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Nashville Predators Being Sold?


otherwilds

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I still believe there's gotta be another way Balsille can get out of that lease. This guy wants a hockey team, obviously. And he wants to put it in Hamilton (presumably). He's got more money than the Pope. If it's not some insane buyout figure, I gotta think he considers just throwing some money at the problem and getting the heck out of dodge.

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I still believe there's gotta be another way Balsille can get out of that lease. This guy wants a hockey team, obviously. And he wants to put it in Hamilton (presumably). He's got more money than the Pope. If it's not some insane buyout figure, I gotta think he considers just throwing some money at the problem and getting the heck out of dodge.

That's certainly possible, but money doesn't always solve everything. Just ask Paris Hilton. :D:P

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I still believe there's gotta be another way Balsille can get out of that lease.

There are 28 million ways to get out. All he has to to do is dig through his couch for lost change.

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Preds aren't going to Hamilton. The Board of Govenors already detest "Bald silly".

Expect him to bail out like he did with the Pens.

I wouldn't be surprised if Boots DelBaggio comes swooping in to buy the team.

Then Bruckhiemer can get Vegas a team and the league can add Houston.

Board of Governors won't hold a personal grudge. You know why? Because Balsillie has this $$$$$. And he's willing to throw it around.

What, you think the Board of Governors have some overriding loyalty to Nashville or its fans? Get real. Money talks. And Balsillie's putting it out. Where's Boots? The Preds are for sale, if he really had some coin he could make a counter-offer instead of riding other bids as a "supporting partner".

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DId anyone ever stop to think that maybe Ice Hockey wouldn't fly in Nashville, or that on the whole, Hockey is NOT a national level sport in the United States?

Maybe that's why MLB, NFL, NBA, College sports, Pro Soccer and Horse racing get better ratings nationally. Maybe some markets just don't care about the sport enough to support a team. The NBA didn't fly in Vancouver, baseball eventually failed in Montreal. Maybe Nashville just isn't the city for an ice hockey team.

How does the NHL hope to draw a national audience when they can't draw an audience in some of their 'own' cities? Maybe Bettman should put his delusions of National granduer aside and look at a real way for the game to grow.

The game is popular in it's older cities. The markets where the league spawned. There's your core fanbase. In the 'newer' cities, the support is there in different levels. The NHL need to grow out from these centres.

They should focus their attention regionally, build up the big player match-ups against regional opponents

(Tonight, watch as multi-time scoring Champion Jaromir Jagr faces his former team and phenom at MSG, live on whateverchanneldon'tgiveacrapabouthockeythisseason!)

Get the fan bases in these cities/provinces/states larger, create larger draw areas. It will take time, but if those areas grow, more people will start to watch. If more people are watching a product, then the big networks will WANT to start broadcasting the sport.

You can blow all the smoke up our ass about 'Building the Game' that you want. The game isn't going to grow in a market that doesn't care. If you want support, maybe the team should have been put in a market where the demand was there.

You can't win a championship while you're rebuilding, and you can't score a national level media exposure deal while you're trying to make new markets.

The first of which is that Nashville was, for all intents and purposes, completely new to the game of hockey. This mid-tier market was going to have to come from complete scratch and compete with a few beloved sports in NFL football, college football, and NASCAR. This market was going to have to be built; very few people were going to start being fans just because a team was there.

For the first five seasons the team ranged from horrendous to bad. The organization built itself, hockeywise, in a fantastic manner, but they weren't about to turn people onto the game of hockey just because they were building the team the right way, the patient way.

In season six they finally snuck into the playoffs. But a mildly good season wasn't just suddenly going to make everyone in town start buying tickets. A decent playoff run maybe, but they lost in six games.

Then came the lockout. The lockout and an ownership change crushed hockey in St. Louis, a well established market. To a market that hadn't even had a chance to grow? Devastating. Erases anything the one playoff season did and more.

