The question is, are people going to keep wanting to pay to see what's left of the Predators after most or all of their stars are traded/leave via free agency? Not just the people who are now being asked to buy tickets to get to the 14,000 level, but those who already have them -- how many of them will give up? I can't help but wonder what would happen if the Predators' 07-08 is comparable to the Flyers' 06-07.

If the Preds get that 14,000 for the 2007-08 season but they drop below it the following year, can the team invoke that clause again and get out of the lease?

If they break 14,000 this season, it would start all over again. They would have to have two seasons in a row of less than 14,000 attendence plus another "cure" year. Of course, there is a dispute by Metro Nashville that this isn't even the "cure" year because of the lockout. Apparently, the year following a lockout isn't supposed to count... I dunno.

And this Preds' team still is a solid team. They still have Steve Sullivan, Jason Arnott, David Legwand, Alexander Radulov (who really made a name for himself in the playoffs), JP Dumont, Martin Erat. There's two very good lines for you just from those six. The defense was young last year except Timonen, and they were fantastic. Returning Weber, Hamhuis, Suter, Zidlicky, and Zanon isn't bad at all and Klein is ready IMO to make his mark on the NHL. The big question mark is Chris Mason. Hopefully he surprises me. It seems some in Nashville are obsessed with him and like hime MORE than Tomas Vokoun which I just don't get, but hopefully he'll make me understand this season.

And hell, we've gotta sign some folks just to get up to the cap floor, so we'll see what David Poile can do. If I trust anyone with putting together a team with limited resources, it's David Poile.

I don't think play on the ice is going to affect butts in seats in a negative way this year at all... we'll just have to see.

I found a website that has NHL salary cap information. I'm not sure about its accuracy but it seems pretty up-to-date; it has Daniel Briere's new contract factored into the Flyers' info. Here's what it says about Nashville:



Note that the cap figure is different from the salary figure because the cap figure is based on a player's average salary -- for example, Briere's cap figure is $6.5 million per year ($52 million over 8 years) but in 2007-08 he'll be paid $10 million.

Assuming they're not going to be much above the $34.3 million minimum, I guess the rest of the Predators will be current minor leaguers and/or less expensive free agents.

After signing Radek Bonk and Greg de Vries, I believe we're about a million give or take from the floor. It'd be great if we could get the ownership thing settled fast so we could steal someone after arb like we did last year with Dumont. Doubtful, but a boy can dream, right?

And now there's a local group involved...

The Tennessean

Wasn't Leipold looking for part-owners prior to deciding to sell the entire team? If so, where were these people then?

EXACTLY!

But better late than never. It just sucks that it had to get to this.

And the Balsillie bid story continues. In today's update - courtesy the Toronto Star - the lead paragraph states:
*****
Canadian billionaire Jim Balsillie remains confident in his offer to buy the Predators and is undaunted by a bid put forth by a group of Nashville businessmen seeking to keep the team from leaving. Rather, Balsillie's lawyer Richard Rodier believes the main obstacle preventing his client's $220 million deal (all figures U.S.) from being completed with Predators owner Craig Leipold is NHL commissioner Gary Bettman. "We have our money ready to hit the table if the commissioner changes his mind," Rodier told the Waterloo Region Record yesterday. "Very clearly, Mr. Leipold would love to sell the team to us. "You wonder just how much the commissioner may or may not be interfering with the sale process to the detriment of one of his owners, and perhaps, the detriment of his league."

The story concludes with:
"We seem to have a commissioner who doesn't want the team sold to us and who wants his owner Leipold to sell the team for a lot less money to someone else and put it in a questionable market," Rodier said. "We think the commissioner just doesn't want another team in Canada period. That's an issue that we're going to have to deal with."

The Nashville group, led by David Freeman, CEO of 36 Venture Capital, and Herb Fritch, CEO of HealthSpring Inc., has not said how much it has offered.

"We'll see if (the Nashville bid) ever amounts to anything," Rodier said. "Our bid is still in.''
******
There are other stories in Ontario media today about this and here are just some of the comments from various sport commentators.

