Nashville Predators Being Sold?

[rams80]

Brian in Boston does make an interesting point which I have thought of as well. Most of the NHL's Sun Belt teams do appear to be experiencing some degree of success, (or at least, are not all complete disasters). The general track record that indicates would suggest that the NHL should try to move the Predators to another United States market, because of the greater upside there and the decent track record.

WTF? A greater upside? Stick a team in Canada and they'll sell out each and every game, and you know that as much as I do. This "lets support every NHL team in the south to PWN the Canadians!" act is getting old.

A team in Hamilton is a sure thing, moving the Preds from a failed gamble to an other gamble isn't the best decision, but at least it's better then staying in their current market.

In all the successful sun belt markets teams were able to sell out games during "hot streaks" during their lean years. During '96 when the Lightning made the playoffs for the first time, 2002 when the 'Canes had their Cup run. These flashes of brilliance after years of futility drew in fans, proving that there was hope for these markets. During similar hot streaks, and a season where they were among the NHL's elite, the Preds still couldn't draw in Nashville. The market doesn't care. It just doesn't. We didn't need to wait the standard 10-15 years to see if Nashville was a success or failure. After eight seasons it's clear Nashville doesn't cut it as an NHL market. Move the team somewhere where the team will be appreciated.

What I mean by "greater upside" is that you are sticking a team in a market that is sizably larger than Hamilton with more potential fans than Hamilton. This is also similar to what the NHL BOG is probably looking at. Hamilton is the safer choice, there's no question about that...It's just that Kansas City presents a higher "reward" than Hamilton to go with its higher "risk".

Another factor is that if you want to have a prayer of getting the league into the United States' conscience, sticking a team in Hamilton won't work, sadly.

JMHO, but if Balisillie ever did get a franchise, he and his team would most likely become a pariah team with the rest of the league, and most likely struggle on the ice. My advice to him (if he could go back in time) would be to try to get the WHA 2.0 off the ground and playing during the lockout season. That might have been his best shot at getting major league hockey in Hamilton.

So Jim Balsillie should get his hands on a time machine?

Seriously, Jim Balsille with a team in Hamilton will benefit the NHL. We love hockey, we'll support hockey, much more so then some American markets.

What are you basing your assumption that the team will struggle on the ice? Other then pessimism fuelled by an already proven ignorance of the Golden Horseshoe?

What burns me about this is that the NHL, Gary Bettman in particular, doesn't seem bothered by this potential move to KC. If that doesn't tell you what the NHL thinks of its country of birth, then you're a lost cause.

My suggestion that the team would struggle on the ice would be based off an assumption that the other 29 teams wouldn't be that open to making trades with him to help better his team. Yes, I understand that free agency can undercut the "black-balling" to an extent, but the salary cap negates his financial advantages.

The "lets blindly support southern hockey teams even if they're failing in their respective markets to annoy the Canadians" act you and Rams seem to have going got old a long time ago. I don't want to "spite" the US when it comes to hockey. I don't really care one way or the other about the city of Nashville, or the Predators. I simply want a "local" NHL team I can get tickets to. The market's clearly not there in Nashville, so why not move them to Hamilton where they'll be appreciated? But hey, continue on your quest to bash my country with witty one-liners simply because you don't like Canadian hockey teams. Go ahead, you're just acting in the most hypocritical way possible.

I'm not blindly defending the Southern teams, and neither am I bashing Canada. I will admit, that since the definition of "the South" has somehow grown to include every US market South of a line from St. Paul, Detroit, Columbus, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia, I now apparently live in the South and feel somewhat compelled to defend my (new) region as well. (Never mind I see snow every winter, the river does freeze, I've never drunk Jack Daniels, my vehicle does not look like the "Gen'l Lee", don't really watch NASCAR...*fill in Southern white male stereotype here*, etc.) I am simply arguing from the BOG's perspective, at least as it has been demonstrated over the last 15 years.

