But, lets face it, if we cant draw 14,000 to one of the best, most exciting teams in the NHL, do we really deserve an NHL team? 14,000 is not a large number.
I'm doing my part, season tickets and all and will try to bring as many new people as I can, but if it just doesnt work, it just doesnt work.
I love hockey, next to college football, its my favorite sport. I go to MTSU hockey games, I go to Knoxville Ice Bear games. If the Preds move, I wont stop being a hockey fan. That's like saying my favorite Italian restaurant closed, so I'm never eating Italian again.
Personally, if the Preds move, I'd love to see an AHL team here. That's quality hockey, with the chance to see some hot prospects, albeit on a smaller, more wallet friendly scale.
I've gone through it. It sucks. But I would never turn my back on hockey.
The NHL isn't the only "hockey" I've played most of my life and will continue to play, coach and be involved with hockey but I'll never be an NHL fan again.
Fair enough, but doesn't that just give ammo to those who say the fans never really cared much about hockey in the first place?
As someone who grew up in Atlanta and watched the NHL leave my hometown once already I can easily say it will be damn near impossible to support the NHL again. I have spent plenty of my home budget on the soon to be former Nashville Predators.( and yes I am renewing my season tickets) ..
I watched youth hockey explode in Atlanta in the late 70's ....I have watched it explode in Nashville over the last few years. I will always LOVE the game, but the NHL is aborting the plan they should have stuck with in the first place to try and grow the game...
NHL ratings continue to drop... They have a much bigger issue than just Nashville, and this isn't going to help one bit. I will miss the players...
As someone who grew up in Atlanta and watched the NHL leave my hometown once already I can easily say it will be damn near impossible to support the NHL again. I have spent plenty of my home budget on the soon to be former Nashville Predators.( and yes I am renewing my season tickets) ..
I watched youth hockey explode in Atlanta in the late 70's ....I have watched it explode in Nashville over the last few years. I will always LOVE the game, but the NHL is aborting the plan they should have stuck with in the first place to try and grow the game...
NHL ratings continue to drop... They have a much bigger issue than just Nashville, and this isn't going to help one bit. I will miss the players...
Well said! I believe that the NHL is imploding on itself -- bad leadership, bad marketing, bad TV contract, etc. It will never be taken seriously in the US as a "major" sport. If the Predators are relocated, the NHL will get $0 from me EVER...
When Ballz gets the team in his backyard, I will not support the NHL...
I really hate Balsillie. He was at a Pens game not very far from where I was sitting, back before his true intentions became known and the deal imploded. Looking at him, to me he looked and acted like a cocky slimeball. The next time he goes to an NHL game (and it won't be in Hamilton next season, at least) I hope somebody kicks his sorry ass.
And the NHL is the only hockey product in the world?
Bingo! I'll probably spend less than pocket change on the NHL if they leave Nashville. I'll get my hockey fix at lower levels such as college hockey. The NHL is slowly shriveling up under the leadership of Bettman, and this is a perfect example. He's ridden hockey from almost the #3 pro sport in the North American landscape to a point where it's teetering on not being considered 'major.' And now I'll join NHL owners and many Canadian elitists and step back and allow it to happen.
I've got a dumb question, but before I start I want to state openly that I'm an Oiler fan who truly hopes you guys keep your team.
I can understand the feeling of not wanting to support a new owner that blatantly appears to want to drive the team out of town, but wouldn't more fun to screw Balsillie by making sure he doesn't create the conditions needed to justify a move? I'm no expert on your situation, but my sense is that the team has been pretty close to the level of fan support needed to keep the team in town. If true , the reported selling price of $220 million seems to be a pretty huge premium over the value of the team in place. However, wouldn't it be relatively "cheap" for the community to come up with enough additional ticketholders to cement the team in town. I know it would feel like giving into blackmail, but it seems to me that the cost to push the city over the top next year would be only a fraction of the premium Balsillie paid. In other words, if you really wanted to screw Balsillie over, its seems to me that'd be the way to do it.
I've got a dumb question, but before I start I want to state openly that I'm an Oiler fan who truly hopes you guys keep your team.
I can understand the feeling of not wanting to support a new owner that blatantly appears to want to drive the team out of town, but wouldn't more fun to screw Balsillie by making sure he doesn't create the conditions needed to justify a move? I'm no expert on your situation, but my sense is that the team has been pretty close to the level of fan support needed to keep the team in town. If true , the reported selling price of $220 million seems to be a pretty huge premium over the value of the team in place. However, wouldn't it be relatively "cheap" for the community to come up with enough additional ticketholders to cement the team in town. I know it would feel like giving into blackmail, but it seems to me that the cost to push the city over the top next year would be only a fraction of the premium Balsillie paid. In other words, if you really wanted to screw Balsillie over, its seems to me that'd be the way to do it.
Anyway, my two cents....
