NHL Anti-Thread: Bad Business Decision Aggregator

[VampyrRabbit]

On 2023-05-20 at 10:09 AM, Walk-Off said:

• Currently, Arizona law requires any broad-based sports betting license not held by an Indigenous community in Arizona to belong to a professional sports organization located within Arizona (or the owner of said organization).
• Alex Meruelo holds an Arizona sports betting license that he was allowed to obtain only once he bought the Coyotes.
• If Meruelo lets the Yotes move out of Arizona, he has not become the owner of any other pro sports entity in that state by then, and Arizona's government has not loosened its criteria for sports betting licenses, then he will lose that license.

How about Meruelo buys Phoenix Rising instead and finds the money to build a stadium and enter MLS, finally letting the NHL take the Coyotes behind the toolshed? Is there any chance of that happening?

[habsfan1]

On 5/18/2023 at 6:11 PM, DG_ThenNowForever said:

Imagine being a superstar kid in youth and junior hockey your whole childhood, get drafted to the pinnacle of your profession, only to end up in a smaller arena than you've ever played in

 

Indeed.

 

Junior locker room:

 

 

"Pro" locker room:

 

[Walk-Off]

6 hours ago, VampyrRabbit said:

How about Meruelo buys Phoenix Rising instead and finds the money to build a stadium and enter MLS, finally letting the NHL take the Coyotes behind the toolshed? Is there any chance of that happening?

 

One can hope.

 

In the meantime, the respective current members of each of the houses of the Arizona state legislature need to wake up and realize that their state's present restrictions on eligibility for sports betting licenses are giving owners of professional sports franchises across Arizona a disgustingly perverse incentive to try to keep even the financially sickliest of pro sports teams alive and operating in Arizona at all costs (literally as well as figuratively).

[The_Admiral]

7 hours ago, habsfan1 said:

 

Indeed.

 

Junior locker room:

 

 

I don't see an accent aigu on "résilience." I'm calling the police. 

[Sodboy13]

8 hours ago, VampyrRabbit said:

How about Meruelo buys Phoenix Rising instead and finds the money to build a stadium and enter MLS, finally letting the NHL take the Coyotes behind the toolshed? Is there any chance of that happening?

 

I recommend reading this part over and over again until the "NO" in your head is so loud you can actually feel it exert a slight pressure on your brain. Kicked my workweek off right.

[habsfan1]

2 hours ago, the admiral said:

I don't see an accent aigu on "résilience." I'm calling the police. 

 

It was previously "Passion, Respect, Tradition". It translated exactly the same.

[Germanshepherd]

On 5/20/2023 at 5:49 AM, the admiral said:

Honestly, I'd want to kick the tires on Omaha before Kansas City or any of the one-team NBA towns. Would it work? Probably not, but I know Salt Lake City wouldn't.

Alright lemme make a homer’s case for Omaha (even though it has literally no shot at happening)

 

1.  It’s got the arena for it. The CHI Health Center hosted UNO hockey for a couple years, it’s got no obstructed views, and the capacity is 17,100, which fits in with the rest of the league. 
 

2. There’s some interest of hockey here. The state’s got three junior league USHL teams that all do pretty well for attendance. 
 

Lincoln consistently battles with Fargo for the top spot, Omaha’s always up there and even the Tri-City Storm’s Kearney (pop. 30,000) holds its own. Granted these are only about a couple thousand on average, but you’re not starting from scratch building a hockey fanbase. 

Also, UNO consistently brings in a top 5 attendance in NCAA, which includes some hockey-crazy markets. 
 

3.  It’s bigger than you think. The Omaha metro’s nearly got a million people in it, and nearby Lincoln’s got 340k. 
 

Lincoln-Omaha combined is bigger than the NHL and NHL-adjacent markets of Salt Lake City, Hartford and Buffalo.
 

It doesn’t have to compete with any nearby NHL teams (it’s mostly Colorado fans out here but the vast majority don’t have a team), so you’re getting a chunk of Kansas City, Des Moines, and some of Wichita/Dakotas. 
 

Omaha’s projected to grow in the coming years, plus its home to like five Fortune 500 companies so the money’s there to form an ownership group. 
 

4. Nebraska sports fandom goes HARD. 

 

We’ve sold out the football stadium through seven straight losing seasons. We’ve sold out the football stadium for a VOLLEYBALL game with a chunk of people wanting tickets that couldn’t get in. 
 

The Husker basketball team has been dreadful for forever and still sells out, Creighton’s got a huge fanbase down here, and the College World Series runs well every year, so it’s got the downtown infrastructure needed. 
 

Will that still be the case if a team isn’t brandishing the Husker N? I’m not sure, but I do know that if a team catches on here they won’t have to worry about attendance no matter how they’re doing. 
 

Will any of this matter? Absolutely not. But I do think that there’s reason to believe that the NHL could work here, at least moreso than it did in Arizona. 
 