- Objective evidence suggests that southern Ontario is overwhelmingly a better place to locate an NHL club than Kansas City, where the NHL failed before. Already, 13,000 deposits have been taken for season tickets to see Balsillie's NHL club play in Hamilton. Eighty luxury boxes are spoken for, too.

- This from Rodier (Balsillie's lawyer) "Very clearly, Mr. Leipold would love to sell the team to us. You wonder just how much the commissioner may or may not be interfering with the sale process to the detriment of one of his owners, and perhaps, the detriment of his league."

- Eventually, financial common sense must prevail no matter what league brass seems to prefer, right? Balsillie will pay more. Ontario is the best market. Can the NHL convince itself otherwise and deny what seems obvious?

Rodier... it doesn't matter if Bettman wants another team in Ontario or not. This is OUR team. You can't have it in your precious Canadian city! Buy it if you want, but you can't take it from us! This guy really pisses me off. He reminds me of this guy who started to post on the Preds' messageboards for a bit... he said that the Predators BELONGED to Hamilton... that they DESERVED what was RIGHTFULLY theirs. What?! Hey, if the league wants to expand, more power to ya in getting a team, but you're not entitled to just plucking up the franchise that we've built/grown with for 10 years. Sorry, Canada.

Hey Sooners - I can definitely understand your point and hear where you are coming from and do have some sympathy for you.

BUT - why is the NHL seemingly making it impossible for a money losing USA franchise to move from an American city where hockey is a marginal sport to a Canadian market where hockey is a religion. A market that is badly underserved and has huge untapped potential as proved by the 'Hamilton Predators' season ticket sales where people forked over their hard earned money for sizeable deposits on over 13,000 seats and 80 corporate boxes in 2 days! There are over 6 million people (most of them hockey fans) within a one hour drive of Copps Coliseum.

It looks even worse from a Canadian perspective in view of the fact that Bettman does not seem to have the same objections to your team potentially moving to KC. Plus in the past the NHL more or less greased the wheels in allowing teams to move from Canada (Winnipeg and Quebec).

I think the NHL's problem has been about how brazen Ballsack has been. Come into Nashville... at least act like you've given them a chance... and if attendence doesn't work out and you can legally break the lease, move the team. That's fine. I don't think the League would have been ticked about that. Instead, he puts in an offer to buy the team and then starts selling season tickets for a fictional franchise in Hamilton. How could he be expected to act in good faith to give Nashville a shot when he already has people's money in another city? IMO, the NHL isn't as much against Canada having another team as it is Canada stealing another franchise. He just hasn't been smart about this at all. Boots on the other hand... he secured the rights to the arena in Kansas City at a time when Pittsburgh ownership wanted a guranteed new home... somewhere. So, he has that in his back pocket, but he doesn't have the ties to KC that Ballsack has to Canada. He's not selling season tickets there. Etc etc. Bettman has, in fact, stated that he would love expansion to KC, but I don't think he really wants a franchise to relocate... especially one of his babies like the Preds. I don't know.

Sorry if I come off a little strong towards Canada... but we get so much crap from Canadian fans who think they're 100x better than us that it kinda makes ya a little jumpy.

One other thing... I don't buy the crap from Rodier that Leipold really wants to sell the team to them. I mean, he'd love the $$$, but I truly think he has a place in his heart for Nashville (ignore the first few posts from me on this thread haha)... why else do you think he's let it get to the point of accepting other offers? He's not going to get that much cash from anyone else... so if it was just about the money, he'd have the deal done already. But Ballsack has pissed him off just the same as he has the League by showing that he's not going to give Nashville a fair shake.

If he did that I bet people would then be saying "He wanted to move them all along. Why wasn't he up front with us back when he bought the team?"

This is such a bizarre situation...and so fitting for the NHL.

With apologies to Sooner - but yet another - very Canadian perspective - on this story. The headline on the article pretty much says it all....
"A Patriotic Quest.... Jim Balsillie is Determined to land an NHL team for Canada"
http://www.thespec.com/Sports/article/216903

Some quotes from the article...
- this is developing into a cross-border war: Balsillie determined to retrieve a team for Canada, NHL commissioner apparently just as determined to stick to his ABCs (Anywhere But Canada).

