NHL Anti-Thread: Bad Business Decision Aggregator

[Bmac]

1 hour ago, who do you think said:

Daily regularly-scheduled reminder that:

 

-The NBA's Vancouver Grizzlies, aka the Hardwood Coyotes, were airlifted over to Memphis after just six awful seasons, GrOwTh PoTeNtIaL in untapped Western Canada be damned. The league hasn't gone back, probably won't go back for a long time, and is absolutely no worse off for not being there.

-The original Charlotte Hornets, after a failed arena pursuit and after the fans turned on George Shinn for whatever the hell he did, got shuttled down to New Orleans; half the size, much less corporate presence. (Charlotte's replacement expansion team has been a train wreck and would probably be the one moved if you put a gun to the BoG's collective head and forced them to relocate one existing franchise by tomorrow).

-The Sonics, after their failed arena pursuit, were moved to Oklahoma :censored:ing City (less than third the size of Seattle going by raw CSA numbers). OKC has a great fanbase, is pretty much a model small-market franchise, and from 2011-2016 were as hot of a national TV property as any other team in the league.

-The NBA bent over backwards to preserve a quality small market with a rabid fanbase (Sacramento) that they pretty much have all to themselves, over chasing the population numbers and muh corporate presence in Seattle just for the sake of being in Seattle.

 

But you see, these moves were Actually Bad^TM, because Business Cosmo said so, on their annual numbers-we-pulled-out-of-our-colon list. The NHL needs these crappy, disinterested GrOwTh PoTeNtIaL markets if they're ever going to catch up with the NBA! You don't understand, there are [number] people in the [giant southern ballsweatville populated by northern ex-pats] area!

 

AND LET US NOT FORGET that once things got truly comical with the Expos, MLB went banging on doors all over the U.S. looking for a place to drop them, and they spent parts of their two lame-duck seasons in Baseball Saskatoon, aka Puerto Rico. (The NHL found a similar arrangement with the Coyotes, back when their situation was merely comical, unacceptable because oof that would be a bad look, my dude.)

 

YES.

 

I said this here a while back, but I'll say it again: the NHL should be focusing on niche markets that will actually support hockey. Bettman's approach has been the equivalent of "get a list of the top 32 biggest cities and put teams there."

 

The NBA and MLS have both proven that placing franchises in deliberate niche markets that will actually support the sport can work extremely well. Portland, Sacramento, Orlando, SLC, even Austin!

 

The NHL should've been very deliberate with their expansion strategy in the 90's, and it shouldn't have been about plopping down franchises in every major city in the Sun Belt. Yes, Tampa has been a monumental success. Dallas and Nashville ended up pulling it off. Vegas seems to be working. But I'd argue the success of those franchises has very little to do with the size of the market. In fact, larger markets such as Atlanta, Phoenix, and Miami (despite their current on-ice success, the Panthers are a mess of a franchise) have failed. 

 

Stop focusing on big markets. Start focusing on solid hockey markets. Where would the sport actually be appreciated, rather than become a burden to sell to the locals?

 

Quebec City is the obvious answer. I think Kansas City would be a huge success. Are folks in Houston really that crazy about hockey, or do they just want a new team because honestly, what city doesn't want a new team?

[SCMODS]

Bettman wanted to turn the NHL into the NBA. That's where he cut his teeth.

[mcj882000]

49 minutes ago, SCMODS said:

Bettman wanted to turn the NHL into the NBA. That's where he cut his teeth.

And the Brilliant Business Genius attempted this by doing the exact opposite strategy the NBA did.

[mcj882000]

1 hour ago, Bmac said:

Are folks in Houston really that crazy about hockey, or do they just want a new team because honestly, what city doesn't want a new team?

Tempe, apparently  

Like in all seriousness, we all know the NHL's taken some pretty impressive pies to the face over the last century - years back some of y'all were even planning a book detailing them all - but I don't think anything will ever top "city gets to choose between having an NHL team or having a landfill; city chooses the landfill." Just grade-A stuff from these carny clowns.

[VampyrRabbit]

2 hours ago, mcj882000 said:

 but I don't think anything will ever top "city gets to choose between having an NHL team or having a landfill; city chooses the landfill." Just grade-A stuff from these carny clowns.

With the Coyotes, it was a choice between a landfill and a dumpster fire.

[TBGKon]

Im a little surprised this didnt show up in this thread.

 

 

[BBTV]

I love how they word it as if it's their choice where to go, when they're at the mercy of who will actually take them.

 

Read the room, Coyotes.  A tweet like that isn't going to garner too many supportive responses.

[Sport]

"Where should the Coyotes build our new home?"

 

You know how lawyers say never ask a question to a witness on the stand that you don't know the answer to? The social media version of that is never ask a question that has an obvious joke answer. 

