a second-round pick in one of the next three drafts to the Boston Bruins after hiring Peter Chiarelli.
"We put in effect the new policy with the potential for compensation on Jan. 1 and we'll let it run a full year before we consider doing anything," Bettman said. "At that point in time, the options will be to clarify, to modify or to eliminate. But we'll let it run its course over a full year and decide what, if anything, we want to do."
Bettman said next season's salary cap will be over US$71 million if the Players' Association elects to use its full 5 per cent escalator clause. There is a chance the players choose not to, or they could negotiate with the league for a partial escalator — a complicated decision that will affect many cap teams' situations for next year.
Deputy commissioner Bill Daly said the NHL and KHL had discussions at the world championships in Prague about a "more friendly" transfer agreement. Currently, players under contract in the KHL are off-limits to the NHL, unlike other European leagues that are compensated with development money for players.

[wolfmannick]

Florida and Arizona are fine, flagship franchises of the NHL even lol.

[mikecubs]

Bettman is right. They are NOT moving. Florida makes $$$ on the overall operation(concerts), in Glendale the city council will ALWAYS give more. What will happen next is Bettman will give Las Vegas a team in September even though it was a HARD struggle to get to 11,500 tickets sold(the team will be Carolina Hurricanes 2.0 and barely survive) and he will give that wackey Seattle suburb a team next spring and they will be Coyotes 2.0(minus Sammy Chivara). Quebec will go without a team. The NHL will fall further behind the other sports as usual.

[wolfmannick]

^ Seattle hasn't even broken ground on an arena yet. While I agree that's what the NHL wants, it isn't necessarily what they are going to get.

[mikecubs]

I'm not talking about Seattle. I'm talking about the suburb. Approval their will be done around the 1st of the year probably(it's being fast tracked). Once that's done Bettman would give them a team instantly since they'd be just like the Coyotes playing in the middle of nowhere. You know how much Gary loves his suburban arenas and the Coyotes!

[Bruinsfan]

Bettman said the thrashers werent moving right before they moved....the panthers are in way more trouble than people think.

[mikecubs]

Situation is not comparable. Atlanta Spirit had the Hawks so the arena didn't need "saving" plus when the booted the Thrashers out the got to keep the master lease(concerts). So the Thrashers were JUDGED on their own merits. With the Florida situation the problem is the dam concerts are making the whole operation profitable despite how bad the Panthers suck.

[Bruinsfan]

Jun 4, 2015 16:57:55 GMT -6 mikecubs said:

Situation is not comparable. Atlanta Spirit had the Hawks so the arena didn't need "saving" plus when the booted the Thrashers out the got to keep the master lease(concerts). So the Thrashers were JUDGED on their own merits. With the Florida situation the problem is the dam concerts are making the whole operation profitable despite how bad the Panthers suck.

yea but if you sever the two, one is expendable....and the panthers are desperately trying to sever to milk money out of broward county.

[mikecubs]

But they can't be severed because the owner loses the master lease if they are. The reason the Panthers are trying to milk the county is because they saw what happened in Glendale and they could make a bigger profit if they were foolish enough to give in. If the county doesn't give in the team still stays because the overall operation is still profitable. So basically the Panthers owners thought is hey maybe these people are as stupid as the forest gump city council in Glendale. It doesn't hurt to ask for $$$. The worst they can say is no. If they do I'll still keep the team and still make an overall profit on concerts. If they say yes then I will make an even bigger profit.

[JETStender]

You have to read between the lines with Bettman. Here's some of the questions and answers from the 2010 state of the leauge address.

Q. Unlike other teams that have had to relocate through the league’s history, the Islanders are a unique case because they have — they would appear to have some local options. No matter how this ends, and we know the lease ends at the Coliseum in 2015, could you be reasonably assured that the Islanders will not leave the New York metropolitan area?

BETTMAN: I don’t believe Charles Wang has any desire or present intention to leave the New York area. He has told the Nassau County executive that he will honor his lease, which has five years left in it. He’s honoring his lease, even though I’m not so sure that the county, which owns building, is consistently honoring the lease in terms of the condition of the Nassau Coliseum.

At some point, Charles Wang has probably spent eight years and $20 million in pursuit of the Lighthouse Project. I think he’s at the point where, after all that time and money, he’s saying I don’t know what to do on that project. If the County and the Town of Hempstead have something they want me to consider, I’ll do it, and as I get closer to the end of my lease, I’ll start considering my options. He’s first and foremost a Long Islander. And I know his goal will be to try to keep the team somewhere in the Long Island/New York metropolitan area. But he hasn’t begun to explore those options.