- Gary Bettman told The Spec twice within a New York minute at the NHL board meetings that "this is not a Hamilton story!", that is actually all it is. This is not Jim Balsillie vs. Gary Bettman, except as a metaphor for Perception vs. Reality; for American Footprint vs. A Real Hockey Market. The billionaire philanthropist is being vilified by the NHL because key people in the league and its commissioner cannot bring themselves to say aloud, "There's too much Canada here already."

- Make no mistake. Balsillie is committed not just to Canada, but to Hamilton. He's sunk a ton of very real cash into his effort already, and is willing to put another $160 million into Copps Coliseum renovations.

- If -- as is so apparent and will become more so in the next few weeks -- the NHL is determined to block any northern migration of franchises, the Canadian government needs to ask not only why, but who is supporting it. Loudly, and with transparent oomph. That should be proposed by local MPs (Members of Parliament)and it should also become a motherhood issue for Golden Horseshoe Conservatives who would like to make an impact in a non-Conservative city. You cannot fight fire with a water gun, especially the kind of flames which are being fanned behind closed clubhouse doors. That's why Balsillie's people are playing this the way they are. The free advice they're getting in newspapers and from anonymous NHL governors, telling them to observe the rules is not only useless, it's counterproductive. The rules are different for different people: the Predators or any other team heading for Kansas City or any other U.S. market will have a much easier ride than if they were to head here. Balsillie knows that hard truth and is staring it down. That's the nearly quarter-century history of Copps Coliseum and the NHL and Balsillie is choosing not to ignore history, because he doesn't want to be condemned to repeat it. Twice within six months he's got that history right between the eyes.
First, with the list of 20 conditions imposed by the league on his agreed-upon purchase of the Pittsburgh Penguins. A source says that included a promise not to approach the Canadian Competitions Bureau for seven years. Whoooee.

- His (Balsillie's) message: Canada is the place for the NHL to make money, potentially big money, these days, and they've got a potential owner with the wherewithal, the arena, and the love of hockey. By all reasoning, economic and nationalistic, he should have the backing of at least five of the six Canadian owners on this campaign. The question is: why doesn't he?

The Canadian media backlash against Bettman continues with this opinion piece on cbc.ca by Elliott Friedman - one of the Hockey Night In Canada hosts.
http://www.cbc.ca/sports/sportsblog/2007/0...care_about.html

Some of the more 'interesting' quotes:
****
- Back then, he made a convincing argument. He created the Canadian Assistance Plan against the wishes of several teams. He fought hard to solidify the Senators when bankruptcy beckoned. No city bought into the lockout more than Edmonton, hailing Bettman as the saviour who would slap down the big spenders and allow the Alberta capital to once again be the City of Champions. I don't know if that Bettman was kidnapped by aliens or was the greatest living actor not named Edward Norton. But, that commissioner is gone. In his place is a guy standing in the middle of a Nashville street, staring northward with his middle finger up in the air. Yes, this obscene gesture is directed at the hockey fans driving revenue growth since the lockout. Mr. Commissioner, you are wrong on this one. This league needs owners who love hockey. This league needs cities that love hockey. This league cannot afford to alienate fans who love hockey. And, with this move, you are doing all three.


- In February, Hockey Night In Canada did a Headliner on the future of the Predators. David Poile, the GM, was very honest. He said this was a huge year for Nashville. He felt a huge playoff run - the only thing the team had not accomplished under his watch - would save them. Anything less, and, well....
Unfortunately for Poile, the Predators were wiped out by San Jose. In comes Balsillie, offering money-haemorrhaging owner Craig Leipold almost $50 million more than the next highest bidder. He accepted - like any sane man would - and Bettman freaked like a teenage girl who walks into the prom and sees someone else in the same dress. Upping the bid even more won't help Hamilton Jim. There is no way Bettman was going to let this offer get anywhere near the board.