Also, I really want to get into hockey but just can’t form a connection with any of the teams so I’m hoping against all hope that KC or Omaha somehow pulls this off, even though it really should be Quebec. 

[habsfan1]

Remember that the Coyotes are just visitors. They were given an empty area of space in the back that could fit 2 dozen people, separated only by black curtains. The building belongs to another team from another league who already have a fully constructed locker room.

 

Inside the same Mullet Arena, this is what the Sun Devils players have.

 

[spartacat_12]

19 hours ago, the admiral said:

Can't believe anyone had a problem with this:

 

Not defending this in any way, but this was the temporary visitors dressing room. Sounds like the Yotes players’ complaints were related to other issues. 

[VampyrRabbit]

10 hours ago, Sodboy13 said:

 

I recommend reading this part over and over again until the "NO" in your head is so loud you can actually feel it exert a slight pressure on your brain. Kicked my workweek off right.

The next expansion fee for MLS will probably be around 600 million and if Phoenix Rising want to hold a home game in MLS with a kickoff time before 7pm then they will need an indoor or a rectractable roof stadium, so I expected that was the answer.

[tigerslionspistonshabs]

I've said before that I really wish the best for the 'Yotes as far as finding a solution to stay in the Phoenix metro area . When they first arrived, I fell in love with their brand and found it cool that there was an NHL literally in the middle of the desert. 

 

With that being said, on the flip side of the coin, obviously this clown show has gone on far too long. 

[Jer15]

On 5/19/2023 at 5:16 PM, LMU said:

 

wait wait wait wait wait.

I know I'm a few days late but are we really going to just skip past the video in this link and the reporter's name? 

[Gary]

I haven’t watched 12 News in so long. Never paid attention. Only good thing about that station is Mark Curtis and Tram Mai. 

[mcj882000]

Perhaps this is better suited to here than the season or playoff threads?

Vancouver: Let the 2011 core slowly rot, had an A+ goalie depth chart with a future HoFer and two future starters, kept none of them (but lucked out(?) when none of them panned out post-Vancouver), have basically been drifting aimlessly ever since save a fluke playoff run in 2020;
Calgary: The '89 Cup was this team's peak, almost every move they've made since then has been the wrong one, save a Finals run in 2004 that turned out to mostly be a fluke (and which management refuses to let go of); it turns out "just try to sneak into the playoffs every year and hope for the best" isn't a viable long-term strategy!
Edmonton: A decade of malaise culminating in a team that never has more than two good players and can't get past the second round of the playoffs;
Winnipeg: The word is that their season ticket base is slowly dwindling, possibly because the market is oversaturated with an NHL, AHL and WHL team all in a city with fewer than 800k people; 
Toronto: 2 decades of being unable to even get past the first round, and now their most successful GM in 20 years leaves amidst a he-said/he-said on whether ownership was meddling in his affairs or not; 
Ottawa: [points feverishly to a photo of Eugene Melnyk] 
Montreal: Went all-in on 2021, lost, and have yet to make it back from that; arguably still haven't recovered from trading a HoF goalie in 1996 & siding with a coach they'd fire a year later; 
Quebec City: "Pfft, we can't put a team there! They already failed once! It's too small! Too French! Not enough corporate support! Nobody wants to move to the Western Conference, and we suddenly can't force them! There was an earthquake! A terrible flood! Locusts! It can't work here I swear to God!"

I've explored this here before, but Canadian nationalists hockey nuts like to accuse Gary Bettman of rigging the playoffs & relocating teams to personally spite the Canadian teams for, uh, Reasons, and that's why no Canadian team has won a Cup in 30 years; but I think the reality is that the Canadian teams are all dysfunctional garbage fires who can never manage to scrape together more than a fluke playoff run and who still make millions upon millions of dollars despite themselves.

[spartacat_12]

16 minutes ago, mcj882000 said:

Edmonton: A decade of malaise culminating in a team that never has more than two good players and can't get past the second round of the playoffs

You aren’t completely off base here, but they were in the Western Conference Finals last year. 

[The_Admiral]

1 hour ago, mcj882000 said:

Canadian teams are all dysfunctional garbage fires who can never manage to scrape together more than a fluke playoff run and who still make millions upon millions of dollars despite themselves.

 

They're playing the game on hard mode.

[habsfan1]

Did the Vegas Golden Knight's Twitter admin take over the Coyotes Twitter?

 

[The_Admiral]

God the world was a better place when fan outreach just consisted of the Red Wings playing a tape cassette of "Whoomp! There It Is" during warmups. 

[Dilbert]

3 hours ago, habsfan1 said:

 

Is it Gary Bettman? Their admin is Gary Bettman. It has to be.

[tBBP]

16 minutes ago, Dilbert said:

Is it Gary Bettman? Their admin is Gary Bettman. It has to be.

 

That's Lifetime Achievement Award winner Gary Bettman to you, pal.