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All the numbers may look good today, but down the road the NHL is going to be hurting severely due to all of the bad decisions on Bettman's part. He has lost a ton of fans and definitely hasn't gained any...
http://www.FireBettman.com
The NHL is a good example of American business and why were are failing to compete in the global marketplace... we've just been looking at what makes us money today and not thinking ahead.
What about the soaring value of the Canadian dollar -- the Canadian franchises (1/5 of the league) contribute 1/3 of the revenue. (look here for a full accounting -->> http://www.canuckscorner.com/web...tman_buck.html)
In short -- Gary Bettman has a job because the Canadian dollar is rising (or the US dollar is falling), not because of anything he's done or has control over...
Using "mastermind" and "Gary Bettman" in the same sentence upsets the natural order of things and insults super villains everywhere.
You're telling me an arena, a TV contract, an NBA and an original six NHL team are worth only $413M?! No FN way, they could get $750M easily.
Don't misunderstand me, I don't believe Bettman deserves to keep his job. I just offer the doubling (or substantially more)in value of clubs since the lockout as a possible rationale for the otherwise totally inexplicable. It's an exercise in X-Files or just an investigation into the minds of the dumb and lucky.
As for the valuation of the Leafs at $413, I didn't come up with the number, I'm just reporting it. I don't think the number is the value of MLSE, I think it's just the Leafs, the operating rights to Air Canada Centre and Maple Leafs TV. The synergies brought about though ownership of the Raptors (and similarly for the Rangers/Knicks) is a major cost savings and should produce operating efficiencies that translate into major dollars but I doubt that went into the values. Forbes tried to separate the value of the Leafs from the rest of MLSE in determining coming up with $413 figure - exactly how they did it is something of a mysteryand given the interlocking operations of the Leafs, Raptors, Toronto FC, the television deals, and the real estate operations of MLSE, it is enormous guesswork at best to divine any number for a single part of tne enterprise which works as a whole in any event.
Commenting by HaloScan