- You have to wonder, though, if there is any chance Bettman's power base is eroding. Not only is he killing a ridiculously high offer, which would inflate the value of other teams, but salaries are reaching/surpassing pre-lockout levels. The new minimum of $34.3 million is higher than 10 team payrolls from 2004-05. All-Star and Stanley Cup ratings set all-time lows in the United States. Plus, if he accepts this above-market bid, he can still make the other teams some expansion money by adding Kansas City and Vegas if he wishes. Why move a team and eliminate one expansion fee when you can move one and still add two? That's the question I'd be asking if I owned a team.

I also can't believe Leipold is putting up with this. He's one of Bettman's most loyal supporters, standing by him on the negotiating committee during the lockout. Meanwhile, he doesn't meddle as his expansion team grows into a contender, and hangs on for more than a decade in a market where the business community doesn't care. His reward: tens of millions of dollars in losses. Then, when someone offers him more than he can dream for this hockey Titanic, his good buddy berates him to say no. Some friend.

(By the way, this is not about Canadian hockey snobs, as someone wrote in a Nashville paper this week. I love the city. It is one of the best road trips in the NHL, and those who play there say it's a fantastic place to live. But, anyone who claims this market is better for the league than Hamilton is taking Barry Bonds' cat tranquilizers.) Hamilton, no. But Las Vegas and Kansas City, yes. Yeesh. Pencil in the next lockout for 2015.

*****

But it is about being Canadian hockey snobs as David Climer of the Tennessean put it.




I'm sorry but I can't help but agree with Climer here.

In other news, there's going to be a big rally at the Sommet Center tomorrow to support the Preds staying in Nashville. 104.5 the Zone will be carrying all of their shows live from the Center and will be holding a ticket-thon most of the day.

Also, the local group is very close to signing a letter of intent...



Everything looks so much better than it did a couple weeks ago... now if we can just sign someone good with the money we have left to reach the minimum and we might be all set to shock some folks.

GO PREDS!

Sorry Sooners - but I completely agree with Friedman. Canadian TV money and Canadian interest in hockey is what is keeping the NHL afloat. And the tiny commish - is doing everything he can to stop a team from coming to Canada - including apparently asking an owner to accept $50 million less for a franchise he has lost millions on to possibly sell it to somebody who wants to take your team to KC. He's not at all seeming to be primarily motivated by saving Nashville. And the gag order he has put on all owners - fining them if they dare even talk to Balsillie is just ludicrous!

So when those of us north of the border see that - what other conclusions are we to make - other than this commish is out to screw Hamilton - and by extension Canada. The bottom line is that the NHL would be a stronger league with a team in Hamilton - owned by Balsillie - than it will be if the team stays in Nashville under local ownership that apparently requires a radio telethon to sell tickets to succeed - or if it moves to KC with Bettman's/LA Kings buddies' offer. Who knows what will happen - maybe Nashville will rally around and save their team - but don't think for a minute that will be the end of Balsillie. - Hamilton Panthers anyone?

By the way here is Friedman's follow-up to the previous post I quoted him on.. Again this is from cbc.ca.

*****
Anyway, I didn’t intend to turn this into a Canada vs. USA debate or a “Let’s Repatriate the Stanley Cup” march on Parliament Hill. What I didn’t articulate well enough was this: Bettman’s handling of the Hamilton/Nashville/Balsillie/Leipold soap opera makes it clear that it’s extremely unlikely Canada is going to be adding another team anywhere as long as Bettman is around.

What’s bothersome is that Bettman himself -- in his State of the Union before Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final -- promoted the idea of being “intrigued” (his word, not mine) with the idea of returning to Winnipeg. Like any Canadian, I’d love to see the Jets return. But let’s be honest, the Hamilton bid has so much more going for it than anything the Manitoba capital has tried. It’s got: 1) a larger population within driving distance; 2) a wealthier population within driving distance; 3) much greater corporate support in the region; and most importantly, 4) an extremely wealthy owner willing to make it work.

