Welcome to another NHL edition of Bizball Radio with Seth Everett and Maury Brown!
In what may be the best podcast that Seth and Maury have done to date, the two breakdown realignment in the NHL to address the relocation of the Atlanta Thrashers to Winnipeg, and the ripple effect that that has. They also talk about whether renaming the divisons to more modern players is a good thing. The Gretzky division? Lemieux division? Then, the conversation gets really interesting as Seth and Maury talk concussions and what, if anything, the NHL can do to address them.
According to their annual report of the 30 clubs in the NHL (see www.forbes.com/nhl), the average value for a club in the league now is at $240 million, up 5% from last year, ranging as high as over a half-a-billion dollars for the Maple Leafs ($521 million) to $134 million for the beleaguered Phoenix Coyotes. Based upon totals from Forbes, total franchise value for all 30 clubs is $7.198 billion with revenues that came to $3.09 billion for the 2009-10 season.
More than half the league reportedly saw revenues over $100 million with the Maple Leafs nearing the $200 million mark ($193 million). The Rangers, now playing in a refurbished MSG, saw $41.4 million last year and are the NHL’s second-most valuable team, worth $507 million The Islanders, who continue to struggle in their efforts to construct a new arena, had the league’s lowest revenues at $63 million.
In terms of profits and losses, according to Forbes, the league saw a decline operating income, a form of profit (Operating Income is earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization - EBITA). Collectively, the league saw a 21% decline in operating income from the 2008-09 season. All told, 18 of the 30 clubs are shown to be running in the red compared to 16 in the Forbes report last year. But, the 21% declined is skewed primarily by two clubs: Coyotes and Blue Jackets. The Coyotes, who continue to struggle in Phoenix and have been relocation fodder is shown to have lost $24.4 million while Columbus shows a $13.7 million loss. They are the only two clubs with losses in double-digits with the Lightening coming in a very distant third in the loss department at losses of $8.5 million.
In a matter that is sure to come to the bargaining table for a new CBA in the NHL, Forbes attributes losses to player payroll. From Ozanian and Badenhausen:
The league’s salary cap, set at 57% of revenue, is too high for some teams to be profitable . As a result, expect the National Hockey League to undergo a cantankerous labor negotiations when the owners and players union begin to hammer our a new collective bargaining agreement to replace the current six-year deal that expires in September . The NHL must move much closer to the 48% model the NFL agreed to before this season or the 50-50 revenue split National Basketball Association owners and players recently agreed to.
In terms of massive profits, the Maple Leafs (once again) top the Forbes valuations in profit. The club pulled in $81.8 million in operating income for the 2009-10 season. To place that in perspective, that’s $34.1 million more than the second ranked by operating income, the Montreal Canadians. The average for operating income for the NHL is shown at $4 million, but that’s deceptive. Clubs running at a profit averaged $21.1 million while the average for those running at a loss was -$7.1 million. The six clubs with double-digit operating income (Maple Leafs, Rangers, Canadians, Red Wings, Canucks, and Oilers) totaled $228 million.
Of deep concern has to be Devils and to a lesser extent, the Stars. While Dallas is in the throes of a bankruptcy sale, the Devils are drowning in debt. According to Forbes, New Jersey has a monstrous Debt to Value of 144%. They see a one-year valuation change of -17%. The Stars come in at 126%. The Rangers, Red Wings, and Blackhawks are the only clubs not carrying debt.
In terms of increases and decreases in value, overall the league saw a 5% increase in club value. Seven clubs see declines (Devils, Blues, Flyers, Panthers, Ducks, Blue Jackets, and Islanders), two clubs (Coyotes and Avalanche) remained flat, while the rest of the league all saw gains with the largest being the recently relocated Jets at 21% (NOTE: Forbes informs that while the rest of the valuation numbers are based off of the 2009-10 season, the valuations are based on current data. Therefore, the Jets increase in value is due in large part from the relocation from Atlanta to Winnipeg and therefore, is reflected in the large increase in one-year value increase). Coming in second is the Tampa Bay Lightening at 20%. Seven clubs saw double-digit percentage increases in their values (Jets/Thrashers, Lightening, Canucks, Penguins, Oilers, Capitals, and Predators).
Overall, the NHL continues to make inroads at the league level in terms of sponsorships and fan growth through the popular Bridgestone Winter Classic.
Welcome to another NHL edition of Bizball Radio with Seth Everett and Maury Brown!
In this edition, Seth and Maury talk about the strength of NHL's core fan base, how realignment factors in with the Thrashers relocating to Winnepeg and becoming the Jets, the state of the Coyotes, Islanders, and Devils, and what may be in store for the new CBA expected in 2012, and more
Welcome to the inaugural NHL edition of Bizball Radio with Seth Everett and Maury Brown!
The NHL is back, if it was ever gone at all. The game, with arguably the most rabid core fan base, is seeing growth with fringe fans.
Seth and Maury talk about popularity of the game, whether relocation to Canada is a matter of the strength of popularity or strength of the Canadian dollar; whether NHL players should play in the Olympics after 2010; whether clubs in the sunbelt can survive; how Donald Fehr impacts labor negotiations, and much more.
There is a new sheriff in the National Hockey league, and his actions are clear on what direction the league is going in.
