NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman has responded to Air Canada's threat that they would pull sponsorship if Boston Bruins' defenseman Zdeno Chara was not punished for a hit which took place Tuesday against Montreal Canadiens forward Max Pacioretty. The Globe and Mail reports Bettman said: “Air Canada is a great brand as is the National Hockey League and if they decide that they need to do other things with their sponsorship dollars, that’s their prerogative,” when asked if he took the threat seriously.
Bettman said people around the NHL have commended the league for the way they handled the Chara hit.
Slam Sports enitially reported that one of the NHL's largest financial corporate backers sent a letter to the NHL demanding “immediate” and “serious” action against Boston Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara for his hit on Canadiens forward Max Pacioretty. Air Canada, who owns naming rights to Toronto's Air Canada Centre and sponsors other Canadian teams, wrote the commissioner's office after the NHL elected not to punish Chara.
"We are contacting you (Wednesday) to voice our concern over (Tuesday night's) incident involving Max Pacioretty and Zdeno Chara at the Bell Centre in Montreal," wrote Air Canada's director of communications Denis Vandal. "This is following several other incidents involving career-threatening and life-threatening headshots in the NHL recently."
"From a corporate social responsibility standpoint, it is becoming increasingly difficult to associate our brand with sports events which could lead to serious and irresponsible accidents; action must be taken by the NHL before we are encountered with a fatality.
"Unless the NHL takes immediate action with serious suspension to the players in question to curtail these life-threatening injuries, Air Canada will withdraw its sponsorship of hockey."
Air Canada reportedly sent his letter to all six Canadian NHL governors. Vandal continued: "While we support countless sports, arts and community events, we are having difficulty rationalizing our sponsorship of hockey unless the NHL takes responsibily to protect both the players and the integrity of the game."
NHL VP Mike Murphy ruled that Chara's hit had “no basis to impose supplemental discipline.”
While some have suggested Air Canada is simply looking for good publicity, the NHL still has a problem on their hands. The head office has faced criticism for the arbitrary nature of nearly every suspension or fine this season. Many players and personnel have expressed confusion about what hits warrant suspension or fine.
It is extremely unlikely Air Canada would pull sponsorship due to one ruling, but the message should be enough for the NHL office to make an effort to clarify its rulings.
Matthew Coller is a staff member of the Business of Sports Network, and is a freelance writer. He can be followed on Twitter
Months ago, we pronounced this thing over. Speaking with a high-ranking Coyotes executive about how things would be different under new ownership, he seemed optimistic. The executive talked about having less financial strains on things not just player related like marketing and sales. “Whew, it’s over,” was his general sentiment.
Eggs counted, now for them to hatch…..
The Goldwater Institute has battled against deals to sell the Coyotes from the beginning. They were either right to question the Jerry Reinsdorf situation or ran him out of town. It seemed GWI was protecting the people of the City of Glendale. Lucky for the ‘Yotes, another buyer for the NHL-run franchise named Matthew Hulsizer dropped out of the sky with a cape on and offered to save the team.
The deal Hulsizer and the city agreed to sounds a little like something Henry Potter concocted. The city agrees to sell bonds as part of a $197 million plan to help Hulsizer buy the team for between $160 and $170 million. Glendale would pay $100 million to their new owner for the rights to parking revenue and pay him $97 million more to run Jobing.com arena. In turn, Hulsizer would pay off the NHL and the team’s debt to the league.
“An investment….not a gift”
While it’s a risk, if the deal doesn’t go through, ESPN.com said this week, the city will lose its team and more than $500 million. Enter: Goldwater Institute. The Phoenix Business Journal wrote Friday that Goldwater is threatening a lawsuit if Glendale tries to sell bonds. CEO Darcy Olsen, the Journal said, claims the city already owns the parking rights and should not have to buy them for $100 million. The city says that’s incorrect, but Olsen contends Hulsizer should borrow the money to buy the Coyotes, not be given it by the city.
Your move, commish
The Phoenix Coyotes were supposed to have a buyer by Jan 1. Three months later, things are log jammed due to Goldwater’s insistence that the city is getting a bad deal. Bonds cannot be sold until things are cleared up. Since Goldwater seems unrelenting, it becomes NHL commissioner Gary Bettman’s move. The commissioner has not set a timetable for Glendale to work out its deal for the Coyotes, but he may have to soon. The team loses around $20 million per year and the NHL is footing the bill – all while folks in Winnipeg patiently wait in hopes to get their team back.
While ESPN.com’s Scott Burnside questioned the motives of Goldwater. It appears the city is either guaranteed to lose millions or just likely to lose millions. Bettman has poured his soul into trying to keep this team in Phoenix, but how long can the NHL wait? Certainly not long enough to take another $20 million in debt.
What now?
ESPN's Burnside is reporting Glendale will sue Goldwater Institute alleging the firm interfered with the team's sale by reaching out to potential bond buyers warning them not to purchase the municipal bonds. The NHL hired a former Reinsdorf associate to work with Goldwater to work out the two sides' differences. However, Burnside said, the NHL has reached its breaking point and may have to move quickly if the differences are not resolved.
Matthew Coller is a staff member of the Business of Sports Network, and is a freelance writer. He can be followed on Twitter
The Associated Press is reporting that the Atlanta Thrashers' owners said they have lost more than $130 million since 2005 and that the franchise is worth $50 million less because of a dispute that ended plans to sell the team.