Mark Chipman has done a fantastic job with the AHL's Moose and the MTS Centre, but he alone cannot make the NHL work. That’s the question: Who would own the club? Even the powerful Asper family, which is about to buy the CFL’s Blue Bombers, has not shown interest. Until somebody with that kind of money steps up and says, “Give me a team in Winnipeg!” it’s not even worth discussing. What would make this interesting, though, is if Jim Balsillie called Bettman’s bluff and said he’d run an expansion team there. I don’t understand why some people out there say, “Oh, this is just about the rogue bid by Balsillie or the Maple Leafs.” Please.

If we’re talking a polite Winnipeg bid instead of this Hamilton try, does anyone believe Bettman would be acting any differently? How does Winnipeg help his vision for the NHL, the one that includes Kansas City and Las Vegas? Hey, if someone wants to pay $250 million or so for an expansion franchise in either of those two places, go ahead. I can play blackjack for hours in Vegas. And KC has some of the best barbecue restaurants in North America. I love travelling. I’ll be happy go.

I can understand why Bettman chases the U.S. TV dream. After all, he pulled it off before – a stunning $600-million deal with ABC/ESPN signed in 1999, probably his greatest accomplishment as commissioner. But a repeat seems so unlikely right now, thanks to the disastrous numbers for the Stanley Cup on NBC. What Bettman should be concerned with is making sure he’s got stable franchises run by stable, hockey-loving ownership. It’s not being anti-U.S. to look at what’s happening in Nashville and say, if it’s a choice between that situation and what Balsillie could do in Hamilton, the best thing for the league is Hamilton.

Show me a situation that’s better for the NHL – one that could actually happen, mind you – and I’ll admit it. But I don’t understand what’s wrong with taking $238 million from Balsillie, and then $400-$500 million or so from two expansion owners, if you’re so determined to do it.
****

Sure... maybe then we can get Vokoun back!

And this says it better than I can... from Eklund on hockeybuzz.com...

No long quotes from other people tonight... don't worry!

All I have to say to city of Nashville is CONGRATULATIONS AND GREAT JOB! They sold over 700 season ticket packages today!!! That is simply amazing! The rally was amazing (it sounds like) drawing well over 7,000 fans to the arena to show their support for the Predators. Among those present were Governor Bredesen (a key politician in bringing sports to Nashville when he was mayor) and his wife.

Sorry, Canada, this team is in Nashville to stay!!!

Full season plans or does that include people who bought partial plans like a 10-game plan or such?

I've seen two different reportings: >700 season tickets and >700 season ticket equivalents. I would think it'd be the equivalents (which I assume you figure by adding up partial plans to equal 1 season ticket).

Their goal at the start of the day was 300. When they saw they were going to blow that away, they said okay, let's get 500. Obviously, the city really stepped up to the plate today.

It's just interesting because I saw on another messageboard posted that when Pittsburgh was kind of in this situation, they only had around 400-500 people show up for a couple rallies. We had 7,500! Sucks that it came to this point, it really does, but we've clutched this team back into our hands, and we're not letting go.

I'd also like to eat the massive amount of crow that I deserve for absolutely railing on Leipold when this all started. He's essentially turned down two amazing offers to help keep the team in Nashville by (hopefully) selling it to the local group. So the Canadians can whine and moan about Bettman not wanting the team in Canada, but I think it has as much if not more to do with Leipold not wanting the team out of Canada. Ballsack told him he would give Nashville a shot, and then he went and showed that he had other plans. That may have pissed Bettman off, but it definitely pissed Leipold off. He wants the team in Nashville. Period.

I'll guess that the report of 700 tickets that didn't specify equivalents was just some reporter doing an abbreviated report, like a music radio station where the DJ just says "rain today" instead of "Partly cloudy with a 20 percent chance of a shower later this afternoon."

This is good -- Keep the Predators in Nashville so I can make it down there someday when the Flyers visit again.



To be fair, though, Balsillie never got as far along in the process when he tried to buy the Penguins as he did in attempting to buy the Predators.

Well, that's true... but don't rain on my parade, Joe!

The Tennessean playing tricks with cameras again - this time in a positive way!