Personally, I wouldn't be that opposed to Hamilton or Winnipeg having NHL teams. It's just that I am giving reasons while it's very likely that they won't. I also agree that Nashville probably is a dead end and should be moved.

What Brian in Boston has stated, and what I have tried to get at is this...

They have Canada locked up as a market. They don't need any more teams there because they don't have to try to recruit new fans up there.

The BOG still hasn't abandoned the "growing the game" mission. That's why they would prefer Kansas City over Hamilton (that and they like Boots more than Balisallie).

If I hate Canada, then the BOG hates Canada. That's all.

Chris-if Game 2 of the SCF was on a channel that was in my basic cable package, my household would have watched it (that's pretty much Bettman's fault)

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Icecap-

I'm sorry if my writing did come off to you as Canada bashing. It's just that sometimes when I see people mention "give up on the South" and then you see what I think they define "the South" as, I think that they are needlessly bashing my region as will. Now I will admit that my state, for other reasons (such as a political and financial situation that could be politely described as a "death spiral") does deserve some ragging, I draw the line at blanket "durr 'the South' hates hockey" statements.

[HedleyLamarr]

Listen up. I have dealt with a lot of crap from you, STL, HedleyLamarr, and others out there who continue to bash my country. I've held back, mainly because two out of the three of the names I've listed are "established members", and we all saw what happened to TCR when you get on the bad side of an "established" member, but it, I've listened to this dribble long enough. If I get banned/suspended, fine. I just hope the mod team has enough decency to tell me before hand.

When have you ever seen me bash Canada when it wasn't an obvious facetious tone? My girlfriend is Canadian.

This is the exact reason why I haven't been taking your arguement very seriously.

HedleyLamarr. The "lets blindly support southern hockey teams even if they're failing in their respective markets to annoy the Canadians" act you and Rams seem to have going got old a long time ago. I don't want to "spite" the US when it comes to hockey. I don't really care one way or the other about the city of Nashville, or the Predators. I simply want a "local" NHL team I can get tickets to. The market's clearly not there in Nashville, so why not move them to Hamilton where they'll be appreciated? But hey, continue on your quest to bash my country with witty one-liners simply because you don't like Canadian hockey teams. Go ahead, you're just acting in the most hypocritical way possible.

Show me where I said your quoted line.

The only thing I mentioned about Nashville's hockey affairs is that it was a shame that they weren't given a chance to develop a natural rival with Atlanta. I never said they shouldn't move to Canada.

Learn a little comprehension of the English language. Just because someone doesn't agree with your point of view doesn't mean their insulting you or bashing your country.

[Phil]

Yeah, 'Cap... your passion for your country, especially on the weekend at which time we pause to celebrate it, is admirable, but your interpretation of others comments relative to it is a little extreme.

Nobody is banning you, and your consistent assertion that TCR was banned simply for being on an "established member" or moderator's bad side is ludicrous at best. Most have chosen to bury that hatchet long ago, and your insistence to dust it off when you feel threatened is less than endearing (and no, that fact would not play into any decision of mine should you ever run afoul of the CCSLC code).

As for your virulent rant against your opponents, you have every right to speak your mind; however, having read these posts, I do not find our country to have been so actively attacked as you percieve.

I love Canada as well, and would love to see it hold a place of higher esteem on a global scale, but I disagree that we have been rendered a moot point on issues other than hockey, and I think we can take pride in much more than simply a game.

[Brian in Boston]

Icecap79... why so much ire directed at your fellow community-members here in the CCSLC? We're just expressing our opinions. It's not as if we're the folks calling the shots with regard to the NHL's expansion and franchise relocation policies. We've had absolutely no say in Hamilton failing to garner enough league support to acquire either an expansion franchise or a relocated team. We weren't responsible for franchises in Quebec and Winnipeg being allowed to relocate to U.S. cities.

