Root Of The NHL Problem: The League Will Not Take A New Direction

Way back in February of 2009, I wrote one of my first articles, entitled:  "Which Direction Should The NHL Go?"  In it, I listed five possible paths for future NHL development.

1.  Keep going in the same direction, with expansion to American cities that are unfamiliar with hockey, in hopes that this strategy will land the NHL a rich American television contract, and finally confirm their status as "big four" sport in the United States.

2.  Contract the money-losing American teams

3.  Relocate the money-losing franchises to other American cities, especially to the neglected northern United States.

4.  Shift as many money losing franchises to Canada, and become a Canadian focused league.

5.  Relocate the money losing franchises to Europe. and start a European branch of the NHL.

As I mentioned in the previous article, option 1, was the path that the NHL favored and would try to continue to pursue.  I also that it would not work and that economics and other factors would force the NHL to change its direction.

So what has happened since then?

The NHL has continued to follow that path but the noose is getting ever tighter around their necks.

No franchises have yet been shifted, but there are some cracks beginning to show.

The greatest triumph of the NHL in this course, was the defeat of Jim Balsillie and the retention of a franchise in Phoenix.

But just when it seemed that the NHL was finally getting what it wanted with the Coyotes firmly in the possession of Jerry Reinsdorf, the issue has reopened again.

Glendale double crossed the NHL by not liking Reinsdorf's terms and has now invited the rejected Ice Edge and their Saskatoon games back to the table.

In retaliation, the NHL now wants "ungrateful" Glendale to compensate them for running the team for a year to the tune of $20-30 million.

Unless something miraculous happens and Reinsdorf or another American investor appears (and given all the twists in this ridiculous episode, now nearly two years old, anything is possible), the NHL now faces accepting a watered-down Coyotes in Arizona; contracting the team; keep running it a huge loss; or giving in and selling it to an investor who will move it.

The front-runner for the last option is rumored to be the lovable Thomson-Chipman combination, who will bring the Coyotes "home" to Winnipeg and its 1970s size arena, 3,000 seats less than the NHL median, and which was specifically built for the AHL Manitoba Moose.

Such may be the results of stubbornly clinging to option 1, without any flexibility.

The other crack in the NHL's armor showed when Commissioner Gary Bettman made a tour of the three cities whose franchises he removed in the 1990s, Winnipeg, Quebec, and Hartford, and told them they could have their teams back if they met his conditions which include adequate fan support, a committed, competent investor, and an NHL size arena.

So far, only Quebec has made an attempt at complying.

Hated Hamilton, in the center of the rich southern Ontario market which Bettman has been trying to preserve as a monopoly for Toronto and Buffalo, was again shunned.

Bettman then stated that Hamilton might get a team, if some investor is prepared to cough up $400 million, enough to compensate the NHL for all its troubles and bills in Phoenix. This is based on the assumption that Canadians will pay anything for an NHL franchise.

It would serve the NHL right if Hamilton politely told them to go to hell.

All this soap opera could have been avoided if Bettman and the NHL admitted they had made mistake, and were willing to take the league in a new direction.

When the Atlanta Flames, were switched to Calgary 1981, then NHL President, John Ziegler, simply admitted that the NHL had made a mistake and allowed the team to move without any hindrance.

Instead, by opposing Balsillie consistently, without ever once trying to find a way for him to become an NHL owner legally, the NHL plunged into an expensive court case, and legal bills, having to buy the team, and then racking up a $20 million loss with no end in sight.

This soap opera could have been put to rest long ago with the NHL dividing up Balsillie's $212 million, with no losses, and a money losing franchise winding up in a rich market, in a proper NHL size arena, which would have been renovated up to 18,500.

But the NHL greedily thinks that they can get $400 million or more out of Hamilton.

Instead, they now face having to accept an investor whom they used until someone better came along (Reinsdorf), who will only accept Phoenix with conditions; or moving the team to Canada anyway, into a much smaller market than Hamilton, in a too small arena.

And they still would have to fight legal wars with Glendale, and ex-owner, Jerry Moyes.

While this is going on, another crisis may be brewing.

Quebec, which has been trying to comply with Bettman's terms, may finally be ready to lay all its cards on the table.

It already has a competent investor, Quebecor, and fan support.  There remains the issue of the arena.

Bettman openly supported the building of a $400 million arena.

Now there are unofficial rumors and speculation that Quebec will have a business plan in place, which will be unveiled on June 18, just in time to celebrate Paul McCartney's birthday, and the Battle of Waterloo.

If such a plan finally materializes, there will be pressure on the NHL and Bettman to pay up with a franchise.

Even more than the Hamilton and Winnipeg situations, this will be a test of the NHL's credibility and commitment to Canada.  After openly encouraging Quebec to build an arena, they can hardly refuse.

How will they pay?  Give them an expansion franchise?

Allow them them to buy and move another money loser?

Atlanta?  Florida?  Nashville?

Or will they try to escape by weasily methods, like they have used in the Phoenix situation?

That will only increase the bad reputation they are accumulating among investors who refused to be suckered into saving the Phoenix sink-hole.

By refusing to accept change and give a new direction for the future, Bettman and the NHL are painting themselves more and more into a corner.

The world awaits either their greatest triumph or their own Waterloo.