NHL Anti-Thread: Bad Business Decision Aggregator

[rams80]

I could really see Bettman using the contraction of Phoenix as a bargaining chip against the NHLPA, saying "If you don't back down on this and this, we will have no choice but to contract the Coyotes because we can't find an owner for them under these financial circumstances."

From there, the NHLPA will call Bettman's bluff, knowing full well that the NHL will not be able to run a league with 29 teams for very long, and will likely end up expanding to 32 after the contraction.

Bettman ends up folowing through, contracting the Coyotes, and due to them becoming defunct, Glendale will have an empty arena with no leaseholder for the foreseeable future.

If 3-4 years, the NHL will announce expansion, and give one of those teams back to Phoenix, who are now forced to accept a lowball offer on a new lease deal from the team's owner simply because they desperately need the money. The NHL gets to keep their 'large media market'.

^^ Just my predictions.

Stop reading hfboards.

[Crash]

If ever there was a way to ensure that the NHL is never taken seriously by people who aren't already intensely into hockey, it would be another year off and proving your minor league status with a contraction. The less hardcore hockey people (which is almost everyone) don't give a crap if it's some political ploy to get what he wants; Contraction = Minor League.

[CMUBrent]

http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Hockey/NHL/Phoenix/2012/07/29/20040851.html

Of course he's $20 million short...

[Lights Out]

He'd never even consider contracting the Coyotes because that would mean admitting he was wrong.

It wouldn't be the first time. He already let the Thrashers move.

In order to keep his Coyotes in Glendale.

[STL FANATIC]

http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Hockey/NHL/Phoenix/2012/07/29/20040851.html

Of course he's $20 million short...

How is there a real website that still looks like that?

[aci]

I could really see Bettman using the contraction of Phoenix as a bargaining chip against the NHLPA, saying "If you don't back down on this and this, we will have no choice but to contract the Coyotes because we can't find an owner for them under these financial circumstances."

From there, the NHLPA will call Bettman's bluff, knowing full well that the NHL will not be able to run a league with 29 teams for very long, and will likely end up expanding to 32 after the contraction.

Bettman ends up folowing through, contracting the Coyotes, and due to them becoming defunct, Glendale will have an empty arena with no leaseholder for the foreseeable future.

If 3-4 years, the NHL will announce expansion, and give one of those teams back to Phoenix, who are now forced to accept a lowball offer on a new lease deal from the team's owner simply because they desperately need the money. The NHL gets to keep their 'large media market'.

^^ Just my predictions.

Stop reading hfboards.

I can honestly say I've never intentionally ventured onto hfboards. Been there a couple times after a google search, but that's it. Did someone say something similar there?

[cmm]

I could really see Bettman using the contraction of Phoenix as a bargaining chip against the NHLPA, saying "If you don't back down on this and this, we will have no choice but to contract the Coyotes because we can't find an owner for them under these financial circumstances."

From there, the NHLPA will call Bettman's bluff, knowing full well that the NHL will not be able to run a league with 29 teams for very long, and will likely end up expanding to 32 after the contraction.

Bettman ends up folowing through, contracting the Coyotes, and due to them becoming defunct, Glendale will have an empty arena with no leaseholder for the foreseeable future.

If 3-4 years, the NHL will announce expansion, and give one of those teams back to Phoenix, who are now forced to accept a lowball offer on a new lease deal from the team's owner simply because they desperately need the money. The NHL gets to keep their 'large media market'.

^^ Just my predictions.

Why can't they have a 29-team league? The league had 21 teams during an entire decade. The NBA had either 27 or 29 teams for most of my lifetime. The NHL isn't like MLB or the NFL where almost every team plays almost everyday (or every week). They can easily get by with an odd number of teams. I'm not saying you're wrong, but I don't see any problem with a 29-team league, at least from a scheduling standpoint.

[The_Admiral]

$20 million short is the closest he's gotten yet! He was like $100 million short to start. You can do it, li'l Greggers!

[IceCap]

I could really see Bettman using the contraction of Phoenix as a bargaining chip against the NHLPA, saying "If you don't back down on this and this, we will have no choice but to contract the Coyotes because we can't find an owner for them under these financial circumstances."

From there, the NHLPA will call Bettman's bluff, knowing full well that the NHL will not be able to run a league with 29 teams for very long, and will likely end up expanding to 32 after the contraction.

Bettman ends up folowing through, contracting the Coyotes, and due to them becoming defunct, Glendale will have an empty arena with no leaseholder for the foreseeable future.

If 3-4 years, the NHL will announce expansion, and give one of those teams back to Phoenix, who are now forced to accept a lowball offer on a new lease deal from the team's owner simply because they desperately need the money. The NHL gets to keep their 'large media market'.

^^ Just my predictions.

Why can't they have a 29-team league? The league had 21 teams during an entire decade. The NBA had either 27 or 29 teams for most of my lifetime. The NHL isn't like MLB or the NFL where almost every team plays almost everyday (or every week). They can easily get by with an odd number of teams. I'm not saying you're wrong, but I don't see any problem with a 29-team league, at least from a scheduling standpoint.

There's nothing wrong with the idea of a 29 team league except for the fact that having one would mean contraction. Which would not only torpedo the negotiations with the NHLPA but would also damage the NHL's reputation. Contraction in this day and age is seen as minor league. The NHL has enough problems with public perception as it is in the US. They don't need to add to that by losing a team.