It seems to me that your concerns - indeed, anger - would best be voiced to NHL executives and owners. In fact, I would think that you would want to direct most of your vitriol at the executives and owners of the existing six Canadian NHL franchises. After all, who better to bear the standard of NHL expansion/relocation to Canadian municipalities than the league's current Canadian teams? Yet, I don't recall the leadership of the NHL's current Canadian franchises raising-up a deafening cry in support of such measures. They seem all too happy to just "keep on keepin' on" with the "growing the game in America" status quo. I wonder why that is? Could it be a means of protecting their own team's business interests in the Canadian sports marketplace?

I mean, if all Canadians are so gung-ho about professional ice hockey and the sport's presence in modern Canadian society, one would think that the leadership of the NHL's current Canadian franchises would be constantly agitating for expansion or relocation to additional Canadian markets. Hell, if the damned American usurpers of major pro hockey won't see themselves clear to granting expansion and/or relocated NHL teams to Canadian cities, well than who really needs the NHL, right? Why don't the owners of the Canadiens, Canucks, Flames, Maple Leafs, Oilers and Senators just break away and form their own all-Canadian professional ice hockey league? Then they can expand to Hamilton, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Quebec... the skies the limit!

I'll tell you why it doesn't happen. First, the owners of the six Canadian-based NHL franchises aren't exactly eager to have to share their turf with more Canadian-based franchises. Beyond carefully-articulated, non-commital comments on the subject, the owners of the Canadiens, Canucks, Flames, Maple Leafs, Oilers and Senators don't want to see one iota of their profits cut into... regardless of how many additional die-hard Canadian hockey fans would be able to acquire tickets to NHL action in their own home cities. The Canadian owners don't give a rat's backside about the welfare of Canadian fans. They care about profits... their profits. Right now, they're not convinced that an NHL franchise in Hamilton stands to line anyone's pockets quite as well as it would line Mr. Balsillie's pockets.

Further, the owners of the current six Canadian NHL franchises know that a Canada-only major pro hockey league doesn't hold-out the profitability for them that the NHL does. Which, given the state of the NHL on the modern North American pro sports landscape, is really saying something. However, it's true. A Canada-only major-pro ice hockey league might seem like nirvana to Canadian fans, but it wouldn't please owners - or players - when it came to finances.

When it comes to all that ails the NHL, including the dearth of franchises in ice hockey's spiritual home country, Gary Bettman, American fans and "non-traditional" hockey markets in the United States are the all too-convenient "bogey men". Canadian fans of the NHL should take a long, hard look at the actions of the ownership groups in Calgary, Edmonton, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver - particularly when it comes to the issue of expansion/relocation to Canada. They're not exactly fighting tooth-and-nail in the best interest of the fans in Hamilton, Quebec, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, et al.

Oh, and by the way - the whole argument that the NHL's attempt to grow support for ice hockey in non-traditional markets has pushed the league "to WNBA levels of irrelevance on the American sports landscape" is tired, patently ludicrous hyperbole. You can do better than that. The last time I checked, any league that averaged 16,623 fans-per-game in the 2006-07 season, as the NHL did, isn't in the same neighborhood with regard to relevance as the WNBA is (7,349 fans-per-game this season). Hell, the NHL's "Sun Belt" teams alone averaged 16,766 fans-per-game this past season.

[leedsunited]

Boots Del Biaggio is now one of the mystery investors in the "local" group of nashville buyers.

[Ez Street]

This story has gone far beyond ridiculous.

I've stopped following it.

If a team comes to KC, YEA! If not oh well.

I'm more pre-occupied with Junior Hockey returning to Topeka this year.

Screw the NHL, for now.

[leedsunited]

This story has gone far beyond ridiculous.

I've stopped following it.

If a team comes to KC, YEA! If not oh well.

I'm more pre-occupied with Junior Hockey returning to Topeka this year.

Screw the NHL, for now.

It really is ridiculous. Why is Leipold taking a cut-rate offer, leaving $45 million in the dust? Is it because he wants certain promises from Bettman that he's in line for the Wild or whatever other franchise that may open up in the future?

