Bettman: "Salary Cap will NOT go down next year"; and GMHockey investigates NHL attendance

wprager wrote: Dave, rather than quoting your long post, I'll respond to a couple points here.

1. I never said attendance was down. What I did say was that attendance for the top-10 was down slightly from last year's average. Once I got home and used Excel I posted that attendance averages were actually up, slightly.

2. How nice of them to say that, using *new* ways to measure eyeballs, CBC HNIC's viewership is up. I really, really don't even know what more to say about that.

3. I fully expected viewership to be up in this economy. $4K for season tickets or $200 for CI? Not a very tough decision, is it? This may or may not translate to higher revenues, but not until the next TV contract.

rooneypoo wrote:The NHL makes most of it's money, not from ticket sales, but from agreements in place (TV and broadcasting rights, commercials, etc.) well in advance of the start of the season. If the NHL has managed to secure similar revenue here as last year, they should have a good chance at keeping the cap the same.

The flip side of the coin is, of course, the NHL has a vested interest in spreading the perception that its revenues are growing or staying the same, rather than shrinking. I'd be pretty skeptical of all stats coming from NHL head office until they're public and official.

wprager wrote:Rooney, can you provide a source to back up your assertion that the "NHL makes most of it's money, not from ticket sales, but from agreements in place (TV and broadcasting rights, commercials, etc."? I was definitely under the impression (and I'm sure that was based on reading it somewhere) that the majority of the revenue comes from ticket sales (plus concessions, parking, what-not).

wprager wrote:The Leafs are a special breed. Not every team has every home game televised on a cable channel dedicated to how badly they suck.

davetherave wrote:

wprager wrote:Rooney, can you provide a source to back up your assertion that the "NHL makes most of it's money, not from ticket sales, but from agreements in place (TV and broadcasting rights, commercials, etc."? I was definitely under the impression (and I'm sure that was based on reading it somewhere) that the majority of the revenue comes from ticket sales (plus concessions, parking, what-not).

Prager, all of this information is available from the previously referenced FORBES report, "The Business of Hockey".

Examples:
Toronto Maple Leafs

1-Yr Value Chg.	9%
Ann. Value Chg. 2	11%
Debt/Value 3	35%
Revenue 4	$160 mil
Operating Inc. 5	$66.4 mil
Player Expenses 6	$53 mil
Gate Receipts 7	$78 mil

The gate receipts constitute less than 50% of the revenue in the case of TML.

Further information here:
http://www.forbes.com/lists/2008/31/nhl08_Toronto-Maple-Leafs_312012.html

Enjoy your research.

PKC wrote:

davetherave wrote:

wprager wrote:Rooney, can you provide a source to back up your assertion that the "NHL makes most of it's money, not from ticket sales, but from agreements in place (TV and broadcasting rights, commercials, etc."? I was definitely under the impression (and I'm sure that was based on reading it somewhere) that the majority of the revenue comes from ticket sales (plus concessions, parking, what-not).

Prager, all of this information is available from the previously referenced FORBES report, "The Business of Hockey".

Examples:
Toronto Maple Leafs

1-Yr Value Chg.	9%
Ann. Value Chg. 2	11%
Debt/Value 3	35%
Revenue 4	$160 mil
Operating Inc. 5	$66.4 mil
Player Expenses 6	$53 mil
Gate Receipts 7	$78 mil

The gate receipts constitute less than 50% of the revenue in the case of TML.

Further information here:
http://www.forbes.com/lists/2008/31/nhl08_Toronto-Maple-Leafs_312012.html

Enjoy your research.

I'll venture a bold guess and say the same applies to Phoenix.

davetherave wrote:Comrade Prager, example number two...

Ottawa Senators

1-Yr Value Chg.	12%
Ann. Value Chg. 2	18%
Debt/Value 3	63%
Revenue 4	$96 mil
Operating Inc. 5	$4.7 mil
Player Expenses 6	$54 mil
Gate Receipts 7	$50 mil

Again, gate receipts barely 50% of revenues.

davetherave wrote:

PKC wrote:

davetherave wrote:

wprager wrote:Rooney, can you provide a source to back up your assertion that the "NHL makes most of it's money, not from ticket sales, but from agreements in place (TV and broadcasting rights, commercials, etc."? I was definitely under the impression (and I'm sure that was based on reading it somewhere) that the majority of the revenue comes from ticket sales (plus concessions, parking, what-not).

Prager, all of this information is available from the previously referenced FORBES report, "The Business of Hockey".

Examples:
Toronto Maple Leafs

1-Yr Value Chg.	9%
Ann. Value Chg. 2	11%
Debt/Value 3	35%
Revenue 4	$160 mil
Operating Inc. 5	$66.4 mil
Player Expenses 6	$53 mil
Gate Receipts 7	$78 mil

The gate receipts constitute less than 50% of the revenue in the case of TML.

Further information here:
http://www.forbes.com/lists/2008/31/nhl08_Toronto-Maple-Leafs_312012.html

Enjoy your research.

I'll venture a bold guess and say the same applies to Phoenix.

PKC> your cleverness defies description.

PKC wrote:

davetherave wrote:
PKC> your cleverness defies description.

Thank you for noticing.

Tickets to Maple Leafs games are
being sold for unprecedented low prices on the open market – in what
ticket brokers and resellers say is an early sign of a backlash against
the club's league-topping ticket prices and basement-dwelling
performance.

For the first time ticket sellers can
remember, Leafs tickets with face values of $100 to $300 each are
routinely selling for as little as half that amount.

wprager wrote:http://senators.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=502707&cmpid=rss-News%20in%20English

Still close to 3,000 tickets left for Thursday's game against Nashville. Now, that in itself is not bad -- I mean, it's Nashville, right? And it's not like Carrie is traveling with the team. But there's still 400 tickets left for the Coke Zero Zone ($14 per ticket including taxes). The Boston game on Saturday has fewer than 500 tickets remaining -- that one should be a sellout.

shabbs wrote:Cap to go up?

http://blogs.mercurynews.com/sharks/2009/10/19/news-from-a-sitdown-with-nhl-brass-directv-versus-update-league-revenues-are-up-and-more/

Maybe...