Q. There’s an appetite like never before for a second N.H.L. franchise in Southern Ontario. I want to know, A, what are your thoughts on that, and B, where does expansion stand right now?

BETTMAN: I have no doubt that if I announce we were expanding, there would be more hooting and hollering in this room and in other places than we can all imagine. We’re obviously not looking to expand. You know our view on franchise relocation: We try to avoid it. And frankly, if we’re going to move a franchise, there are a couple of places in Canada that I would like to give my attention first, because when both Winnipeg and Quebec lost their franchises, it was because — remember I always talk about three things for franchises: market, owner and building. And both of those teams were moved because two of the criteria went away: There was no building, and there was no owner. Nobody wanted to own the team there anymore. To the extent that those markets are in a position to deal with those issues, I would like to try and fix something that I wish might not have happened in the first place, not unlike what we did in Minnesota.

Q. Just to follow-up on that?

BETTMAN: Sure.

Q. There doesn’t seem to be N.H.L. buildings in either Quebec or Winnipeg at this stage. So I’m not sure —

BETTMAN: Winnipeg, I believe, has an NHL building. Quebec they’re talking about building one. And to anticipate the next part of your question, I’m not sure a 25-year-old building that would need a $200 million renovation isn’t exactly an NHL building right now.(Hamilton)

Q. That’s not what I –

BETTMAN: I understand.

Q. You talked about the owners, potential owners in TrueNorth and Winnipeg, as being patient. How patient do you think they should be, and can you put a timeline on that?

BETTMAN: I’m not going to put a time line on it, because I do not want to raise expectations. But the interest is clear and bona fide. It’s gratifying. And the process by which they’ve been engaged with us is as good a process as they could be involved in.

They’re comfortable with the process that we’re going through, and they believe patience is important in this process. And they’re prepared to be patient. So I don’t want to get people too high, too soon. But we are focused at the bona fide interest.

[JETStender]

And from the 2011 All-star game.

Q. If I could ask two quick lawsuit-related questions. One, the Atlanta Thrashers ownership group filed suit against their own lawyers last week in part claiming that bad contract had been – made it impossible for them to sell their team, even though publicly they had repeated many times that they weren’t trying to sell their team. I wonder what your feelings are about that specifically and where the Thrashers ownership situation is at. And, second one, the lawsuit filed in California on behalf of minor league player Jason Bailey alleging that the Ducks were aware of anti-Semitic behavior on the part of coaches and wonder what the league’s take and how you proceed given that suit.

COMMISSIONER BETTMAN: In both instances, my legal training jumps to the fore, and it’s really not a good idea for anybody, particularly in my position, to be commenting on pending litigation.

With respect to the Atlanta situation, I don’t know the specifics of why they’re alleging what they’re alleging and what they believe the law firm did or didn’t do. The fact of the matter is the ownership situation is a little clearer than it was because they settled with the owner that they were previously in litigation with. And so there seems to be lots of litigation that goes on with respect to that franchise.

And my guess is this is another step in the journey for ownership trying to sort things out. If they think that they’ve been aggrieved by the lawyers representing them, then they’ll prosecute that case and collect whatever damages they’re entitled to, if a court finds in their favor.

Commenting on what they were saying publicly or what they did, I’ll leave that for the lawyers and the courts to resolve.

Q. Just so we can maybe find some clarity for the tortured souls in Winnipeg as the Phoenix story continues, I know you addressed it. What is sort of the drop-dead date if this thing doesn’t close?

COMMISSIONER BETTMAN: I know it would satisfy everybody’s sense of finality to announce a drop-dead date. As long as the process is holding together in a time frame that we can deal with, schedule and the like, we’re going to hang in there.

If it becomes clear that the train is off the rails or that the train isn’t getting to the station anytime soon, then we’ll have to reevaluate our position. But we’re not going to by a matter of a day or two just simply make an artificial date.

We’ll hang in there as long as it makes sense and as long as we can. But time is getting short. Make no mistake about that. This is not something that is of infinite duration. I have tried to be as careful as I could be not to raise expectations in Winnipeg.

Everybody knows my view on that. If we have to move a club, it would be good to go back to a place that we were once in that has a different situation, vis-a-vis building and ownership and the like.

