The_Admiral

Birnbaum here has basically said in ten different ways that this is a terrible deal. Watch it pass anyway. SHANE DOAN IS THE BESTEST EVERRRR *^__^*

I suppose that's what that post is, yes, but hbgoo will sometimes post in the form of crudely drawn MSpaint comics starring a panda, which goes beyond what any spambot--or normal poster--contributes.

Now it's coming out that Global Spectrum (a division of Comcast, the owner of the Flyers and the NHL's media overlord) is signing on to be Ice Edge's arena manager. And now it's clear why they were conspicuously uninvolved in the bidding for the job.

If you really want to get the conspiracy theories going, Global Spectrum also runs the arena (Copps Coliseum) here in Hamilton.

And seriously, who uses a first-round pick on a guy in :censored:ing Junior B? Well, Don Waddell, I guess. The Jets inherited the most understaffed, underqualified hockey-ops department in the league. It could take another five years to turn that thing around, and they don't even seem like they're in a hurry. It never ends for that place.

Now it's coming out that Global Spectrum (a division of Comcast, the owner of the Flyers and the NHL's media overlord) is signing on to be Ice Edge's arena manager. And now it's clear why they were conspicuously uninvolved in the bidding for the job.

Why is it clear they were absent from the bidding process?

Count didn't want them involved in the process to run the arena without the team, obv.

Now it's coming out that Global Spectrum (a division of Comcast, the owner of the Flyers and the NHL's media overlord) is signing on to be Ice Edge's arena manager. And now it's clear why they were conspicuously uninvolved in the bidding for the job.

If Bettman and Daly are there tonight, then you'd have to think Sherwood got the council to give the nice men their money so no one gets hurt.

The Winnipeg Jets had a compensatory draft pick at #59 on Sunday because the Thrashers failed to sign their 2008 first-round pick, whom they drafted out of Junior B. You don't want the Thrashers back.

Yeah, Edmonton really got it in the rear, but the awful truth is that their arena is small and old and falling apart (everyone swears the once-vaunted ice plant ain't what it used to be) and appears to be controlled by some strange Elks Club from hell that diverts all the game revenues from the Oilers, so something probably did have to be done. At least this will actually be used a lot, I guess.

That Max Domi's name only anagrams out to "I'm Mad Ox" could be the first of many disappointments in his career. I mean, that might as well be Jeremy's Iron.

NO WE CAN NEVER HAVE ANOTHER SOUTHERN ONTARIO TEAM

Well, it's good to know that Seattle's utter lack of preparation has Quebec City still in play.

RSE can move the Coyotes after 5 years if they can show $50 million in losses over the period.

Rocky Wirtz says the perpetually-sold-out, never-more-popular Blackhawks will "lose" $20 million alone in this Stanley Cup season.

YOU HAVE LEARNED NOTHING, GLENDALE.

Yeah, they lost it in a giant pallet of Wirtz-distributed whiskey bottles; perhaps they should retrace their steps and find it.

- Look, look. I own the Phoenix Coyotes. This paper says so.

- Cool. So can you vote on business decisions?

- No.

- Does it appreciate in value?

- No.

- Can you sell your stock and collect dividends on it?

- No.

- So really, you don't own any stock in the team. You just bought a really expensive piece of paper that says you like a team.

- Yes.

- But you own the Coyotes.

- Yes.

- Well, I'm glad we could have this chat, Greg Jamison, but I must be going.

Well, I'm glad that there are millionaires and other well-to-do folks in the city, but that raises a new question. If there really is some magically as-yet unrealized passion for hockey in the desert, why can't a couple dozen/hundred/however many of these Glendale millionaires buy the team off the NHL? Do they not believe it can magically make money? Or are they all too smart for that, seeing how the city has thrown good money after bad all these years?

Because there isn't, they can't, and yes, they are.

Furthermore, the NHL would never approve that sale. As reported in the Bettman book, when the Oilers (I believe) were in peril, there was an offer from this conglomerate group of townsfolk dumping hats full of money onto the kitchen table. Bettman wouldn't allow that ownership group because he wanted there to be a solid majority owner.

That was the Jets and the Spirit of Manitoba group, which he struck down as part of a long chain of goalpost-moving on Winnipeg. Edmonton had a similar patchwork of owners step up to buy the team from Pocklington, but he let them buy the team. Daryl Katz eventually took full control of the team from that group, however.

And no, the NHL cannot and should not have a Packers deal. Hockey fandom plus "tra-la-la-la-la, I own stock in the team" would be such a critical mass of sanctimony that it would destroy the entirety of western civilization.

It's still not good for Seattle to get a team right now. But of course, that's by design. The Coyotes now exist to suppress revenue. They'll do that in Seattle, but not on the league's dime. So enjoy this touring production of Springtime For Doaner.

What happens after, do we start on another team and speculate about their landing spots. Either way this forum will be a lonely place without talk of the Coyotes moving.

Well, WMVP is reporting that Rocky says the Blackhawks aren't turning a profit...

