Hockey Mockery

“No seriously, the beach is only a couple of miles that way!”

There has been a lot of discussion in recent months regarding the public raking over the coals of the NHL in their battle with BlackBerry CEO Jim Balsillie and the bankrupt Phoenix Coyotes franchise in an Arizona court. With this case came the revival of the questions regarding the NHL’s, and perhaps more specifically, Gary Bettman’s plan for expansion of the league to create a more attractive footprint for a broadcast contract. This so-called “Sun Belt” expansion saw the departure of two teams from Canada, where the sport of Hockey was invented by the way, and shuffled to U.S. locations that were anticipated to be greater revenue guarantees than in Canada.

To summarize the events that have occured since the addition or relocation of teams to Atlanta (2nd time the city has been granted a franchise), Florida (Miami), Tampa Bay, North Carolina, Nashville, Dallas, Phoenix, and California would require more time and space than available.  Briefly though, the NHL lost that national television contract they moved to these cities for, and with it the accompanying exposure it generated.  Whoopsie.

You can figure out fairly quickly who is either Canadian or not a hockey fan based on their view of these events.  Generally, most Canadians will express indignity regarding the loss of their franchises and look down on the league expansion as a money grab, or worse, placing the pearls of pro hockey in front of proverbial swine while those who lived and bleed the game saw their share of the  franchises in the league shrink by 25%.

Non-hockey fans will first remind you of the ESPN company line that no one watches the sport.  Then they will point out that the real issues in Phoenix, Florida, Nashville, and Atlanta are indicative of:

a) the Sun Belt expansion as a whole is a failure, and therefore,

b) hockey is a regional sport and cannot succeed in warm weather locales.

c) This is because  no one plays the sport in these places, very few people in warm climates are educated or attached to the game, and therefore there are very few people to market to and who will attend games.  Throw in the warm weather options available even in the winter when hockey is played, and you get a recipe for bankruptcy and irrelevance.

Let’s take these non-hockey fans’ arguments first.  The NHL first expanded to warm weather cities in 1967 with the expansion of the Original 6 teams, to include the Los Angeles Kings among the new franchises.  Although the Kings compete with a deluge of entertainment options in their home market, the franchise turned the hockey world upside down and put the name Gretzky on the lips of many Americans, sports fans or not.  It could be argued that one long term effect of Gretzky’s trade to the Kings led to the addition of another team in the L.A. market with the Anaheim Duck expansion franchise that was awarded in 1993.  There’s one Sun Belt Success Story.

Dallas has won a Stanley Cup and invested heavily in developing the game in its home market, with the results evident in the strong franchise support in a community that views itself as a football town.  That’s another Sun Belt success.

The Carolina Hurricanes regularly compete head-on with premier college basketball programs at Duke, North Carolina, and North Carolina State which are all within 15 miles of their arena.  That franchise operates on a stringent budget and relies on talent evaluation and loyalty to compensate for their market size.  Yet another ”Sun Belt City”

Tampa has been near capacity almost every season since their Cup run in 2004, except for last year when the team finished near the bottom of the league for the second straight season  More sunny news from the Sun Belt.  Each of these examples refutes the argument that the expansion has been a failure. 

It has been shown that with proper grassroots development and the huge boost generated from on ice success, it seems that most of these warm weather franchises can be successful.  Even Florida played to pack houses during its unlikely Cup run in ‘96.  That takes care of point b), that the sport is regional.

Aha, some will say.  You don’t need to educate Canadians on the game.  You’ve got a frenzied and ready-made fan base just dying for more.  True.  There should be at least one more franchise in the Toronto area and an additional team in one of the other larger cities if it can support the franchise should the loonie lose value again.  It’s unfortunate that Winnipeg and Quebec City lost teams, but Calgary gained one.  And the Manitoba Moose of the AHL now play at a new arena and draw well.  Canada deserves another team, but where?  For starters, Toronto.

“We stand on guard for thee, and you Yanks owe us a team. We’ll take Atlanta’s again, but we’re changing the name this time.  What the hell’s a Thrasher anyway? A bird?  Seriously, tell us.”

But this argument is about spreading the footprint of the game and the Sun Belt experiment, not the neglect or under utilization of the Canadian fan.  They are intertwined but the expansion is not completely at fault for the lack of Canadian teams.  That is the result of earlier reluctance in Canada to replace outdated facilities when the loonie was at a lower exchange rate, and the resistance of the Toronto Maple Leafs and to a lesser extent Buffalo Sabres franchises from accepting an additional team in their geographic markets and the indemnity fees that would generate.

That’s the real problem, not where the franchises are right now.  People that point out the Phoenix bankruptcy conveniently ignore the bankruptcies of “traditional region” franchises such as Ottawa and Pittsburgh, as well as the finacial troubles Buffalo, Edmonton, and the Islanders have had.  What about the empty stands in Original 6 cities such as Boston and Chicago until recently?  These instances all mirror many of the same difficulties some of the warm weather franchises have experienced when they are undercapitalized and their games are poorly attended because the team is bad.

The real problem with the Phoenix and Florida franchises, perhaps the two weakest of the currently troubled teams, is the same issue. It is one of geography.  Not the city where they are located, but where the teams play in relation to the city they play for. 

The Florida Panthers don’t play in Miami anymore.  Now they play in the suburban bedroom community of Sunrise, outside of Miami and accessible by highway.

Phoenix?  Almost.  They play in Glendale, home of the NFL’s Phoenix Cardinals’ new stadium.  Another small town that relies on pro sports facilities to put themselves on the map, so to speak.  They do business in the tradition of Foxboro, Massachusetts and East Rutherford, New Jersey.

That’s not a bad idea putting a casino in the arena.  Maybe they could give the team away as the jackpot for a slots parlay.

The trend during the stadium construction boom over the last twenty years has been to purchase lower cost real estate in or near city cores, particularly areas needing revitalization, ideally near mass transit if available, and then developing the arena and the area around the rink.  Suburban facilities started going the way of Astroturf and inflatable dome stadiums in the early 90’s.  Yet all it takes is a well subsidized interest, or sweet lease deal in a new suburban rink offered by a city desperate for recognition, and some owners will ignore where their fans are travelling from and to and sign on as an anchor tenant.  It’s only a couple of years into this deal, when the newness of the arena has worn off, and people have realized it’s a hassle to get to, that the effects of empty seats are felt.  Especially if you aren’t getting the job done on the ice and at least sniffing the playoffs on a regular basis.  You can see the end results in Phoenix and Florida from being located in the middle of nowhere and fielding bad to mediocre teams recently.

There is no question that more NHL hockey could survive in Canada, and at least one more team is overdue.  But Hockey can also survive in the Sun Belt.  You don’t even need ice to get someone hooked, just roller or street hockey so they can understand the rules and discover a passion for the sport. 

The formula is simple:  Win  in the playoffs, and have an arena that fans can get to and is worth going to, and the stands will be full.  It just comes down to winning and ease of access, which in the end is really what determines how people spend their discretionary income.