Ok, a little (or a lot) of help is needed. I am trying to get a ballpark figure on the Sabres revenue to see if the proposed CBA would even make sense in this market (31 mil cap hoped for by Bettman)...
2003 year guesses
41 home games, average 12,500 tickets sold x $50/ticket = $25,625,000
65 luxury boxes sold, approx 50,000/ = $ 3,250,000
national tv contract = $ 4,000,000
local tv contract (thought I remebered this from the = $ 7,000,000
debacle last year, when there was bankruptcty hearings)
parking = $ ????????
merchandise = $ ????????
concessions (if Jacobs is even giving BTG a piece) = $ ????????
My running tally so far is 39,875,000... 60% of that figure is $23,925,000. 60% is the percent many hockey people are looking at as healthy % of salary as part of revenue. I think the NFL and NBA are at 63% and 61% (couldnt find the article, but just read it on Slam.ca about a week and a half ago).. I am just trying to calculate whether or not a team would be able to compete long term in this market. I dont know if there are plans for revenue sharing, because I cant see how Buffalo could survive long term w/out it. Granted my numbers, I'm sure, are way off, and attendance cant always be this bad, right? But the ticket prices are high for a depressed economy with a lot of other options to spend your entertainment dollar on; and ticket revenue seems to be a substanial portion of earnings (unlike the NFl an NBA). Can the cost of running a franchise here make sense long term? Whats your take?..
If this team wins on a somewhat regular basis, then it will be fine.
But, if the team struggles like it has the past two years and the team doesn't have any marquee stars to draw fans to games, then it could be in trouble long term, even with a salary cap.
I'm betting that the thinking is that a salary cap set at $31 million would allow each team in the NHL to have a star or two to market and that will help raise all ships.
Or they are buying into the NFL model where teams can rebuild so fast that fans are almost always interested because they have real hope that things can turn around for their team wuickly via FA.
The salary cap alone isn't going to give the Sabres more income, but it will seriously reduce the amount of money the teams with a lot of money can throw at free agents. If the cap is set a $31 mil, you may be able to put a decent team on the ice at $24 - $28 mil range. Revenue sharing would definitely help, but that would be a hard sell for the teams that are making money.
The danger I see is that if the stars can't get the money they want here, your going to have a lot of star players opting to play in Europe where there is not a sallary cap (as far as I know)