I'm not Mr. Numbers, but isn't that in part to revenue sharing with money pits like Florida, Phoenix, etc?

The Blackhawks don't turn a profit, yet the various concession/alcohol/parking/arena subsidiaries are doing great. Who's to say these people didn't buy a parking space at the United Center and just...walk around?

he's posturing as Rahm tries to build a competing, taxpayer-funded arena in the Sloop.

We can't let this arena happen! We need to subsidize the Chicago Wolves so we can save MB Financial Park!

Ding! Remember, by coming up short of HRR projections, the league can take the difference out of the players' salaries in escrow. Shane Doan pays for the comfort of Shane Doan.

Silvertips, yes (Everett is a trek), Thunderbirds, doubtful. Good thing they have that new-ish mid-sized arena. oops

I don't doubt that Seattle hockey fans, for the most part (transplants will half-heartedly dip their toes in; you're not winning Hawks/Wings fans over right now) would take up the new team. I just wonder if there are enough, and if the economics of this won't be a huge drain on the league.

For whatever it's worth, I've never thought of Washington State in and of itself being a great hockey territory by dint of its WHL franchises. I always looked at it more like British Columbia and Alberta had run out of mid-sized cities to house their BRAP BRAP BRAP GOOD STRONG WESTERN CANADIAN BOYS BRAP BRAP, and so Spokane and Kennewick were expected to, if not change the way we think about hockey fandom, at least not take a steaming dump on the whole concept. I'm sure there are people in the state who like hockey, but just because it's north doesn't mean there's a hockey culture. Eastern Washington is basically just Idaho.

If it fits 15,000 for hockey, 6,000 have obstructed views. Makes the Barclays Center look like the Nassau Coliseum.

I like that people are seriously attributing this to maintaining the integrity of the new realignment. No one can take away from Detroit what is rightfully theirs: a geographically-based division with the Panthers and Senators

There's a small piece on the Seattle Times site about it today, with just three comments. And even then, the piece is more about what an NHL team would do for the NBA arena, not about NHL for the NHL's sake.

Yeah, see, this is what annoys me. It's funny, because usually I'm more irritated by the dumb idea that the NBA and NHL fandoms are two solitudes, but "give us the Kings we want the Sonics back give us the Kings we want the Sonics back oh and also the Coyotes if it helps us get the Sonics back" makes me wish Seattle's hockey fans were a bunch of insular weirdos.

When I saw "Seattle is a hockey town because there was a team there that won the Stanley Cup 96 years ago in a hockey landscape that didn't even resemble the hockey landscape of 50 years ago, let alone today," I thought I was in the HFBoards Bad Thought Aggregator.

Kenora "has a Cup to its name." Who gives a sh-t? What a stupid thing to have said.

I don't think anyone's saying that Seattle cannot, under any circumstances, support the NHL at an adequate level. Market size and local economy would say that they could carve out a decent niche, but like you said yourself, there is a glaring lack of resources at the time. I would like to see the NHL in Seattle, after having laid the necessary groundwork for a team, rather than trying to throw it down in two months just to avoid the imagined ignominy of moving a hockey team to Canada. There's another city that you could say would have been able to support the NHL at an adequate level had they had foresight, patience, and a sturdy business plan rather than fast-tracking a relocation away from somewhere better and dealing with debilitating temporary arenas just to plant a flimsy flag. They have one foot out the door of that city right now.

Trades Keith Yandle and Oliver Ekman-Larsson for Kyle Beach and a 2015 5th because IT'S THE CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS, MAN

I wouldn't be averse to Seattle under the right conditions. There's not a single right condition here right now, though. 9,000 uncompromised seats, a super-short relocation, no distinct clamor for hockey for hockey's sake and not the means to a Supersonics end. Seattle sports fans really distinguished themselves as a big bunch of sh-tbirds during Chris Hansen Fever, especially on the hockey side. Not only were they coveting one city's team, but they were cutting in line to covet it from the city that should be getting it in the first place, and screw them anyway because we need this more than they do, those hockey coprophages. Let 'em pay half a million dollars for an expansion team. Then there's the unstated or just-plain-stated sentiment of really getting the Sonics back and while we're at it a hockey team because hey we're really awesome and stuff let's wear scarves and march to the match or prance to the pitch or whatever they do for Drew Carey FC.

I still want to believe this is all just a bunch of nonsense (Glenn Healy breaking a story? Magical mystery investor who plans to put Jeremy freaking Roenick in charge of hockey ops? *dismissive wanking*) and this is just an elaborate ruse to ratchet up the price for Quebecor, who has been making clear move to prepare for assuming control of a team, but this is just the kind of stupidity I've come to expect from the league. I'm gonna piss in Gary Bettman's mouth so hard, people are gonna think a jellyfish stung his tongue.

I wouldn't go as far as shutting down the entirety of southern California. That's downright daffy. Phoenix is going to be an even bigger uh-oh, though. So very many bad ideas.