On the ice, though, the team comes back from the lockout in fine shape and has its best season. And the fanbase does respond with a good chunk of growth. But as the team flops out in the first round, there's really no bandwagon to be had, and the growth is limited.

And in season eight (on the ice), the team was even better. They competed for the President's Trophy. And this too came with some growth. But, yet again, the playoffs ended in the first round and growth and excitement were limited.

I just don't see where you can reasonably expect (or at least be completely surprised that it didn't happen) a brand new market to the game of hockey to respond to that limited success. Because of the lockout you've got basically two winning seasons to build off of, and they both came with not just first round defeats, but first round disappointments.

hey, :censored: happens. It's a piss poor bit of luck they've had, but it's happened. it's been almost a decade and they're still having troubel drawing. At some point you gotta cut the loses and run. Maybe if the lockout didn't happen things would be different. But it did, and this is the state that the team is in. How long are the owners willing to lose money to make a market after 8 years?

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Predators owner invokes escape clause in lease

http://tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/articl...ORTS02/70615086

Nashville Predators owner Craig Leipold today invoked an escape clause in his team?s lease with the city that gives him the right to terminate the agreement if the team does not average 14,000 in paid attendance per game during the 2007-08 season.

If that mark is not reached next season, then the lease can be legally terminated and the Predators can leave town.

__________________

Competing bid for Predators in the works

http://www.nashvillepost.com/news/2007/6/1...rs_in_the_works

NashvillePost.com has learned that a group of local businessmen, including some from the healthcare sector, is putting together an ownership proposal for the Nashville Predators. The bid would be offered only if current owner Craig Leipold's deal with Canadian businessman Jim Balsillie falls apart.

Those familiar with the deal acknowledge that they have not presented a proposal to Leipold and are prohibited from doing so while Balsillie's offer is on the table.

_________________

OK gang the scuttlebutt round here in Ol' NashVegas is the 14K tickets agame number threshold may have a real chance of being met IF everyone follows through on pledges to buy tix and the fervor continues to build. The prevailing belief is that if Nashville meets the 14,000 paid attendance level Mr. BlackBerry will have to get permission from the NHL to break the lease AND move the team. Two things that folks in the know seem to belief that the league is reluctant to do.

The folks at The Sommet Group say that the day before their agreement was announced Leipold came to them and informed them about the sale. He was asked point blank if there was an out clause other than the "cure" year thing and his answer was an emphatic "no". He gave them a chance to pull out of the arena name rights deal but based on his assertions they chose to go forward.

I fear that free agents will not re-sign because of the "what if?" factor or no ownership decision is made until well into the free agent signing period. Lost time equals lost players and that will lead to a lesser product and our fairweather fanbase will bail. Balsillie (howeverthehellyouspellnsayhisname) has said he will have an open wallet for players but he ain't signing the checks yet. And the cold shoulder from the NHL board of Governors this week does not give me the impression they are ready just yet to welcome him wiht open arms and a big wet one. But maybe they should. He has offered 220-245 million dollars that was previously valued at $120m. Okay 60-80% percent over market value dues that affect the worth of every other franchise especiall any others that may be inplay for relocation? At 10-20% percent of a market value is that not a 10-20 MILLION DOLLAR reason for EACH owner to approve the sale?

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Legion posted this article in the "What if the Predators move to Hamilton" thread in the Sports Logos forum, but in all fairness it's a little off topic there so I felt it would be best to repost it here:

Hamilton NHL ticket deposits leap past Nashville's base

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Legion posted this article in the "What if the Predators move to Hamilton" thread in the Sports Logos forum, but in all fairness it's a little off topic there so I felt it would be best to repost it here:

Hamilton NHL ticket deposits leap past Nashville's base

I just read the article & it really doesn't surprise me. The NHL needs to bring teams back to Canada. The league maybe now can recognize that Canadians are ready to spend money to see a team there. I think they should move the Preds and Panthers to Canada. Panthers should go to Winnipeg in my opinion. Anyway good read.