(except the picture doesn't show up... I'll post a link later)

Back in February after the Ducks game that only drew 10k+, they ran an article about attendance that featured a picture of an older couple sitting in the club section, CLEARLY before a game had started or during intermission. So, I'm glad they have this picture making it look like an even larger crowd was present than really was. It's kinda like when we took that statue of Saddam down in Baghdad forever ago and the crowd present was just a handful of locals whereas TV used tight shots to make the crowd look larger.

Wow, it's late and I'm rambling...

GO PREDS!

The final tally is in: 726 new season ticket equivalents were sold on Thursday! Of those, slightly more than half were located in the lower bowl and/or club level, the two areas obviously most pushed to businesses. The Preds, however, didn't have a breakdown yet of individual buyers to corporate buyers. Traditionally, Nashville has had one of the strongest individual season ticket holder bases in the league in terms of percentages of total STHers, somewhere in the ratio of 80-20 individual to corporate, a big reason for why we're in this mess.

Congrats Sooners.
Yes 700+ season tickets is great for one day for a team that actually exists. But keep in mind within 3 days Hamilton gave Balsillie deposits on over 13,000 individual season tickets and deposits on 80 corporate boxes for a team that doesn't even exist - yet.

Here's hoping that Balsillie finds a team to move here or the NHL wakes up and if they plan on expanding by two teams that one of them MUST be awarded to Balsillie and Hamilton and not to Vegas and KC as rumoured.

Since Nashville already has a team, they already have thousands of season ticketholders who wouldn't need to rush down and buy tickets again. So 13,000 vs. 700 isn't an entirely valid comparison.

Also, does giving a deposit legally bind those people to buy tickets should the team relocate? Or are they entitled to change their mind and get their deposit back?

I just don't see why Ballsack feels so entitled to a team. He could have had ours... just not where he wants it. Regardless of Bettman's role in all of it, the city of Nashville would have stepped up to get over 14,000 and thus prevent any move. It must be heartbreaking that he couldn't steal our team.

i hate to say it - but, i fell the preds will be playing in KC within 3 years.

Why would the local group move to Kansas City? Plus, if we reach 14k this year (and all indications are we will), the team can't move until after three more seasons after this which would be four years.

The Hamilton ticket drive is of course refundable. But people had to put up $500.00 deposit per seat and corporations double that I believe for a box. I have been told there is now a waiting list for corporate boxes of 20+ and a waiting list for lower bowl season tickets too. And people have paid deposits to be on those waiting list even! So indeed if some of those who got deposits in before them back out - others are already there to take their place.

It is reported that if there were any real chance of getting Leaf season tickets that the waiting list for those would top 30,000. But because they only go through 5-10 names on the waiting list each year - and the current list has thousands of names already on it - others don't bother adding their names to the waiting list knowing that they don't realistically ever stand a chance of ever getting them. Many of those companies and people are the ones who jumped at the Hamilton tickets with Copps Colliseum being just a 45-50 minute drive from the ACC.

And Balsillie wants a team - yes - but he wants it for Hamilton! He doesn't want it just for the sake of owning an NHL team. He recognizes that the best business case is for a team in Hamilton. Plus he's from this area and wants to do something good for this area. And the bottom line is this area should have had another team a long time ago and certainly should have one before either KC or Vegas. And should any other team struggle financially - like Nashville has for 10 years - then there is a very good business case to sell to Balsillie and move the team here. He's willing to overpay to do that - as his Nashville bid proved - because he knows that the extra $30-$50 million he offered for the team + the $120 -$160 million he is willing to spend to renovate Copps - would be money well spent because he would earn it back with the revenue a Hamilton based team would generate. The same can NOT be said of any potential new American market.

So, yes or no, it's okay for someone to just pluck a team away from one city to take it to an area that "should have had a team a long time ago?" How is that fair to the thousands of Nashville fans who have lived and died with the team for ten years? It's not. We're fixing the corporate thing. The individual fan has always been there. One of the most passionate fan bases in the NHL...

