AGRI Biz

After 2009, a troubled year for the NHL in which 10 of its teams lost money and it was discovered that more than a third of its revenue comes from Canada, how have some of these franchises progressed in 2010? There was some good news for the league, but there are still dark clouds hanging over the heads of many of those same teams. New York Islanders The Islanders owner, Charles Wang, ...

There's been lots of articles over the past six months about NHL expansion/relocation to Canada.  In the last months of 2009, it was Quebec making all the announcements.  Lately it has been Winnipeg.  Let's recap the current situation in Hamilton, Quebec, and Winnipeg. Hamilton Has everything needed to start an NHL franchise tomorrow except that it is hated by the NHL which wants to preserve the southern Ontario market as a Toronto-Buffalo monopoly. The ...

  Over the last few weeks, there has been an endless parade of speculative articles about the future of the Phoenix Coyotes. Pro-Canada fans are hanging on to every glimmer of information that is dropped like a crumb off the table that the Phoenix Coyotes story will end with a move back somewhere to the North. But while most pro Canada fans claim that there is a logical, clear path present, in reality ...

The NHL could easily quash the hopes of Canadians who want more franchises in their country if they did the smart thing. All they have to do is move three of their most troubled franchises to Seattle, Portland, and Milwaukee and Canadian hopes for more NHL teams would be virtually dead except to get another team by the expansion route. All three northern United States cities have rich hockey heritages and environments. Hockey ...

Last year, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman made a grand tour of the cities whose teams he removed back in the 1990's with an olive branch in his hand, announcing that the NHL would consider returning to these places if certain conditions were met. By deduction, unofficially the NHL wants: 1. Adequate fan support 2. Credible investors 3. An NHL size arena 4. No territorial disputes So why after so long a banishment is the NHL ...

Since the end of the Jim Balsillie-Hamilton episode, the story of Canada's quest to get another NHL team/NHL franchise relocation has entered a new phase. Far from being anti-Canadian/anti-small market, Commissioner Gary Bettman has been urging those NHL cities who were "wronged" in the 1990s when they lost their teams to build new arenas and find investors so that they can be readmitted to the league. A report last year stating that ...

Quebec City's quest to get its old NHL team, the Nordiques, back has been stalled—at least temporarily. To recap the current status: Quebec has public support—80,000 signatures on a petition to get the team back. Quebec has a first-class investor fronting a bid: Quebecor. Quebec has civic support; the mayor is willing to pledge $50 million for a new arena. Quebec has talked to Gary Bettman, who is urging an NHL-size arena be built that ...

As NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman leads the NHL into its latest war of revenge against Jerry Moyes for trying to recoup his losses by attempting to sell the Phoenix Coyotes to the outlaw buyer, Jim Balsillie, it is well to remember that his triumph in the courts over the now three time loser didn't change one ugly fact: the Phoenix Coyotes still lose huge sums of money every year. Despite all ...

The NHL must be content to keep losing money—the projected loss this year is $20 million—in the sinkhole it calls the Phoenix Coyotes. In the latest development—currently not mentioned on the NHL's official Web site—the league wants to sue the team's old owner, Jerry Moyes, for $61 million to recoup some of the losses incurred by the team. That sum is broken into sections: $30 million for violating a league agreement by ...