A Matter Of Dollars And Sense
 | The NHL owners went to Florida to party and sunbathe, but wound up trying to deal with the vexing problems that plague hockey: rising salaries, boring games, sagging attendance and the likely loss of several franchises Peter Gammons, Sports Illustrated Vault November 29, 1976 Source |
Perspective; Team Profits and Labor Peace
| Andrew Zimbalist, New York Times July 05, 1998 Source |
The Relation between New Arenas and Gate Receipts in the National Hockey League
 | This study examines the relation between the attributes of National Hockey League (NHL) arenas and gate receipts generated by NHL clubs over a period spanning the 1989/1990 through 1997/1998 NHL seasons. We find that the annual gate receipts of eight established NHL clubs increased on average by 47% after they moved into new arenas during the 1990s. This increase greatly exceeds a corresponding increase of 17% for other NHL clubs over the same period. These results hold after controlling for other factors that affect gate receipts, including the quality of clubs, the population and per capita income of a club’s metropolitan area, and a time trend variable. We estimate that a new arena with the average number of luxury and club seats of other new arenas would increase the gate receipts of the Pittsburgh Penguins by approximately $6 million per season in constant 1997 dollars. In short, this study documents that new arenas have a substantial effect on the revenues of NHL clubs. Katz Graduate School of Business, University of Pittsburgh April 22, 1999 Source |
Study names best, worst cities for sports franchise
| American City Business Journals analyzed 172 markets across America to determine their economic ability to support additional professional teams in baseball, football, basketball, hockey and soccer. The study focused on markets without a team in at least one of the five major sports. LA was the most underserved with Philadelphia, Portland, Orlando and Houston also showing excess sport dollars waiting to be spent. Phoenix was the most overextended markets with Tampa-St. Petersburg, Pittsburgh, Kansas City and Denver being the cities that are shortest on total personal income fort he teams they already have. The study concludes that based on total personal income levels, a total of 26 markets have the economic capacity to support an NHL franchise that does not currently have one. The study may be a little too optimistic as it apparently justifies market sizes for 36 new NFL teams, 1 MLB team and 20 more NBA teams. But as other information on Manitoba Mythbuster website shows, the size of the market alone means little to franchise success and sustainability. However this study is a handy starting point to start the prequalifying process. G. Scott Thomas, Birmingham Business Journal November 29, 2002 Source |
The NHL In Trouble?
| One of the most detailed articles reviewing the state of the economics of pro sports and the differences in hard and soft salary caps and luxury tax systems. Although wrote before the NHL lockout season, so much of the article could have been wrote current day with the new CBA in hand. As such the article provides a great understanding of the issues, which seemingly have gone unchanged for many of the NHL's stakholders including the proverbial family of four. The article's conclusions may be stark but may become more realistic as time moves forward. Matt Witting, WashingtonHockey.com February 10, 2003 Source |
Los Angeles Kings Financial Report
| A fan of the LA Kings with a financial background goes the extra mile in trying to understand how his team can be losing millions every season and provides some suggestions to better the situation. Phil Propper July 01, 2003 (Link not available to source) |
Coyotes' strike a real deal
| ESPN's Darren Rovell details the Coyotes lease in Glendale. With all rink revenues going to the team and the far majority of arena build costs going to the city of Glendale the article makes the point that this is one of the best leases in all of the NHL. Darren Rovell, ESPN.com December 23, 2003 Source |
Doomsday on the horizon
| A terrific blog wrote back in the days of the NHL work stoppage talking about the need for revenue sharing and cost certainty and how they interrelated. What is key to the article are the quotes in it from NHL staff. How large should the revenue sharing extend? How does successful teams swallow a plan that sends million to the same weak teams every year? Most of these questions relate to where we are today. And this might be the biggest bit of evidence that the CBA as it is has not addressed the reality fully. Darren Rovell, ESPN.com April 02, 2004 Source |
CBA: Bettman and revenue sharing
| A terrific blog wrote back in the days of the NHL work stoppage talking about the need for revenue sharing and cost certainty and how they interrelated. What is key to the article are the quotes in it from NHL staff. How large should the revenue sharing extend? How does successful teams swallow a plan that sends million to the same weak teams every year? Most of these questions relate to where we are today. And this might be the biggest bit of evidence that the CBA as it is has not addressed the reality fully. Andrew's Dallas Stars Page September 26, 2004 Source |
Welcome to Winnipeg
| Edmonton Sun's Robert Tychkowski compares the sports landspace in Winnipeg to that of Edmonton during the 2005 NHL lockout. The article focuses on the loss of the Jets and what the team meant to Winnipeg. Comments from the Manitoba Moose staff downplayed their intent to bring back NHL hockey to Winnipeg. Robert Tychkowski, Edmonton Sun January 09, 2005 Source |
Collective Bargaining Agreement (2005) between the NHL and NHLPA (PDF)
| NHL, NHLPA July 01, 2005 (Link not available to source) |
Hurricanes yet to hit goal on sponsorships
| Chris Baysden, Triangle Business Journal August 26, 2005 Source |
A team-by-team look at all 30 NHL franchises
| While some of the predictions during the lockout were overly negative, this article presents each team's payroll pre-lockout as well as their announced attendance averages. This may be helpful hindsight in understanding how bad and for how long things have been bad in certain NHL cities. TSN.ca December 15, 2005 Source |
Don't Believe the Gripe: The NHL Is Back
| The Business of Sport One of the great fears of the NHL losing an entire season was that the fans would not come back. Between the end of the lockout and the next season left just 90 days to sell all of the big ticket items such as luxury suites and club seats. The NHL has come back very quickly in most markets. The article paints a rosy picture about a national US TV deal that simply was too rosy now looking in hindsight. But it does offer some understanding of all the revenue streams that a modern NHL team must sell and the excitement of the NHL being back. Now almost 4 seasons later, the bloom has clearly fallen off that rose in many markets where hockey never gained a foothold. Evan Weiner, The New York Sun June 16, 2006 Source |
The NHL bounced back last season after a yearlong lockout, but what's next?
| Shelly Anderson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette October 04, 2006 Source |
NHL On The Rebound
| The writers make the case that franchises bought just previous to the work stoppage are now worth much more than in the past based on sounded financials via the new CBA. They explain that the NHL's middle teams can count on a revenue sharing system to help them out which has caused a further increase in club values. The big markets are happy since they no longer put extra cash into players salaries making themselves handsome profits even after paying their share into revenue sharing. However, the US TV deals need to be addressed as they net each club only $2 million per season, compared to over $30 million per NBA and MLB clubs. Guaranteed long term contracts need to be addressed as well as inequalities with the revenue sharing system requirements such as not taking into full account the rink leases and government subsidies each team may collect. Michael K. Ozanian and Kurt Badenhausen, Forbes.com November 09, 2006 Source |
NHL Team Valuations
| Special Report Forbes Magazine charts NHL team revenues in November 2006. Forbes.com November 09, 2006 Source |
A tale of two NHL cities – this is the first one
| Howard Bloom, Sports Business News November 14, 2006 Source |
A tale of two NHL cities – this is the second one
| Howard Bloom, Sports Business News November 15, 2006 Source |