What's Boots getting out of this deal? I find it hard to believe he'd tack on without some assurances towards his end and the KC scenario. Is he the plan B if Nashville can't support the team? How vital is his involvement with the current bidders?

It's all so cloak and dagger right now. Thx, Bettman. Hell, at this point, why not just fold the damn thing and hold a nice little dispersal draft. The Preds have been doing pretty much the same thing over the past month anyway...

[daschuck77]

Original 6 is about to go the way of the New York Americans and Montreal Maroons.

And now....your 2009 Saskatewan Seal Skin Bindings!

[Ez Street]

This story has gone far beyond ridiculous.

I've stopped following it.

If a team comes to KC, YEA! If not oh well.

I'm more pre-occupied with Junior Hockey returning to Topeka this year.

Screw the NHL, for now.

It really is ridiculous. Why is Leipold taking a cut-rate offer, leaving $45 million in the dust? Is it because he wants certain promises from Bettman that he's in line for the Wild or whatever other franchise that may open up in the future?

What's Boots getting out of this deal? I find it hard to believe he'd tack on without some assurances towards his end and the KC scenario. Is he the plan B if Nashville can't support the team? How vital is his involvement with the current bidders?

It's all so cloak and dagger right now. Thx, Bettman. Hell, at this point, why not just fold the damn thing and hold a nice little dispersal draft. The Preds have been doing pretty much the same thing over the past month anyway...

Boots is going from being minority owner of the Sharks to being minority owner of the Preds. Doesn't make sense other than he's banking on a failure. If they fail to meet the goals he can try to swoop in and buy the team. The owners would profit and he fills the arena in KC.

If it succeeds, he can sell his piece off. Then he will have been a good boy for the NHL, TWICE. They would then award him an expansion franchise.

that is my thought.

[leedsunited]

This story has gone far beyond ridiculous.

I've stopped following it.

If a team comes to KC, YEA! If not oh well.

I'm more pre-occupied with Junior Hockey returning to Topeka this year.

Screw the NHL, for now.

It really is ridiculous. Why is Leipold taking a cut-rate offer, leaving $45 million in the dust? Is it because he wants certain promises from Bettman that he's in line for the Wild or whatever other franchise that may open up in the future?

What's Boots getting out of this deal? I find it hard to believe he'd tack on without some assurances towards his end and the KC scenario. Is he the plan B if Nashville can't support the team? How vital is his involvement with the current bidders?

It's all so cloak and dagger right now. Thx, Bettman. Hell, at this point, why not just fold the damn thing and hold a nice little dispersal draft. The Preds have been doing pretty much the same thing over the past month anyway...

Boots is going from being minority owner of the Sharks to being minority owner of the Preds. Doesn't make sense other than he's banking on a failure. If they fail to meet the goals he can try to swoop in and buy the team. The owners would profit and he fills the arena in KC.

If it succeeds, he can sell his piece off. Then he will have been a good boy for the NHL, TWICE. They would then award him an expansion franchise.

that is my thought.

Word is that Boots has a 40% share, a helluva lot bigger than what he had with the Sharks and bigger than any other Nashville investor. Apparently, he was the grease that made the bid go, without him the Nashville team is dead in the water.

[broncoempire]

This story has gone far beyond ridiculous.

I've stopped following it.

If a team comes to KC, YEA! If not oh well.

I'm more pre-occupied with Junior Hockey returning to Topeka this year.

Screw the NHL, for now.

It really is ridiculous. Why is Leipold taking a cut-rate offer, leaving $45 million in the dust? Is it because he wants certain promises from Bettman that he's in line for the Wild or whatever other franchise that may open up in the future?

What's Boots getting out of this deal? I find it hard to believe he'd tack on without some assurances towards his end and the KC scenario. Is he the plan B if Nashville can't support the team? How vital is his involvement with the current bidders?

It's all so cloak and dagger right now. Thx, Bettman. Hell, at this point, why not just fold the damn thing and hold a nice little dispersal draft. The Preds have been doing pretty much the same thing over the past month anyway...

