Where Would The NHL Be Without The Toront Maple Leafs?

I have a little beef with the whole Kovalchuk situation I would like to get off my chest before I start this blog if you would just bare with me for a second. Its gonna be short, I promise.

The Hockey Summit just wrapped up Toronto yesterday and after all the talk about how the NHL and other hockey communities around the world need to work together to strengthen the game of hockey, what does Kovalchuk’s European agent do? He sets a deadline for which the NHL can approve a contract for Kovalchuk or he will play elsewhere. Cough….KHL….cough.

Is this not the saddest thing you have ever seen? This guy is hell bent on getting a 100+ million dollar deal. I hate to say I told you so, but this is what the NHL is like and will only get worse under a cap system.

Before that cap was put in place, players would sign numerous contracts through out there career with various teams and make lots of money *throughout* their careers.

Now since the lockout and as young talented players see that teams are allocating cap and money to top end players and that the preverbal “slice of the pie” is getting smaller, well players are asking for their money up front.

NHL’s new slogan should be “Pay now, receive later or sometimes not at all!”

Now on to bigger and better things.

I see the NHL now, a “new” NHL under a cap system with revenue sharing and with heightened competition throughout all 30 teams and I think to myself, what a wonderful world!

Well, not really.

At least not for everyone.

 The new cap system was put in place by the owners and was suppose to help control player salaries, operating costs, and make teams more money in the long run.

Here we are almost 6 years after the lockout and let’s look at the NHL and where would the NHL be without the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Below is a picture which shows revenue and operating income for the 2008-2009 season, via Forbes.com. Also one quick note: 14 teams during the 2008-2009 season dropped in team value.

The reason why I refer to revenue and operating income only is that under the new cap system player salaries, the max. and min., are tied to league revenue and so is revenue sharing. Don’t forget escrow and the actual cap number itself.

So, if you add up all the numbers in the last column, operating income, you get $267 million and if you take into account negative numbers that number comes down to $183.5 million.

The percentage of that number that the Leafs contribute is 42.9. That’s almost half folks. That’s almost half of what the NHL’s operating income is for all 30 teams. Not to mention that the Leafs almost doubled the second place team in profits.

Let’s move onto revenue. The total revenue for all 30 teams comes to $2.819 Billion. The Leafs contribute the most at %6.

Rank	Team	Current Value1 ($mil)	1-Yr Value Change (%)	Debt/Value2 (%)	Revenue ($mil)	Operating Income3 ($mil)
1	Toronto Maple Leafs	470	5	31	168	78.9
3	Montreal Canadiens	339	2	71	130	31.3
2	New York Rangers	416	1	0	139	27.7
4	Detroit Red Wings	337	11	0	130	27.4
7	Chicago Blackhawks	258	26	0	108	20.9
9	Vancouver Canucks	239	1	46	109	20.3
8	Dallas Stars	246	-10	81	97	12.4
6	Boston Bruins	271	3	44	108	11.6
13	Los Angeles Kings	208	-1	79	92	10.6
24	Edmonton Oilers	166	-5	60	83	9.4
14	Anaheim Ducks	206	2	17	94	4.8
15	Colorado Avalanche	205	-11	16	84	3.4
11	Pittsburgh Penguins	222	14	45	93	3.3
5	Philadelphia Flyers	273	-1	24	101	3.1
10	New Jersey Devils	223	0	112	97	1.4
12	Minnesota Wild	210	-3	54	95	1.3
16	Calgary Flames	200	-2	15	95	-0.8
29	Atlanta Thrashers	143	-10	46	68	-1.8
18	Tampa Bay Lightning	191	-4	55	80	-2.2
22	St Louis Blues	176	9	68	80	-2.7
17	Ottawa Senators	197	-5	66	90	-3.8
21	Carolina Hurricanes	177	5	51	82	-4.6
20	Washington Capitals	183	15	37	83	-4.9
19	San Jose Sharks	184	3	24	84	-5
23	Buffalo Sabres	170	1	29	79	-5.2
28	New York Islanders	149	-3	67	62	-5.6
27	Nashville Predators	156	-5	52	71	-5.7
25	Columbus Blue Jackets	165	5	27	77	-9.9
26	Florida Panthers	159	-2	50	74	-13.6
30	Phoenix Coyotes	138	-3	101	66	-18.5

According to Forbes magazine since the Leafs were bought in 1994 by the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, for $102 million, they have increased in value by $346 million to a whopping total of $448 million.

Wow, is correct sir.

The team value is broken down as such;

Team value: $448 mill

Sport: $43 mill (10%)

Market: $202 mill (45%)

Stadium: $143 mill (32%)

Brand Management:  $60 mill (13%)

The Leafs havn’t always made such ridiculous money. Contrary to popular belief the Leafs before the lockout did not make that much money in actual operating income. If you look at the bottom left of that below image you will see that before the lockout, the Leafs made about the same as the struggling teams are making now. But, the cap has helped the Leafs make more and more money but the amount that the Leafs contribute in revenue sharing evens things out. Revenue sharing being something in the 10-20 million range.

Conclusion:
Where would the NHL be without the Maple Leafs?

To me its clear that without the Toronto Maple Leafs that the NHL would be in serious trouble. It would be downright impossible to duplicate this market. According to Forbes, local revenue per fan is $33.

So for all those who make fun of the Leafs, but LOVE hockey? Just think what you would be doing or watching if it wasn’t for the Toronto Maple Leafs. It wouldn’t be NHL hockey I can tell you that much.