[CS85]

There's gotta be some blorp town in one of the Dakotas or Maine that has a grungy fanbase of 20-30,000 people who will put their asses in the seats for the bulk of the regular season.  

[chcarlson23]

9 minutes ago, CS85 said:

There's gotta be some blorp town in one of the Dakotas or Maine that has a grungy fanbase of 20-30,000 people who will put their asses in the seats for the bulk of the regular season.  

Yeah you could probably move the Coyotes to Fargo and they’d do well. Heck they have just as nice of a small arena in Scheels as they do in Mullett. Or put them up in Grand Forks at Ralph Engelstad…

[Sport]

36 minutes ago, CS85 said:

There's gotta be some blorp town in one of the Dakotas or Maine that has a grungy fanbase of 20-30,000 people who will put their asses in the seats for the bulk of the regular season.  

 

If three more years at the Mullet is the bar then there's dozens of cities we could draw out of a hat that would perform better. They'd appreciate having a major league team too. How about, picking a place at random, Omaha? Somewhere in Middle America. Wouldn't even need to realign the conferences. 

[LMU]

2 hours ago, TBGKon said:

Im a little surprised this didnt show up in this thread.

 

 

They’re approaching stalker ex level.

[Digby]

I do almost feel sorry for the Coyotes marketing department right now. Social media strategy for the lame-duck franchise: pretend you're crowdsourcing with the dozens of diehards you have left. It's cheap and disingenuous, but better than nothing (A's) I guess.

[charger77]

1 hour ago, CS85 said:

There's gotta be some blorp town in one of the Dakotas or Maine that has a grungy fanbase of 20-30,000 people who will put their asses in the seats for the bulk of the regular season.  

 

The Rapid City Rush in South Dakota Draw what the Coyotes drew last year.

[IceCap]

11 hours ago, the admiral said:

They've been evicted from one town and voted out of another. David Stern would have been walking these chuckleheads out the door before they could embarrass themselves in a third city. Of course, he probably wouldn't have let them in the door in the first place.

Stern or Goodell would have told Arizona to eat  as soon as Quebecor's cheque cleared. 

 

7 hours ago, mcj882000 said:

And the Brilliant Business Genius attempted this by doing the exact opposite strategy the NBA did.

People were predicting the NHL could surpass the NBA in the United States around the time Bettman took over. Just sayin'

[FiddySicks]

31 minutes ago, IceCap said:

People were predicting the NHL could surpass the NBA in the United States around the time Bettman took over. Just sayin'

That’s kind of got me thinking. Has MLS surpassed the NHL in terms of being part of the “big four”? If it hasn’t, when will it? It’s to the point where we’re seeing expansion teams slapped with a half a billion dollar entry fee and happily paying it. It’s not a matter of if that’ll happen, but when. 
 

And I get that MLS is sort of a pyramid scheme, but the NHL is already a Ponzi scheme so what’s the difference, really? 

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

4 minutes ago, FiddySicks said:

That’s kind of got me thinking. Has MLS surpassed the NHL in terms of being part of the “big four”? If it hasn’t, when will it? It’s to the point where we’re seeing expansion teams slapped with a half a billion dollar entry fee and happily paying it. It’s not a matter of if that’ll happen, but when. 

 

Also, MLS turns away more suitors than it accepts.  So it's happened.

 

5 minutes ago, FiddySicks said:

And I get that MLS is sort of a pyramid scheme

 

MLS is not the least bit a pyramid scheme.  An example of a pyramid scheme was the original NASL, which relied on expansion money to exist, and so let in every two-bit lemonade-stand operator, without regard to that ownership group's ability to sustain a team over the long term.  By contrast, MLS evaluates every expansion bid, and (as mentioned) rejects more than it accepts.

[CS85]

This is America, sir, and here in 'Merica, we don't have no soccer bullcrap.  You take that fruitin-tootin' man-kissin' garbage and go back to Yorope.

[DG_ThenNowForever]

52 minutes ago, FiddySicks said:

That’s kind of got me thinking. Has MLS surpassed the NHL in terms of being part of the “big four”? If it hasn’t, when will it? It’s to the point where we’re seeing expansion teams slapped with a half a billion dollar entry fee and happily paying it. It’s not a matter of if that’ll happen, but when. 
 

And I get that MLS is sort of a pyramid scheme, but the NHL is already a Ponzi scheme so what’s the difference, really? 

 

NCAA Football eclipsed NHL in the big four 20 years ago.

[GDAWG]

4 hours ago, TBGKon said:

Im a little surprised this didnt show up in this thread.

 

 

 

I get the feeling that those cities will eventually become options for the D'Backs if they want a new stadium and things don't work out in renovating Chase Field.