Boots is going from being minority owner of the Sharks to being minority owner of the Preds. Doesn't make sense other than he's banking on a failure. If they fail to meet the goals he can try to swoop in and buy the team. The owners would profit and he fills the arena in KC.

If it succeeds, he can sell his piece off. Then he will have been a good boy for the NHL, TWICE. They would then award him an expansion franchise.

that is my thought.

Word is that Boots has a 40% share, a helluva lot bigger than what he had with the Sharks and bigger than any other Nashville investor. Apparently, he was the grease that made the bid go, without him the Nashville team is dead in the water.

40 percent is a sizeable amount. Given that the number of investors is unknown and simple division, I would care to wager that in the end he will be the largest stakeholder in the team anyway. If that's the case then it looks like all the NHL's dreams will have come true. Boots buys the team, they hold out for the year or two, he buys out the remaining 60 percent, and hello Sprint Center. If that is the case the league looks like they tried to save the market and they still keep Houston in the mix for when they decide they can't turn down 600 million to let Vegas and someone else into the league.

And who says the Board of Governors and Bettman are idiots, they had us all played from the very beginning. They must have just been looking for a appealing way to do it to appease the general public.

[gojetsgo]

Recent news:

ESPN Article

Setting the stage for a move to KC?

[leedsunited]

Recent news:

ESPN Article

Setting the stage for a move to KC?

This is after begging for taxpayer relief to help the bid go through.

At some point, you've just got to know when to fold 'em.

[jkrdevil]

Recent news:

ESPN Article

Setting the stage for a move to KC?

This is after begging for taxpayer relief to help the bid go through.

At some point, you've just got to know when to fold 'em.

Actually if you look at the date you notice that it is not new news. It's over a week old which in this story is pretty old news.

[gojetsgo]

Well, it's fairly recent. I was surprised it wasn't being discussed since it's a major development in what was such a hot topic.

[jkrdevil]

I don't know if it means if it means much. As of now I'm chalking up to negotiation tactics to get an even better lease. No offense but given previous accusations the writer of the article made most of which I found to be a joke I can't take what he writes seriously. Then again given his overall portfolio of work I'm not one to take him seriously no matter the subject.

[leedsunited]

Recent news:

ESPN Article

Setting the stage for a move to KC?

This is after begging for taxpayer relief to help the bid go through.

At some point, you've just got to know when to fold 'em.

Actually if you look at the date you notice that it is not new news. It's over a week old which in this story is pretty old news.

Yeah, I remember reading the article when it was new, but I couldn't be arsed to search for this thread and resurrect it.

Still, doesn't seem like a helluva lot of a progress is being made on the Preds sale, one way or another. Old news or not, it does seem like the local ownership group doesn't exactly have it's act together.

[otherwilds]

Guess who's back...

Tennessean.com Friday, 10/12/07

Group dismisses Balsillie's offer

The Canadian billionaire businessman who tried to buy the Nashville Predators a few months ago - and annoyed fans by making preparations to move them out of Music City - is now trying to get back in the game.

Jim Balsillie, co-chief executive officer of the company that invented the Blackberry handheld wireless device, wants to buy the Predators without making any changes to their lease of the city-owned arena that would hurt Metro taxpayers, a representative said in a letter to the Metro Sports Authority this afternoon.

[oz615]

Guess who's back...

Tennessean.com Friday, 10/12/07

Group dismisses Balsillie's offer

The Canadian billionaire businessman who tried to buy the Nashville Predators a few months ago - and annoyed fans by making preparations to move them out of Music City - is now trying to get back in the game.

Jim Balsillie, co-chief executive officer of the company that invented the Blackberry handheld wireless device, wants to buy the Predators without making any changes to their lease of the city-owned arena that would hurt Metro taxpayers, a representative said in a letter to the Metro Sports Authority this afternoon.

Great,that's just great,and this endless soap opera continues,and the Kats folding.I CAN'T TAKE MUCH MORE OF THIS .

[HedleyLamarr]

Well, there's always Vanderbilt athletics....