Hockey Trade Rumors

This whole Penguins sale thing that has been going on for like 5 years in the making is finally looking like it is all over. A new owner is in place, and funding for a new building looks like it is coming along. But what about teams like the Sens who were having some trouble and prospective cities should the league expand to 32 teams, or if another franchise unfortunately becomes financially unstable or the owner would like to sell.

I have been reading a book (yes Im old fashioned) about self reliant communities. And one of the first examples it gives is about the ownership of the Green Bay Packers… may be you have heard of the NFL franchise. The Green Bay Packers were on the verge of collapse and the community members of Green Bay sold stock to each other, with each person only able to buy a small percentage. Today the Packers have 4,750,925 shares which are owned by 111,967 stockholders. None of those 111,967 receive a dividend or any money in return, but the stocks themselves do retain their facevalue, and can be bought back.

The Packers generate a ton of revenue which gets redistributed back to the team, stadium repairs/renevations, and access back into the city. None are going into a single or group majority leaders pockets, and you know that the Packers will have the resources to be competetive despite being a smaller NFL city. Yes, may be you now know where I am going with this!

The NHL has NHL franchises based in smaller cities, and have had a few too many failing franchises. Despite Gary Bettman and other commissioners not endorsing the ideas. If there is enough interest in a prosports franchise and a community who are active this idea can, and should be done.

I don’t like going this far and not giving an example, and I really don’t want to single out any city and those supporters of a team to be angry at me, so if you feel like I will create tension between us, stop reading. For those of us who are openminded lets continue!

I want to talk about the Ottawa Senators for example. Before we go on, I do not know the current front office, and their stance to keeping the team and for how long. But anyways, I do believe the Ottawa has 850,000 habitants with more in the surrounding area. That is relatively small, would you agree? Now lets say that Ottawa starts doing horrible (Habs and Leaf fans smiling) or their owner can’t pay their salaries, and it appears that the only option yet again is relocating or finding some Canadian or US businessman not from the area, but loves the idea of owning a potentially profitable franchise.

Why not have a rally at Scotia Bank and agree that we want this to be owned by the people of Ottawa for the purpose of keeping the team there, helping the franchise gain stability, AND create economic surplus and redistribution to the city. Sell a million stocks at $1,000 each, and with a strong local fanbase, I do believe that is possible, and BAM there is one billion dollars! I would say to acquire a franchise would be 300 million or so, and if at the time they needed a 400 million dollar facility, and they could invest the rest into a growth fund so they can gain some instead of letting the rest just sit there. You are covered with a couple of years expenses, and chances are with a nonprofit organization and tax breaks, there will be profit to be distributed to the city of Ottawa!

I know that 300 million is still quite a bit to have in a “trust fund” and I am sure that 1,000,000,000 may even be much more than was needed. So that 1,000/share could be brought down a little bit. If that is still not enough money, sell more shares. The fact is that the team will not move with a local interest controlling all of the shares, and if you set a limit of 100 shares/person there will never be a controlling entity to screw the team. People will buy stocks not for profit, nor to make decisions in the front office, but to have pride in their team, and to have a voice in where access cash is distrubed (ie other local charities or the city itself). Think it is too much and it will never happen… well it did for Green Bay and they have been a successful (until last season) and are going nowhere.

That is just something to think about, and the book I references is called Going Local: Creating Self Reliant Communities in a Global Age by Michael Shuman… its a good read for those who aren’t in major cities/ports.

And remember I’m not proposing we do this right now with Ottawa because the franchise seems to still be strong, and no potential problems at the moment. But if they were looking to go to 32 teams(which I don’t think they are, but it would mean 16 teams/conference and half getting in and half not getting into the playoffs) and Winnipeg was one of those cities, I would recommend this type of ownership. What do you think?

ranger_fan