NHL Down For The Count?

By Brady Rynyk
Love Of Sports Correspondent

By now it should come as no surprise that the free market property crash has taken its toll on Wall Street and has been the launching point to further economic peril. In light of these fiscal pecuniary turmoils, North American sports powerhouses like the NFL and MLB have started to prepare for financial woes by lowering (and freezing) ticket prices to accommodate the tighter budgets of fans.

In a report from the Associated Press, NBA commisioner David Stern was realistic about the impact the state of the U.S. economy would have on the sales at the gate stating, “We will be down modestly in season tickets. … [I] can’t say for sure whether we’ll be up or down in attendance because it’s just so touch-and-go, because sports tickets are very much disposable income.”

But while David Stern began “belt-tightening” by eliminating 80 positions within the NBA in preparation for certain fiscal funks, the NHL seems to have a distorted approach to good business and general profitability throughout the league.

Despite sharing an uncanny resemblence to Sesame Street’s Count von Count, it is unfortunate that NHL Commisoner Gary Bettman does not share the Count’s only redeeming quality – the ability to equate simple arithmetic and calculate the differences between profits and losses.

Early this month “Count” Bettman stated that the NHL is still in growth mode despite the current global economic downturn. In a convoluted breakdown, he confidently presented the NHL as a league well on the rise; with its teams free and clear of any financial worries.

Bettman used a series of subterfuges to suggest prevalent profits across the league. Through his mendacious report, the commissioner made claims that season ticket sales for the current 2008 season were up four percent across the league, while individual game sales had grown 13%, declaring an accomplishment so “remarkable in this economy…We haven’t seen any impact on our business.” Alas, if only this were true, considering stats from ESPN.com on attendance show that in fact ticket sales are actually slightly down in comparison to last years average.

But even if Count Bettman’s apparent findings were true, it is extremely difficult to believe that it’s nothing but financial smooth sailing for the NHL this year - especially considering it was only a few seasons ago (during 2002-03) that the league reported a net loss of $273 million.

Reports from the Nashville Predators official website suggest that the six Canadian hockey teams account for approximately 33% of the entire league’s revenue. With 24 other teams in the league only accounting for two-thirds of the NHL’s total profits, alarm bells should be sounding off in the commissioner’s head, rather than echoing to the point where he is hearing the word growth.

Most recently (Nov. 12, 2008), NHL deputy comissioner Bill Daly made a guest appearance on The FAN 590’s Prime Time Sports. During the interview, host Bob McCown openly confronted rumours surrounding a team financial jeopardy.

The host openly remarked that it was possible the Tampa Bay Lightning would not be able to pay out its franchise salaries by December of this year. Despite McCown’s distressing comments, what was more shocking was that Daly did not openly deny McCown, but rather only contested the timeline, suggesting that he had a hard time believing that a team would be at such a monetary loss before the new year.

It is clear the NHL is in serious trouble – it is time to realize that, much like the comparable failure of NFL Europe, the league needs to know when to cut its losses and move on. Until such time, Bettman will seemingly continue to throw away good money in the hopes of proving to himself that his mismanagement and financial miscounting blunders will not suffer the same fate as the U.S. economy.

One thing is certain, the NHL cannot be successful in cities like Nashville, Tampa Bay, Atlanta and Sunrise (Florida Panthers) where locals would much rather be watching NASCAR or sport fishing than taking in a hockey game.

Bettman needs to look at the top two successful leagues in North America (NFL & NBA) and follow suit with what their struggling franchises did – relocate or simply fold!