Prior to the 2011-2012 season, the NHL knew they had to take action with addressing headshots. The constant injuries and questionable hits sparked so much, that it demanded change in how to judge these types of situations. As a result, Colin Campbell stepped down as the league disciplinarian, and the NHL replaced him with vice president of safety, Brendan Shanahan.
Change was evident in the league, especially with some key incidents that occurred in the last few months of the regular season. The first incident that sparked up the conversation came in 2010, when Pittsburgh Penguins forward Matt Cooke gave a deliberate blow to Marc Savard’s head. Savard was never the same after that hit, and his career probably ended a year later when he suffered a similar hit at the hands of Colorado Avalanche defenseman Matt Hunwick. Bruins General Manager Peter Chiarelli announced early in the season that Savard would miss the entire 2011-2012 season due to post-concussion-like symptoms.
If Savard’s injuries weren’t enough of an indicator for improvement on player safety, then perhaps the concussion to the league’s poster boy did the trick. Sidney Crosby suffered a severe concussion during the 2011 Winter Classic, after he had an awkward collision with Washington Capitals forward David Steckel. Although the hit was not considered dirty, the hit was devastating to the Penguins captain, as he missed the remainder of the season and is still out to this day with post-concussion symptoms.
Following the injury to Crosby, his teammate, Matt Cooke, was at it again and received two different offenses. The first one was a hit from behind on Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Fedor Tyutin on February 9, which earned him a four-game suspension. The suspension was clearly not a lesson learned by Cooke, as he created another offense with an elbow to the head of New York Rangers defenseman Ryan McDonagh on March 21. The forward’s fifth offense (and second in less than two month span) resulted in a bigger consequence for Cooke, as he was banned 10 games and for the entire first round of the playoffs.
In just the first two months at his new position, Shanahan has really cracked the whip, issuing 11 suspensions in such a little time period. Here is the list so far:
9/22/11 Jody Shelley: 4 Preseason Games and 5 Regular Season Games= 9 Games 9/22/11 Pierre Luc Letourneau-Leblond: 4 Preseason Games and 1 Regular Season Game= 5 Games 9/25/11 Brad Boyes: 2 preseason Games= 2 Games 9/26/11 James Wisniewski: 3 Preseason Games 8 Regular Season Games= 11 Games 9/26/11 Brad Staubitz: 4 preseason Games and 3 Regular Season Games= 7 games 9/27/11 Jean Francois Jacques: 2 Preseason Games and 5 Regular Season Games= 7 Games 9/28/11 Tom Sestito: 2 Preseason Games and 2 Regular Season Games= 4 games 9/29/11 Brendan Smith: 3 Preseason Games and 5 Regular Season Games= 8 Games 9/30/11 Clarke MacArthur: 1 preseason Game and 2 Regular Season Games= 3 Games 10/9/11 Pierre Marc-Bouchard: 2 Regular Season Games= 2 games 10/18/11 Kris Letang: 2 Regular Season Games= 2 Games
At this point last season, there were just seven suspensions handed out, and three of them were for obscene gestures or unsportsman-like incidents.
While last year’s talk was for the league to crack down on illegal hits and focus on player safety, the key criticism this year has been that the league is acting too strict on the new reinforcements.
Hockey Commentator Don Cherry was one of the front runners of the debate, as he said on the Thursday edition of CBC’s Coach’s Corner segment about Darryl Boyce’s suspension: “He gives him ten games. Ten games,” said Cherry of Shanahan. “You know how many shifts Boyce missed? He only lost two shifts.”
On Saturday night, a more relaxed Cherry pointed out that Shanahan simply set the bar too high. Also Saturday, HNIC Hotstove guest Eric Francis said that one-third of the 30 NHL GMs are not happy with the length of the suspensions.
“I spoke to almost a third of the general managers today, and I was a little bit surprised to find out that there is a group of them that have gone to [NHL commissioner] Gary Bettman and [deputy commissioner] Bill Daly and made it very clear that they are very unhappy with the way that Brendan Shanahan has handled the suspensions,” Francis reiterated.
Clearly the NHL is going in a new direction, which is seeking better protection for their players. Obviously, it’ll be a long working process for the old school guys like Cherry and some of the current GMs, but you can’t help but like the message the league is sending out.
On the other side of the argument, you can say an element of the game is being removed, which could change the game drastically. The big hit that many of us enjoy seeing will be removed from the game, and the physical play from the likes of Todd Bertuzzi, Claude Lemiuex, Michael Peca, and Scott Stevens may never have a place in the game again. I’m not saying these guys would have been bad players if these policies were instituted 10 years ago, but I can confidently say that their huge hits and playing styles will never be replicated again with this new playing structure.
So what is the right thing to do? Is Brendan Shanahan going too far with his excessive discipline? Is it necessary to ensure player safety? Does it take away from the game of hockey? These are the questions that the league will have to answer in the next year.
Michael Jafari is a producer and contributor for WGR Sports Radio 550 in Buffalo, NY. He also served as the Web Content Coordinator Graduate Assistant for the Buffalo Sabres, Buffalo Bandits and the IIHF World Junior Championship. You can follow him on twitter: @mikejafari.
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According to their annual report of the 30 clubs in the NHL (see 
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