These number were filed in a lawsuit by Atlanta Spirit, who owns the team, against a city law firm. Atlanta Spirit claims faulty legal work is to blame for the sale not going through.
The suit, according to the Press, claims the owners had been trying to sell the team over the past six years but things came to a halt due to a split with co-owner Steve Belkin. The Boston-based Belkin's shares were finally bought out in December.
Remaining owners of the Thrashers' claim is that the dispute should have ended in August 2005, but didn't because the Atlanta law firm King & Spalding hadn't negotiated a “fatally flawed contract.”
King & Spalding, the suit says, were hired to negotiate Belkin's buyout and give Belkin fair value for his 30 percent stake in the team. Atlanta Spirit says they gave Belkin too much, then tried to conceal their error.
"Instead of quickly buying out their co-owner's interest for a fair price in the fall of 2005, plaintiffs were tied up in litigation for five years, operation of the Atlanta Hawks and the Atlanta Thrashers was impaired and title to the franchises was clouded," the lawsuit said.
While Canada licks its chops in hopes of the Thrashers heading North, the Thrashers sit toward the bottom of the league in attendance and the NHL can't be pleased with more ownership troubles. Atlanta Spirit originally wanted to sell the team in the same range as franchises such as the Tampa Bay Lightning who sold for $204 million, but they say it is extremely unlikely they could sell for anywhere near that price.
Matthew Coller is a staff member of the Business of Sports Network, and is a freelance writer. He can be followed on Twitter
The NHL gets it. Last year, the league increased its emphasis on providing the better web coverage and saw a great deal of success in doing so. The powers that be have turned their efforts to improving NHL Network. First step? Put good people in charge.
Former executive producer for ESPN's Sportscenter Mark Preisler will now take the same position at NHL Network. This makes the second major hire at NHL Network in the past few months. Charles Coplin, who was president of programming for the NFL, was hired to overhaul NHL Network in late August last year. No surprise, Coplin was quoted in the press release announcing Preisler.
“The NHL is thrilled to have Mark join our team,” said Coplin. “The NHL Network is a vitally important platform that allows our millions of our fans across North America to follow their favorite teams and players. We look forward to the broadcast experience that Mark will bring to the Network to bring our fans even closer to the action and tell the great stories of our players in greater depth.”
NHL Network's push for success doesn't end with two top executives from two wildly successful sports entities, but the league joined hands with one of Time Warner Cable's programming execs to help drive distribution, SportsBusiness Journal's John Ourand reported in December. David Proper signed on as the NHL's executive vice president of media strategies.
It isn't a new strategy, but it sure is a good one: use media to sell, the more people know, the more they care. Take the NFL for example: quality of coverage has increased at a ridiculous rate on NFL Network as well as all the networks which cover the league. It shouldn't come as a surprise that every network has set viewership records and the popularity of the NFL is at an all-time high. The NHL is merely following the blueprint of increasing the quality of coverage to see dividends.
Matthew Coller is a staff member of the Business of Sports Network, and is a freelance writer. He can be followed on Twitter
NHL attendance is up 0.2 percent from December last year. While it isn’t a large gain, the numbers indicate that 16 teams have seen bumps in attendance anywhere from 0.1 percent to 13.2 percent. The Nashville Predators had the biggest gain going from 80.2 percent at last mid-season and 93.4 this season. Nine teams suffered a drop in attendance from the mid-point of last year, including losses of 13 percent by the Dallas Stars and New York Islanders.
Last year, the NHL ended two percent up from their mid-point attendance numbers. Some of the teams who have low numbers this year at mid-point such as the Phoenix Coyotes at 58.8 percent could see major recovery if they are again competitive. The Coyotes filled 12 percent more of their arena in the second half than they did in the first. The Atlanta Thrashers have struggled to bring fans in, but if they continue to pressure the Washington Capitals for the division lead, it’s likely they’ll see a similar recovery to Phoenix. The Los Angeles Kings have filled nine percent more of their arena while the Carolina Hurricanes are putting seven percent more bodies in seats than at this point last year. Here are all the numbers:
*Correction - Tampa Bay was included in final numbers, but was accidentally not transfered over to the list. The Lightning have filled 11.6 percent more of their arena than at mid-season last year. My apologies.*
Matthew Coller is a staff member of the Business of Sports Network, and is a freelance writer. He can be followed on Twitter
The Atlanta Thrashers have been one of the NHL’s biggest early season surprises. They currently sit one point behind the Washington Capitals for first place in the Southeast division. The problem: nobody in the city of Atlanta seems to know about their success. Atlanta currently ranks 28th in the NHL in attendance. Attendance struggles along with rumors about the possibility of moving the team have plagued the 2010 side of the Thrashers’ season.
The front office decided there was only one way to save the franchise: a mascot related publicity stunt. Atlanta Thrashers’ mascot Thrash stole a Zamboni in attempts to draw the type attention the team deserves for its hot start. Of course, stealing is wrong and Thrash was arrested. The only way Thrash will avoid jail time is if fans buy 5,000 additional tickets to remaining December home games.
Here’s the video created by Thrashers.com
It’s always fun to get the mascot involved, but it makes the team look desperate for attention. Can we imagine the Toronto Maple Leafs or Boston Bruins sending the mascot out on the freeway to sell an additional 5,000 tickets?
Matthew Coller is a staff member of the Business of Sports Network, and is a freelance writer. He can be followed on Twitter
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