Two things - 1) as I've said so many times, 10 years does not a hockey market make. Get back to me if we start to struggle again a few years down the road when it's my peers who will be buying season tickets and giving the corporate support. 2) The new CBA was established to help the smaller market teams. We've had it for TWO YEARS! So, Mr. Leipold's losses were more than he wanted to have. That doesn't mean the new CBA hasn't worked... in fact, it has. It allowed him to field an incredibly talented team that simply didn't perform for a myriad of reasons when it counted - the playoffs. So, he's gonna let someone else give it a shot. In Nashville. Sorry, Ballsack.

I'm just gonna laugh really hard when Peter Forsberg re-signs with us and this whole attendance thing isn't even a question...

Hey Sooners - actually I have been torn on this Nashville to Hamilton thing - because crowds - although not great have been decent in Nashville - and it really seems like the city is rallying around them - which is great. I'd rather give Nashville a chance instead of moving the team to KC. I also thought Pittsburgh - with a new arena would be a very solid franchise and talks of moving that team made no sense once an arena deal was worked out.

As for moving a team to Hamilton - if they don't expand there - my first pick would be a team like the Islanders - who had 3,000 empty seats in a play-off implication game with 4 days left in the regular season against my Leafs. The New York City area can not adequately support 3 teams. Move the Islanders or Devils.

Failing that I guess the most likely prospect now - assuming Nashville is safe - would likely be the Florida Panthers - who just don't seem to have the support Tampa Bay has in Florida.

Yeah, I mean capacity wise, there were several teams lower than the Preds last year (in actual attendance, paid attendance might be a few less because Nashville had some high comps numbers last year). There's an obvious reason Tampa Bay has the support - the Cup. Though, I love how they announce they have this however many game sellout going on. I have been to so many games there the past couple years (I actually live in Sarasota now, after having lived in Nashville for the first 18 years of my life) that you could buy plenty of tickets for, but their capacity is lower than actual seats. I don't get it. It's not a thing where the seats aren't sold, and the people just aren't there... the seats aren't sold, but it's still a "sellout." Interesting.

I'd put Phoenix on your map before Florida though. But maybe I just don't want Tomas to get moved to a Canadian city...

Florida had the support prior to Huizinga moving the team out to the middle of a swamp, which is very difficult for the majority of South Floridians to get to after getting off of work....It's a 30-45 minute drive from Ft Lauderdale in the middle of rush hour....forget about Miami-Dade fans....
We had season tickets for 3 years, and it was a real challange for us to get our schedules together to get all the way up there. At least when they were in downtown Miami, you could hop on Metrorail and get there very easily....

Not sure why the egos of Wayne and Arrison could not have gotten together on the AAA...

The Islanders had support in their glory years. Just because they've had a string of pathetic owners and they're in an old arena doesn't mean they don't have a fan base willing to support them if they actually stepped up and competed. I'd say that overall they have a better fan base than the Devils, who have been perennial winners. Now that the Devils have a new arena they aren't going anywhere for a while...but I don't subscribe to the theory that the Islanders should move.

Media reports out of Nashville tonight spread some good news! The local group should enter into a letter of intent tomorrow (Wednesday), the first real solid step into purchasing the Preds for them. Hooray!

This writer is skeptical even if the sale to the local group is finalized.

Burnside hates the Predators - plain and simple. He might say the he loves them, his articles say otherwise.

If the local group can't get the corporate support and we're still losing money in a couple years, okay, thanks for the second chance. But my goodness, give them the chance. I think we've got some folks on board that can make it work. We'll see.

Also, Leipold really went off on Ballsack yesterday at the presser announcing the binding letter of intent with the local group. So Canada can take their conspiracy theories and shove 'em... Ballsack pissed Leipold off with the selling of tickets in Hamilton, etc... that's what ended that deal.

Probably true that Balsilie pissed Leipold off with the Hamilton ticket drive - but still somebody can piss me off if they want to give me $30 - $50 million more than anybody else. ;-)

Also I read a while ago in the Hamilton Spectator I believe - but can't find the story now on their website - that the entire reason for the Hamilton ticket drive was to support Balsilie - when going for approval of the sale to NHL Governors - as he was going to make as the centrepiece of his purchase proposal - his plan to move the franchise to Hamilton - and he had been advised by a number of NHL sources that the best way to ensure that would succeed, was to come with absolute proof that the Hamilton market would be a great market for the team. And the best way to do that - he was told - was come with proof of ticket sales and corporate support. That was the reason they did the ticket drive in Hamilton.

