As much as it pains me to say it, great article by Brooks.  The Balsille thing is quickly turning into a debacle, though I think the jury is out (no pun intended, as you don’t get a jury in federal bankruptcy courts) on how the bankruptcy proceeding will unfold.  I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see the League come out on top there.  Of course, this wouldn’t alter the facts, pointed out by Brooks, that hockey in the desert was and is DOA, and the NHL will never have a national US TV contract supporting bigger exposure than the League had during its ESPN heydays.  At least not until Versus becomes standard fare on basic cable, and no one will hold their breath on that one…

Adding another team in Southern Ontario would be best for the long-term health and popularity of the League (or moving the Coyotes back to Winnipeg, for that matter), and Brooks’s proposal for a buy-in fee and indemnification of Toronto and, much more importantly, the Sabres is sensible and far-sighted.  Which means, of course, the chances of something like that transpiring on Widdle Gawy’s watch are pretty much zero.

As for the cap, I think abolishing (or lowering, at least) the cap floor is an idea whose time has come.  You simply can’t have it both ways: a hard cap, alone, obviously is not effective in maintaining the popularity of the NHL in hockey hot-beds like Phoenix, Atlanta, Miami, Nashville, and Carolina when these franchises struggle to meet the floor, let alone turn a profit.  And the larger point, that the current cap structure basically gives the League zero incentive to raise revenues, is well-taken.  The NHL’s expansion into the southern US has been, with a few notable exceptions (i.e., Dallas, Colorado, maybe Tampa, largely because of their 2004 Cup win), an abject failure.  It’s time to recognize that fact and retrench in some markets where the demand obviously exists, even if the revenue base to support a cap-stretching roster doesn’t.  If Manitoba wants to try to hang with the big boys in the largest NHL markets, the League should let them.  And as far as relocation goes, I can think of a couple American markets (e.g., KC and maybe Portland-Seattle) that have both the cultural and financial wherewithal to sustain NHL franchises, at least for the requisite 10-year “experimental” period.

Good article.  Screw you, Bettman.  Ass.

Posted by mudshark from Divetown, Colorado on 05/31/09 at 11:33 AM ET