[BBTV]

Why on earth would they contract when they could just back down and sell to Quebecor and charge a relo fee that would be bigger than any expansion fee that they would collect?

[IceCap]

Why on earth would they contract when they could just back down and sell to Quebecor and charge a relo fee that would be bigger than any expansion fee that they would collect?

They wouldn't. The idea that they would contract the Coyotes and then bring in a new expansion team down the line is pretty stupid. Even for the NHL.

[The_Admiral]

Why on earth would they contract when they could just back down and sell to Quebecor and charge a relo fee that would be bigger than any expansion fee that they would collect?

It seems like Peladeau/Quebecor is rubbing some of the owners the wrong way by bristling at being charged almost a quarter of a billion dollars for the most distressed asset in pro sports. The league tried extorting True North in a similar manner last year until David Thomson had some friends in very high places warn Bettman to knock it off, so it wouldn't be unreasonable to surmise that they're once again looking for several pounds of flesh.

[GeorgesL]

Why on earth would they contract when they could just back down and sell to Quebecor and charge a relo fee that would be bigger than any expansion fee that they would collect?

They wouldn't. The idea that they would contract the Coyotes and then bring in a new expansion team down the line is pretty stupid. Even for the NHL.

I would have to agree with BringBackTheVet on this one. If the NHL prefers to stick with 30 teams, but can't get Jameson to pony up his money in time, and Quebecor is the next legitimate owner to buy any hockey team. Besides, if they were to contract them, and bring in an expansion team, that could take a couple years. If Quebecor gets charged with a relocation fee, they have the money to do that.

[The_Admiral]

Just because they have it doesn't mean they're willing to pay it. Greater Winnipeg is about equal in terms of population and economy to greater Quebec City. True North bought just about as much of a shoestring operation as Quebecor would, and to remedy this and have a bona fide organization, the Jets have required the same sort of post-purchase cash infusion that the Nordiques would. With this remarkable kind of ceteris paribus at play, why, then, should Quebecor pay $50MM to $80MM more than True North paid, especially when it is they and not the cash-hemorrhaging NHL or cash-lacking Jamison who have the leverage? This isn't even getting into the recent sales of the Blues for $140 million, the Lightning for $90 million, and the Stars signed away in exchange for assumption of debt.

An impression that I'm getting is that the Quebec business world is not like the Ontario business world, in that Peladeau is not on the best of terms with similar business magnates and established families about the province, who themselves are not on the best of terms with one another either, and so he can't call for backup against Bettman the way Thomson did, who had it made known that pretty much every financial institution in the anglosphere was going to have the NHL frozen out if this small-time cartel kept toying with freaking Thomson-Reuters.

[bosrs1]

$20 million short is the closest he's gotten yet! He was like $100 million short to start. You can do it, li'l Greggers!

Hopefully not. But it looks like the city is giving him another month even though the original deal expired last night (July 31).

http://www.fieldofschemes.com/2012/08/01/3604/would-be-coyotes-owner-gets-another-month-to-not-buy-the-coyotes/

[rvrdgsfn]

$20 million short is the closest he's gotten yet! He was like $100 million short to start. You can do it, li'l Greggers!

Hopefully not. But it looks like the city is giving him another month even though the original deal expired last night (July 31).

http://www.fieldofschemes.com/2012/08/01/3604/would-be-coyotes-owner-gets-another-month-to-not-buy-the-coyotes/

[The_Admiral]

I guess the court ruled in favor of Glendale on the petitions against the sales tax increase, too. When you have this many instances of the government "unexpectedly" siding with the government, it's no wonder Arizonans get so ornery and paranoid about everything.

So now we just need Jamison and his Survivor Series Mystery Partners to find the rest of the money they need to buy the team, and then raise operating capital to cover the losses they'll incur beyond the subsidized losses, and then wait out the inevitable appeal and lawsuit for violating the gift clause, and this baby's ready to roll. Shane Doan ain't never gonna have to make his kids change schools.

[bosrs1]

I guess the court ruled in favor of Glendale on the petitions against the sales tax increase, too. When you have this many instances of the government "unexpectedly" siding with the government, it's no wonder Arizonans get so ornery and paranoid about everything.

So now we just need Jamison and his Survivor Series Mystery Partners to find the rest of the money they need to buy the team, and then raise operating capital to cover the losses they'll incur beyond the subsidized losses, and then wait out the inevitable appeal and lawsuit for violating the gift clause, and this baby's ready to roll. Shane Doan ain't never gonna have to make his kids change schools.

No kidding. This is the most rigged game ever played, and they still can't seem to close the deal.

[njmeadowlanders]

For what it's worth:

The PHX Business Journal writes ?Two sources with knowledge of the three-year-old Coyotes ownership saga say Jamison now has the investors and partners in place to finally buy the Coyotes and a deal could close very soon.?

He adds ?One source familiar with the deal said Jamison has secured the money and partners to buy the team and final details are being reviewed by the NHL.?

From SNY's Rangers Blog.

[The_Admiral]

You'll have to do better than the Peanut Butter Jelly, which pretty much just makes crap up from whole cloth or plagiarizes HFboards, which is even worse. They said "a deal could close very soon" three months ago. Moreover, the sales tax increase ruling is being appealed, so there's still that thing looming. God, what a mess.

Why don't the crackerjack reporters on this thing find out who the investors are, anyway?