At the NHL Board of Governors' meeting this week, commissioner Gary Bettman said the league is displaying "cautious optimism" with respect to future revenues after this year's global financial crisis.
However, if you are Phoenix, Nashville, Tampa Bay, or the New York Islanders, the "cautious optimism" ship had sailed a long time ago. These teams, reportedly, are in economic turmoil, with previous seasons' financial issues becoming even worse now. The current North American economic landscape may have only exacerbated their problems.
Phoenix Coyotes Losing Millions
Despite an increase in attendance of over 1,000 per game from last season, an abundance of good young players, and arguably the game's greatest player behind the bench, the Phoenix Coyotes are in financial trouble. Phoenix has been, by club president Doug Moss's own admission, losing millions over the past few seasons and reportedly losing millions more this season. It's never a good sign when an executive like Moss refuses to specifically cite how many season ticket holders his club has, but yet answers the inquiry by stating that the figure is "too low".
Tampa Bay Lightning Money Woes
Not only are the Lightning a mess on the ice (winning only two of their last 16 games through December 9th) but they're allegedly just as bad off the ice. Sirius/XM's "Hockey Night In Canada" host Elliotte Friedman reported on December 9th that things are so bad in Tampa that new owners Oren Koules and Len Barrie might not be able to make their next payment to former owner William Davidson, due just after the new year. If those reports are true, then that may result in the team's ownership possibly being reverted back to Davidson.
Predators and Islanders Falling Attendance
According to ESPN.com, these two clubs are in the basement among NHL clubs in attendance this season, both averaging around 13,500 fans for home games, and they've been perennially among the bottom ten clubs in attendance since 2002. This is paid attendance, not actual attendance, and as any fan who's ever been to a pro sporting event knows, paid attendance and actual attendance figures are two VERY different figures, so there may well be a lot fewer fans walking through the doors of their respective teams' arenas and a lot more empty seats than what these clubs are reporting.
Add to this the potential issues the Detroit Red Wings may face if a potential federal bailout of the city's big three automakers fails, a sinking Canadian dollar, and that corporate sponsorship of all clubs and the league as a whole should significantly drop, and you have a league that may see financial trouble on the horizion.
Financial issues are nothing new to NHL franchises. Mario Lemieux emerged as the Pittsburgh Penguins' owner after the club declared bankruptcy in 1999. This was the same Penguins club whose office doors were padlocked in 1975 when the club was unable to pay creditors. Former Kings' owner Bruce McNall once defaulted on a $90 million bank loan for the club and so financially mismanaged the team that he was subsequently forced to sell the franchise.
Bettman Urges Caution
. Bettman admits that some may think his expectations of "real revenue growth" this season and his financial approach of "cautious optimism" may be "Pollyannish". But after the NFL, NBA, NASCAR, and the company that runs Major League Baseball's Internet division all slashed payroll, it almost seems it's a matter of when and how much, and no longer if, the NHL will be the next major professional sports league to be adversely affected by the global economic downturn.