But, you know, it’s one of the reasons we get concerned. We think it’s unfair when baseless stories come out suggesting things that aren’t true to get people in Winnipeg all excited.

If there’s something to announce, I promise we’ll announce it.

Q. You were talking about Winnipeg. People in Quebec City –

COMMISSIONER BETTMAN: I knew you were going to ask.

Q. Should I ask the question first?

COMMISSIONER BETTMAN: Go right ahead.

Q. People in Quebec City are working hard to raise money and find money which will allow to build a new building. They are almost there. That’s what some people say. So should people in Quebec City – should get excited about an NHL team?

COMMISSIONER BETTMAN: I don’t want anybody getting excited. The fact of the matter is over the last couple of years there have been lots of stories suggesting a building in Quebec City is a done deal, that the money’s been raised.

Nobody has told me that, and in the conversations that I’ve had with a variety of people, including the Mayor and the Premier, we have said we’re not planning on expanding. We’re not planning on relocation. So we cannot promise you a franchise.

If there’s a new building, separate and independent from us, for whatever reason and the opportunity presents itself with respect to a franchise, it’s no different than what I said about Winnipeg. But we don’t want people building a building on our account, expecting that there’s going to be a franchise, because we’re not in the position to promise one right now.

Q. Lawsuits aside, Atlanta Thrashers ownership is looking for another investor. It would be fair to say that the current situation has produced some drama. How do you feel about yet another investor coming into that situation?

COMMISSIONER BETTMAN: Well, I think the best way to answer that is to state the obvious. The last few years have been taxing on ownership from a financial standpoint with respect to both the basketball team and the hockey team and the arena. And if people are looking to restructure the economics and bring in more capital, it might not be crazy for them to be seeking to add to the wherewithal to deal with those issues.

On that note, I hope you’re all enjoying the weekend. And thank you for being here with us.

[Deleted]

Jun 4, 2015 13:36:36 GMT -6 mikecubs said:

Bettman is right. They are NOT moving. Florida makes $$$ on the overall operation(concerts), in Glendale the city council will ALWAYS give more. What will happen next is Bettman will give Las Vegas a team in September even though it was a HARD struggle to get to 11,500 tickets sold(the team will be Carolina Hurricanes 2.0 and barely survive) and he will give that wackey Seattle suburb a team next spring and they will be Coyotes 2.0(minus Sammy Chivara). Quebec will go without a team. The NHL will fall further behind the other sports as usual.

You can't be serious. The people of Glendale are fed up, and the franchise is going to move, as soon as it's legally possible. As for Florida, they have been losing money, ever since they made that ill-advised decision to move to an arena that was out in the boonines.

Note to NHL*

When is the last time a team has been sucessful, when they build an arena in the far outlying suburbs?

Ottawa? Want new arena, after making the horrible decision to play in Kanata.
Islanders? Moving to Brooklyn.
Arizona? Did far better when located downtown.
Washington? Are doing better, than when they were in Landover, Maryland.
Minnesota? Doing far better in downtown St.Paul, than when the North Stars played in Bloomington, MN.
Florida? Did much better in Miami, than off some turnpike in the suburbs of Broward County.

[mikecubs]

Jun 4, 2015 21:56:19 GMT -6 @hannujarvenpaa said:

Jun 4, 2015 13:36:36 GMT -6 mikecubs said:

Bettman is right. They are NOT moving. Florida makes $$$ on the overall operation(concerts), in Glendale the city council will ALWAYS give more. What will happen next is Bettman will give Las Vegas a team in September even though it was a HARD struggle to get to 11,500 tickets sold(the team will be Carolina Hurricanes 2.0 and barely survive) and he will give that wackey Seattle suburb a team next spring and they will be Coyotes 2.0(minus Sammy Chivara). Quebec will go without a team. The NHL will fall further behind the other sports as usual.

You can't be serious. The people of Glendale are fed up, and the franchise is going to move, as soon as it's legally possible. As for Florida, they have been losing money, ever since they made that ill-advised decision to move to an arena that was out in the boonines.

Note to NHL*

When is the last time a team has been sucessful, when they build an arena in the far outlying suburbs?

Ottawa? Want new arena, after making the horrible decision to play in Kanata.
Islanders? Moving to Brooklyn.
Arizona? Did far better when located downtown.
Washington? Are doing better, than when they were in Landover, Maryland.
Minnesota? Doing far better in downtown St.Paul, than when the North Stars played in Bloomington, MN.
Florida? Did much better in Miami, than off some turnpike in the suburbs of Broward County.