Best of luck preds fans.
if you look around, mostly in the "save the preds" stickied thread, you'll see that there's really no one abandoning the team, and many of us are going to extreme lengths to make this as difficult as possible, actually.
back when the Pens were going to relocate, due to not getting a new Arena ....
someone said on the Buffalo boards that both Buffalo and Toronto would have to agree with the idea of putting a team in Hamilton (because of its proximity to Toronto [40 miles] and Buffalo [80 miles])
back when the Pens were going to relocate, due to not getting a new Arena ....
someone said on the Buffalo boards that both Buffalo and Toronto would have to agree with the idea of putting a team in Hamilton (because of its proximity to Toronto [40 miles] and Buffalo [80 miles])
I hope you guys can keep you team
Balsillie has no intention of putting a team in Hamilton, nor would the NHL let him. That's a ruse to scare the people of Nashville out of buying tickets.
i feel bad for the fans of the preds down in nashville.however if the owner isn't selling out and losing $20 million a year,as an owner would you keep the team there if you bought it?if it wasn't sold could the franchise fold into non existance ?
i feel bad for the fans of the preds down in nashville.however if the owner isn't selling out and losing $20 million a year,as an owner would you keep the team there if you bought it?if it wasn't sold could the franchise fold into non existance ?
He's not losing 20 million dollars a year. The TEAM BY ITSELF was losing about 12, but due to his other team-related ventures(Powers Mgmt) he was losing, at most, about 3 million dolalrs a year.
Balsillie has no intention of putting a team in Hamilton, nor would the NHL let him. That's a ruse to scare the people of Nashville out of buying tickets.
So if the fans don't buy tickets, what do you think his 'Plan B' is ?
He's not losing 20 million dollars a year. The TEAM BY ITSELF was losing about 12, but due to his other team-related ventures(Powers Mgmt) he was losing, at most, about 3 million dolalrs a year.
Agreed. I'd be shocked if the Preds were losing 12 million a year. Remember when we were spending 26-28 million, and Leipold said we were 'barely' breaking even. That would imply that revenues were likewise. Is Leipold trying to tell us that despite higher attendance AND three home playoff games, that the Predators generated approximately that much in revenue this year, or using the $20 mil/yr loss figure, a fair bit less?
It's illogical and a fair bit insulting, and I'm sick of it. It's quite obvious that a significant portion of Predator-related revenue is finding its way onto Powers Management's books and off the Preds P&L. I'd love to see a consolidated set of financials. I would imagine that would harm Leipold's stance considerably though.
He's not losing 20 million dollars a year. The TEAM BY ITSELF was losing about 12, but due to his other team-related ventures(Powers Mgmt) he was losing, at most, about 3 million dolalrs a year.
Three million dollars a year is still a lot of money.
He's not losing 20 million dollars a year. The TEAM BY ITSELF was losing about 12, but due to his other team-related ventures(Powers Mgmt) he was losing, at most, about 3 million dolalrs a year.
Is this figure before or after the revenue-sharing injection from the league?
Is this figure before or after the revenue-sharing injection from the league?
that i'm not sure of. Leipold has had such a different take on numbers throughout this whole charade. He's thrown numbers out in the past, as SC alluded to, and nothing ever came close to what he's balefully bemoaning, these days. It's a little fishy.
....Several sources who have reviewed the Predators' lease say the city and NHL – not Balsillie – have the final say on whether the team will be allowed to defect to Canada or any other locale.
Say the Predators' average paid attendance was 13,500 next season. Nashville would merely have to cut a cheque to the team for the value of 500 season tickets – getting it to the 14,000 threshold – and the Predators' lease would be renewed for another three seasons.
Balsillie could still try to move the team, of course, but would likely face a thicket of legal woes – the last thing any CEO would want, let alone one whose company is entangled in controversy over the alleged backdating of stock options.
Yet even if Balsillie was able to navigate the Predators out of Nashville, there are indications any move could be complicated. While the NHL board of governors would ultimately decide whether Balsillie could move a team to southwestern Ontario, one investment banker who specializes in sports transactions said the RIM executive is similarly interested in burgeoning Las Vegas.
Las Vegas faces its own set of hurdles, to be sure. Casinos quietly oppose any pro teams coming to town. And the NHL would also want an expansion fee of some $150 million (U.S.).
There's a fair chance that Balsillie might walk away from this purchase, too, leaving the Predators idling in Tennessee and southern Ontario hockey fans – and Balsillie's bankers – eyeing teams like the Florida Panthers and Atlanta Thrashers even more closely.
Say the Predators' average paid attendance was 13,500 next season. Nashville would merely have to cut a cheque to the team for the value of 500 season tickets – getting it to the 14,000 threshold – and the Predators' lease would be renewed for another three seasons.
From what I got, the lease would only be renewed if the Preds pulled in 14k average paid attendance the following season, right?
From what I got, the lease would only be renewed if the Preds pulled in 14k average paid attendance the following season, right?
It is widely known here that the city can buy additional tickets to bring the number up to 14,000 (if necessary).
The problem is that the city says they "don't like to be bullied into buying tickets", so they probably wouldn't buy them... (I hate our "good ole boy" network of politicians here in TN)
It is widely known here that the city can buy additional tickets to bring the number up to 14,000 (if necessary).
Yeah I know that, but what I meant was that after the city makes up for the tickets not sold, the lease does not automatically get renewed for 3 years, but rather the team needs to pull in 14k average paid attendance the following year for the lease to get renewed, correct?
no....this will leave a bad taste in my mouth that will never go away.
I have spent a fortune on the Preds and if they move, that's the end of NHL hockey for me.
