Nashville Predators moving to Canada? NOPE! Sorry, Canucks (and KC!)...

That Nashville arena looks pretty sweet. I was actually in Nashville last week, one day after local fans held a rally for the team to stay put. Another 700 season-ticket orders were made at the rally. Not sure of their entire ticket base, but for one day, that's pretty good.

Besides, these people need to watch some hockey while they're enjoying a Yazoo (a local TN beer).

 

700 for one day is good when your trying to save the team? Wow you don't really set the bar high do you.

 

And now we have Jeremy Jacobs as chairman of the Board of Governors.

Sometimes the NHL reminds me of the CFL.

They succeed DESPITE themselves.

Balsillie is EXACTLY the kind of guy the league needs.

 

He and Katz would be a great new breed of owner in the NHL – Billionares whop actually want to get things done, instead of just sitting and waiting for tyhe process to work itself out. Cuban would be a great fit as well.

 

If Balsillie wants to own an NHL team, fine. I'm sure he'd be good for the league. But he's got to play by the rules.

He was deceitful at every turn in his attempt to buy the Nashville Predators, and he got what he deserved. Balsillie saw an opportunity to buy a team and move it to Canada, but instead of letting things play out in their natural course, he tried to circumvent the process and buy his way out of the lease, then leverage $500 deposits from people in Hamilton to hasten the process. It was a despicable, thinly-veiled ploy. Thankfully, it looks like the local folks in Nashville have gotten enough money to put in a competitive bid and keep the team where it belongs.

 

Cuban's a fraud. He expressed an interest in a share of the ownership group Mario Lemieux cobbled together when the Pittsburgh Penguins were coming out of their second bankruptcy, but once he saw the financials, turned tail and ran back to Texas.

 

Don't disagree but the fact is Balsillie offered approximately $30 million more than the group that just bought it.

And Nashville's just got a lung transplant but they're done in 3 years---max.

Only that fucking idiot Bettman would try and stop a potential buyer from putting a team in, as I've said a million times, the largest and most lucrative hockey market in THE WORLD. And, as Pastor would say, that's a fact, Jack.

The team doesn't "belong" in Nashville any more than teams "belong" in places like Phoenix, Miami or Atlanta.

 

You're wrong, just flat-out wrong.

Leipold made two big, big mistakes in his ownership of the Predators. One, he failed to maximize revenues for Powers Management, which controls all the non-hockey events at the arena. Two, his marketing team did a piss-poor job engaging the large corporate community.

With the local ownership group, the ties to the large businesses in the area will be much stronger, and I expect it will have a significant impact on the ticket sales. As has been written many times, the fan base Nashville has more than done its job. It's the corporate community that has lagged behind. Individuals account for a much higher percentage of the season ticket base in Nashville than the other NHL markets.

Second, by bringing in Boots Del Baggio as a minority owner, the arena will be able to book a lot more events through his AEG connections. With profits on that side of the business going up, plus some concessions from local government, the franchise will probably break even or make money.

 

The Preds will soon be a fond NHL memory, 'cause there ain't no way they're long for Nashville.

 

He is not wrong this is a team that had 110 points and couldn't fill the stands and you say the fans are supporting the team. What happens if they are not a playoff team what kind of fan support will they get then?

 

Isn't this talk "dead" yet? JR finished it in the NHL thread. I move to have JR declare it over

 

Not quite, apparently.

Spinning makes some good arguments but no matter how brilliant the marketing geniuses are in Nashville, Leopold accepted about $30 million less from these guys than what Balsillie offered to move the team to a market that would generate more revenue than the Preds could ever hope to achiieve.

And as JC points out, they made the playoffs and still couldn't fill the stands. And from what I hear, they practically papered the house to get the fans there in the first place.

Comments about Balsillie's notwithstanding, it's only further proof that Bettman is an incompetent baboon.