Skip to main content

Balls Out, Bags In?

Word is coming this morning that Nashville Predators owner Craig Leipold is calling off his deal with Jim Balsillie, and is instead prepared to sell the team to "Boots" DelBiaggio, who has a contract in place to run an NHL team in Kansas City.

As I wrote back in March, however, I still don't understand why Kansas City is such an attractive market for the NHL. Yes, they have a new arena that's waiting for a full-time permanent tenant, and the city is willing to bend over backwards to lure a team. But that market is already saturated with two major-league teams (the NFL Chiefs and MLB Royals), as pointed out by bizjournals.com last year. The Chiefs are well supported but the Royals are nothing more than a AAA feeder team for the rest of Major League Baseball, due to their minimal payroll and tepid fan support. In that analysis, KC ranked as the 5th-most overextended sports market, and was the most overextended market that doesn't already have an NHL team (this spreadsheet has all the details).

Simply put, there's good reason to believe that Kansas City may be the absolute worst place in the U.S. to put an NHL team. There just doesn't appear to be the available disposable income to support the teams they already have, let alone adding a new franchise to the mix.

For Predators fans concerned about possible relocation, there is more uncertainty around DelBiaggio's bid than there is with Balsillie, who said one thing publicly about respecting leases, but whose actions belied a clear intent to move the team to Hamilton ASAP. Is DelBiaggio more willing to play by the NHL's rules, or is he simply more savvy in pursuing his goals than the brash Balsillie? We'll have to see how this develops over the next few weeks.

Also lurking in the background is a potential bid by local businessmen in Nashville, which may come in the next few days. That bid would involve raising a little over half the capital and borrowing the rest, so I wouldn't think it holds as much clout as a cash-in-hand offer such as we've seen from "Boots & Balls".

On the local lease front, the push for support appears to be meeting with some success. New season ticket sales are up over last season, and even some of the players are looking into buying Nashville Predators tickets in an effort to help hit the 14,000 mark and keep the team in Nashville. Local fans still have a chance to prove they deserve to keep NHL hockey in town, and while we're still early in the game, the signs are encouraging so far.

Popular posts from this blog

My goals for 2011: Make sports blogging pay off

In my never-ending quest to figure out a model for making what is currently my hobby & passion into something bringing in at least a side income, I've decided to set a couple goals for myself to complete during the rest of 2011. Simply put, I plan to publish two products over the next few months, which I hope will provide real value to hockey fans, and that they'll be willing to pay for. Will it succeed? Will it fail? The only way to know is to put my nose to the grindstone and get these two things done (I'll keep the details under my hat for now). The important thing to note is that these efforts are in addition to anything I'm doing over at OTF . Taking away what we're doing over there and asking people to pay for it is a surefire lose-lose all the way around, because if there's anything we've learned over the last few years, it's that people love to read about sports, but only for free. I'm also optimistic about Hockey Gea...

Social Media, Internet Marketing, and Real, Paying Customers - it really works!

Applying the basic tenets of internet marketing (SEO best practices and social media network building) have helped me grow the readership and engagement over at On The Forecheck tremendously in recent years, but lately I've been wondering if those same techniques could be applied to small- or medium-sized local businesses, to help them drive real, tangible business results. I'm talking about not just drawing idle hockey fans looking to a blog so they can muse over line combinations, but helping businesses connect with potential customers in ways that otherwise wouldn't occur. Recently, I was able to help make just such a thing happen, and it shows just how great the opportunities are for small, local businesses which may not have the resources or skills available to extend their brand effectively on the internet.

Celebrating a milestone month

I've been remiss in providing regular updates on my quest to turn this whole sports-blogging hobby into at least something of a significant side income, if not a career, but good news has a way of prompting action. That, and I've been heads-down busy working on a few different fronts to push things forward...