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The NHL needs to bring teams back to Canada. The league maybe now can recognize that Canadians are ready to spend money to see a team there.

There are a couple differences from the days of the Jets & Nords leaving and now... such as the value of our dollar is at a 30-year high (we're almost on par with the U.S. dollar now, believe it or not), and the salary cap is now in place.

There still is the issue of each of our franchises paying 6 times the amount of taxes as all the U.S. teams combined... but it's a start

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Legion posted this article in the "What if the Predators move to Hamilton" thread in the Sports Logos forum, but in all fairness it's a little off topic there so I felt it would be best to repost it here:

Hamilton NHL ticket deposits leap past Nashville's base

I just read the article & it really doesn't surprise me. The NHL needs to bring teams back to Canada. The league maybe now can recognize that Canadians are ready to spend money to see a team there. I think they should move the Preds and Panthers to Canada. Panthers should go to Winnipeg in my opinion. Anyway good read.

As much as I agree that the Preds would be best served moving to Hamilton, the Panthers going to Winnipeg or QC doesn't seem likely.

Winnipeg would have to build a new arena, one big enough to house a NHL team. If they do that, then sure, move them to Winnipeg, but I don't see the city building an other new arena considering they just finished (more or less) with the MTS Centre.

QC also needs a new arena, but the local government won't even support the building of a stadium for a CFL team, much less a new NHL-sized rink.

So basically if/when the Preds move to Hamilton, that should be it for teams relocating to Canada until other cities solve their arena problems.

I do agree that the Panthers should be next on the relocation block though. The had a great chance to build a solid fanbase, but they blew it when they built their new rink out in the middle of nowhere. I say move them to Portland.

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The Lockout hurt a lot of teams, you said it yourself, an established team with a strong fanbase like the Blues felt it. If you want to know the team that was hurt the most by it though you have to look no further then the Tampa Bay Lightning. Since the lockout counted as a season as far as contracts went the Lightning lost a few key players that were instrumental in a successful Cup defence season, most notably Nikolai Khabibulin. If there's no lockout the Lightning keep him, as well as a few supporting players, and their chances at a repeat greatly increase. To the credit of Lightning fans I haven't heard any of them claim they were cheated or robbed, even though if they did claim as such they would have a very good case. If any team was hurt by the lockout it was them.

Anyway, I do see your point. Up until this (just past) season the Preds had been a mildly successful team with two first round exists.

Still, though, I maintain my belief that the success during the '06-'07 season should have at the very least brought out the bandwaggoners. Again, look to the Lightning. They year they won the Cup they finished first in the East. During that great season, going into the playoffs, they had no idea they were going to win the Cup. They were favourites to be sure, but their past playoff history was less then convincing. Two playoff appearances, one first round knock-out, one second round knock-out. Not as bad as the Preds' playoff record before the start of the '06-'07 season, I know, but still, it's nothing to to get excited over.

Then they had a great season, shot to the top of the east, and stayed there. They had a less then steller playoff history, but fans still came. Now I firmly believe that most of those fans were bandwaggoners, at first. After a few games they fell in love with the game and made the shift from bandwaggoners to real fans. Again, despite the team's place in the standings, their Cup victory was far from guaranteed.

This season, look at the Preds. Same thing. Less then steller playoff record, but they shot to the top and went toe-to-toe with the league's best. Some people were even saying they would represent the West in the Finals. Like in Tampa during the '03-'04 season you had a team playing kick-ass hockey, yet no real guarantee that they would go anywhere. The difference is that during the '03-'04 season the Lightning drew in bandwaggon fans and made them hockey converts. The Preds failed to do this during the '06-'07 season. What's the difference? Unlike in Tampa there was no general interest in hockey for the club's success to "feed" off of. You need that general interest to bring in the bandwaggoners.

