Comments on: Forsberg Story, Defending Bettman, What Could've Been (Crosby), Conroy

By: kamullia

kamullia — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 16:26:06 +0000

Mario got screwed by mostly local politicians, but also by circumstances, like 9/11, believe it or not.In essence Mario was given plenty of promises, but then the runaround by the local politicians, therefore he wised up and contracted experts who basically told them to forget the locals and go to the state, and that is what he did. He had a deal hand-shaken and all nearly sealed with a serious promise by Governor Tom Ridge to get it all rolling at the beginning of the new year, when 9/11 struck. In the short time line, money had to be put on hold, in order to pay for unexpected higher security. The long outcome of 9/11 was that Tom Ridge got asked by President Bush to form and preside over the newly Department of Homeland Security…enter new Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell (did I mention I suspect he might be a Flyers fan?)…and only NOW finally something will happen. It is also true that there has been a change at the local level of politicians, with a new Mayor who has actually been in office only 4 months, and some others who are aspiring to be Mayors of the city in the new elections and guess what? Now all the local politicians are Mario’s best allies, as opposed to before…go figure. Mario got it from every side on this one, but finally he is in the drivers seat, even if very late in the game.

By: kamullia

kamullia — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 16:16:33 +0000

Come on now, you cannot possibly compare the Whalers of back then to the Pens of today!? Staal, Fleury, Whitney, Malkin, Rechi, Gonchar, even Talbot and Ruutu, plus players in the pipeline like Goligoski, Welch, Eaves. This team has a real future ahead of them, there is no doubt about it, and they are exciting to watch. I think the Oilers of last year were also very exciting to watch, too bad Pronger’s wife got upset at the groupies. I don’t blame her, but what a shame for the team. At any rate, these Pens are light years ahead in bright future than the Whalers of back then, and the Whalers were not an exciting team to watch either.Do I think it would be best for the top teams to get the same attendance and the lower teams to increase theirs and add more exposure with Superstars in their teams? ABSOFREAKINLOOTLY! We want to maximize the exposure at a national, even continental level, not in a regional one. Would Crosby be better in Toronto? Probably. Would it be better for the NHL as a whole in terms of exposure? No way. In fact, the best thing that could happen to maximize exposure is to put two good upcoming stars/players in the presently worst markets. Say Ovechkin and Phanuf in Sunrise, FLorida, Crosby and Jack Johnson in Nashville, Semin and Eric Staal in Carolina…Atlanta is getting a ton of exposure these days as compare to before, how much worse do you think the exposure in Atlanta would be if they did not have Kovalchuk, Lehtonen, and Hossa? Hockey would literally die in Atlanta without them, and you want to expand interest and that expansion would be marginal in well established markets.As to Vs and NBC, they simply do a terrible job of exposing the game. Part of it was that they are just getting their feet wet, part of it is that they keeping under such a tight leash time line-wise that they can barely have the time to show the game, let alone do special features and insight to get people interested. You cannot just throw the game at people and make them like it, you have to personalize it more…make them like the players as individuals first, the game will follow. This is beyond Pittsburgh and New York, and Canada and the East. The NHL needs to expand its television audience, period, and putting Crosby in New York, I disagree with you, it is no magic bullet. There is so much more to do.

By: kamullia

kamullia — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 15:27:53 +0000

If they change some of the lease terms at Mellon Arena, until the new arena is built, the answer is yes. In fact, one of the sticking points at this time is that during the construction phase of the new arena, the governor Rendell and the local officials had loosely talked about the Pens staying in Mellon Arena rent free, plus keeping ALL take from the events, including parking. Then all of a sudden the governor brought the guy who won the slots license for Pittsburgh (Barden), with a proposal to have Barden share the costs of redevelopment of the site (i.e. the new parking) but taking in a share (apparently a big one) from the take in.

At any rate, construction of the arena is supposed to be 2 to 3 years.

There is other sticking points but all in all, the Pens do not want to share squat with Barden, and in my opinion they should not have to. They guy is already going to make untold billions with the casino, why does he have to get an even bigger piece of the pie?