Good stuff on how suburban arenas don't work!!!

It's true the arena draws crap for hockey and they constantly lose money hockey wise but it draws great for concerts(somehow/unfortunately) and overall the operation is profitable. I've posted the article on here many times with then Panthers president Michael Yormark shooting his mouth off about how despite the massive hockey losses they made money overall. And that was with a less owner friendly CBA so yes while the panthers are still a money pit they are not the money pit they were in 2011.(I'll find the article for you).

Most of the people in Glendale have 0 clue on what is going on, have no desire to care and wouldn't be able to care because they lack intelligence.
Glendale isn't going to be able to overturn the current agreement with the Coyotes. Most of the complaining is just for show. Once Sherwoods recall election is over you won't hear any more talk of overturning anything. In fact the talk will switch to giving the Coyotes more under the guise the arena is "aging" since it will soon reach mid life.

One other thing to keep in mind and another reason why Glendale will give a bigger handout. In Milwaukee/Wisconsin another Glendale is about to occur. The state is going to give the Milwaukee bucks a $400M dollar hand out(once you count interest) even though Milwaukee is one of the NBA's smallest markets(and not growing at all!!), has only 6,000 season ticket holders(least amount in the NBA), never drawn historically and the state is broke and is cutting $$$ to the University of Wisconsin systems. Sammy Chivara/Sherwood are going to start thinking to themselves holly crap there are people trying to prove they are capable of being as stupid as us. We have competition. We CAN'T let this happen!!! We must give more to the Coyotes to set ourselves apart!!!!

[Deleted]

I remember when the NHL originally announced in 1989, that they were going to expand to at least 26 teams by the end of the 90s. Milwaukee was the frontrunner. The Bradley Centre was only a couple of years old, College Hockey is huge in Wisconsin, and they would ahve a natural rivalry with the Blackhawks.

Unfortunately, the market is saturated with pro sports, and with a metro population of less than 2,000,000 people, I can't see the NHL coming there anytime soon.

[mikecubs]

Here is the article. It's from 2012 back when players got 57% of the pie compare to the current 50% and when there was less revenue sharing. Keep in mind it's not like the Panthers lost fans in that time period compare to now since they didn't have many(any) in the 1st place.


How the Panthers make money despite, er, losing money

If you’ve ever wondered why anyone would want to own a money-losing NHL team in South Florida, Panthers president Michael Yormark puts it this way:

“I often tell people, we’re in the entertainment business and we happen to own a hockey team. For us, it’s just about providing as much entertainment as we possibly can for our community.”

The “we” Yormark refers to is actually the Panthers’ parent company Sunrise Sports & Entertainment (SSE), which owns both the NHL club as well as an entity called Arena Operating Company (AOC), which as you may have guessed, operates the Sunrise arena in which the Panthers play, the BB&T Center.

The Panthers, as a standalone NHL franchise, aren’t profitable, according to estimates.

But AOC is.

Without the Panthers, however, there wouldn’t be an AOC. That’s because, back in the ‘90s, Broward County built the arena to lure the NHL franchise out of Miami. As part of the deal, the team’s ownership company was granted a 30-year license to operate the arena.

The hockey team, in other words, was the foot in the door.

“We’ve got a niche in the marketplace with our hockey team and a very loyal fanbase,” Yormark tells Forbes, “but our value proposition is all about the entertainment. It’s 170-200 events a year, almost two million people in this building on an annual basis, and we have been successful.”

This Friday, for example, the BB&T Center will host Beatdown 2012, a boxing competition with musical performances by Flo Rida, Fabolous, Waka Flocka, DMX, Travis Porter and Fat Joe. (Tickets are still available!)

Without the Panthers, there’s no rent from Beatdown 2012.

SSE also recently partnered with a Las Vegas gaming company in an attempt to build a casino on land around the arena.

“We are beginning to make a shift into the real estate business with this new venture,” said Yormark.

Without the Panthers, there’s no real estate business.

All of which is surely frustrating for the players, who are being asked to accept a smaller share of hockey-related revenues to offset owners’ losses that are, in some cases, being made up in other areas.

prohockeytalk.nbcsports.com/2012/11/26/how-the-panthers-make-money-despite-er-losing-money/