You need fair weather fans to build a fanbase in a non-traditional hockey market. Otherwise you'll never build a true fanbase. Northern transplants will only take you so far, and a good portion of them still root for their old home town team over the current local team. You need your on-ice success to draw in the fair weather fans, and then convert them to true fans with a good on-ice product. If you can't draw in fair weather fans with a great team near the top of the standings then the market isn't ready for NHL level hockey.

Also, FTR, Tampa, like Nashville, had no connection to the sport prior to the pro team showing up.

But Tampa had a longer history to feed off of, as well as some previous postseason success (defeating Washington in the East Quarters the previous season), so using Tampa Bay as Nashville's "equal" isn't accurate.

For the record, it took Tampa Bay 12 seasons to get where they are now, and they've had to battle through two work stoppages.

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And that friends, is why most hockey teams in the American South are kind of a joke. Move a few to Canada ASAP, Gary and rest of NHL...and contract a little.

I nominate the Bruins for contraction.

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For the record, it took Tampa Bay 12 seasons to get where they are now, and they've had to battle through two work stoppages.

To be fair, the Lightning played their first season in a fairgrounds expo hall and they spent the next two years in the Thunderdome, the current Tropicana Field. Neither were NHL arenas. The Lightning still set NHL attendance records in the Thunderdome, despite the fact that the team only made the playoffs in one year, 95-96, and even then they were dispatched in the first round by Philadelphia. Only in 96-97 did the Lightning get their new arena, and even then the team was one of the worst NHL franchises for five years.

Tampa Bay is also the 12th largest media market in the country. To say it took the Lightning 12 seasons to get to where they are is a bit much. The team had a tremendous run of success in the Thunderdome, and they had fan support early.

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Tampa Bay is also the 12th largest media market in the country. To say it took the Lightning 12 seasons to get to where they are is a bit much. The team had a tremendous run of success in the Thunderdome, and they had fan support early.

Tampa Bay had, at best, average attendance, until the 2002-03 season, and got their huge boost after winning the Cup.

They weren't anywhere close to drawing 20,000 per game until their Cup season.

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For the record, it took Tampa Bay 12 seasons to get where they are now, and they've had to battle through two work stoppages.

To be fair, the Lightning played their first season in a fairgrounds expo hall and they spent the next two years in the Thunderdome, the current Tropicana Field. Neither were NHL arenas. The Lightning still set NHL attendance records in the Thunderdome, despite the fact that the team only made the playoffs in one year, 95-96, and even then they were dispatched in the first round by Philadelphia. Only in 96-97 did the Lightning get their new arena, and even then the team was one of the worst NHL franchises for five years.

Tampa Bay is also the 12th largest media market in the country. To say it took the Lightning 12 seasons to get to where they are is a bit much. The team had a tremendous run of success in the Thunderdome, and they had fan support early.

And to be fair, they're hampered by one of the most blah logos in all of sports. I've seen EA Sports expansion teams with better looks.

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Tampa Bay is also the 12th largest media market in the country. To say it took the Lightning 12 seasons to get to where they are is a bit much. The team had a tremendous run of success in the Thunderdome, and they had fan support early.

Tampa Bay had, at best, average attendance, until the 2002-03 season, and got their huge boost after winning the Cup.

They weren't anywhere close to drawing 20,000 per game until their Cup season.

If Tampa Bay had average attendance with one of the worst collection of teams in modern NHL history, what does that say about Nashville's attendance in a new arena with a playoff team? The Lightning routinely drew well in the Thunderdome, they set NHL single game regular season and playoff attendance records while playing there.

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Nashville roolz. Tampa droolz.

To be clear, I don't want to see the Preds move. While I never grew attached to Nashville in my time there, I always sort of wanted to see their sports teams succeed. I think that we should find out a lot about the Nashville fan base in the next few years with the Preds being as good as they are. I feel sorry for Nashville fans, they might be losing the Sounds, and the way they have been dragged through the mud with their prospective new owner has been awful. I was saying that Nashville has had lackluster fan support so far for the Preds, especially as compared to the Lightning, but I still want to see them stay in Nashville and succeed.

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