And that makes sense - and sounds at least somewhat more honourable than lying through his teeth to absolutely everybody - keeping quiet about his move plans and just buying the team and then picking it up and moving it after the fact.

Does Balsilie now agressively start offering big bucks for other NHL teams to see if he gets any bites from an owner wanting to make a quick buck to move them to Hamilton - or does he lay low for a couple of years and wait for an obvious target - if there is clearly a team struggling somewhere in the US South - where hockey interest is small and apparently waning? Be that Nashville again if the new group does not succeed or a team like Florida? Or how about Phoenix. Wouldn't that be interesting to perhaps strike up a partnership deal with Gretzky and company and have Wayne coaching in Hamilton just a few miles from his boyhood home. Wouldn't that be a great story - at least up here - maybe not in Phoenix.

Or will all of us 6 or 7 million people living in the Golden Horseshoe surrounding the western end of Lake Ontario be stuck with the Leafs, only the Leafs and more years of futility - now dating back to 1967?

The Preds' owner has extended a deadline for the local group to finalize the sale or lose exclusive negotiating rights. So for now, the quest to keep the team in Nashville continues...Oh look, an interesting blog entry!

I'm all with you on that blog entry to move the Devils Joe. I'll be curious to see what sort of crowd they get tonight - Toronto Night in the Garden State - with the Leafs in Newark and the Raptors at the Izod in East Rutherford. Unreal - that their second home game in a new facility would have 4,000 empty seats. Is that some sort of record?

Note my own entry from back in July where I argued that 3 teams was at least one team too many for the New York market.



And with how bad my Leafs are again this season - getting blown out at home yet again 7 - 1 by Washington the other night - this article from last Sunday's Toronto Star - arguing that the Leafs will never improve until a second team comes to Southern Ontario sounds like an intelligent argument to me. Hamilton Devils anybody?
http://www.thestar.com/article/270983

The somewhat ironic thing is that the Devils were THIS close to moving to Nashville before they won that first Cup in the 90s. Clearly that success hasn't brought out the fans.

But kuddos to Leipold. He's really trying to make this thing work... and to make my strong words towards him continue to look real silly.

FYI - no surprise my Buds lose - again - allowing a shorthanded goal with five minutes left to give the Devils the lead! And the crowd - 14,500. I'm not sure what capacity is but I assume that is at least 3000 short. And on TV there were way more empty seats than occupied ones in the lower bowl inside each blue line. I was actually surprised when I read the boxscore that the attendance was listed as high as 14500.

Capacity for hockey is listed as 17,625.

Seats in the lower bowl are usually so expensive that almost every team has trouble selling those seats now. If a game is nearing a sellout those are the last tickets to go.

Are we finally reaching the end? The mayor and the prospective owners have reached an agreement. The City Council and the Sports Council have to aprove it, but all indications are that they will. Then, Leipold and the mainly local guys just have to wrap it up, go to the NHL, get them to say okay... and there we go.

The biggest question will be if the locals can get better corporate support. Hope so!

From an AP article:



So it seems like the Predators are assured of staying through 2012.

The NHL Board of Governors has approved the sale of the Predators to the local group. They just have to get the arena lease changes approved and finalize the sale.

The new ownership is now officially in charge, and the Predators promptly signed David Legwand to a six-year, $27 million contract extension. And while expectations dropped with the player movement during the off-season, they're 14-12-2 and certainly still in the playoff mix.

From The Tennessean... just as a big middle finger to the Canadian press who seems to praise Ballsack and claim it was the league and not Leipold who terminated things. Craig wanted the team to stay in Nashville. Period.

Here's to a healty franchise!

And haven't won since... ...not exactly the best way to maintain a fan base. I wonder if Joe's previous ponderings of what a 06-07 Philly-esque season would do to crowds are going to become valid... we've got a ways to go to reach that point though.