As to the governor, you are right, he is a liar and a sleezeball...but then again, what do you expect from a Flyers fan? Just kidding, he made his political career in Philly, but I do not think he has ever been seen with a beer or punching people so he might not be a Flyers fan. LOL

By: kamullia

kamullia — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 15:17:38 +0000

I am also against abortions, although my list of exceptions is a little bigger than yours, even if not by much.Still my sense of humor is quite different than most, hence my enjoying of movies like “Dogma” even though they highly make fun of many subjects most people will not dare even talk about. In the end, I laughed pretty hard even if only for a second. P

By: Archion113

Archion113 — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 14:44:27 +0000

I'd say 75% of all the hooking calls in the league are bad calls.

They've should change the name "hooking" to illegal contact or something.

By: Kraftster

Kraftster — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 13:27:29 +0000

Well, unfortunately, I won't be able to respond in Italian, haha.
I will certainly agree that if "the fix was in" on the lottery it was an ill-conceived idea by Bettman that was doomed to fail.

I really think that the stats show that the jerseys are selling pretty darn good, not just in Pittsburgh, but around the nation, would they be selling more if they were in NY? Perhaps if the Rangers are that much more popular of a team nationwide, but, you don't see Jagr or Shanahan or Lundqvist near the top, so, that seems questionable....

I understand that NY is a big money team, and, naturally, any NYC team is giong to have a bigger local audience, but I still am not clear on the idea of non-local marketing. I think it makes all the sense in the world for the NHL to market Crosby aroudn the country, but, in the same way that I don't see the Rangers or the Kings or the Wings marketed in the Pittsburgh area, I can't imagine the Penguins expending a great deal of funds to market Sid in other hockey cities or in non-hockey cities. What potential revenue does the Pittsburgh Penguins team see from a nationwide Crosby compaign? Perhaps they sell a few more jerseys and a small amount of out of town people travel in to see games, but, assuming they get a new arena, chances are they will be selling out home games as it is.

In the end, I agree that Crosby should be more than a "local star," but, I think its a situation where the NHL would be responsible for taking him to that level. Financially, I don't see how it makes sense for the Penguins to do that. I think there is a key difference between exposure due to local demographics (city size, media size) and exposure from team marketing. While Sid on the NYR would lead to greater stardom due to the former, I can't imagine it being in even the NYR's interest to do the latter.

I think that one could actually argue that the Penguins arena situation has actually brought more attention on the Penguins and Crosby than the Rangers have had this year. I may be wrong about this, as I don't really have a "national" perspective of NHL coverage, but, just judging by ESPN, TSN, HTR, HB, etc. I've seen the Pens in the news an awful lot this year.

By: mikster

mikster — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 12:37:12 +0000

But Pittsburgh proved itself to not even be as committed as it should have been. The governor won't help the team. Only now has he taken some PR "interest" just to make himself look good.

The Penguins needed a new arena from years ago...no one did anything about it and they are still not doing much about it now. As much as i''d love to see the Pens stay, it kinda sucks to see them have so little support from the public.

If the Rangers had an outdated arena, they would get a new one approved in a flash.

In Pittsburgh, it's pulling teeth.

By: mikster

mikster — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 12:32:39 +0000

Un rompi? Sei un gran rompone!

Let me try to give you this scenario to make you understand. Let’s go back in time in early 90′s.

If Messier was traded to….say…..the Whalers. Whalers attendance went up and Rangers attendance stayed the same percentage.

Do you think the NHL would have started to get just as popular in that scenario as it did in real life when Messier became a Ranger?

Pittsburgh is scheduled to have 7 games on VS. this season. Somehow it didn’t work well enough? Had it been the Rangers though, would it be better? I think so. At least the amount of New Yorkers would be much….much more than the Pittsburghers.

NBC is still getting its feet wet with hockey, we shall hope for the best!

By: mikster

mikster — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 12:14:33 +0000

The Penguins may be able to give Crosby the max cap, but i don't think they are wealthy enough to acquire more talent on the team and will eventually lose Malkin. Don't forget Fleury and Whitney too.

Also, will Crosby want to stay in small town Pittsburgh? They may offer him what he wants, but it could be he won't want the Penguins logo on his chest.

By: habsoverserver

habsoverserver — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 12:14:22 +0000

we will see where the salary cap is in two years. i think portions of the cba will get re-negotiated over time.