En résumé des 2 articles, le journaliste expose 6 excellentes raisons pour lesquelles il est quasi impossible pour une équipe de hockey de percer en Arizona. Le 2e article traite de l’institut qui va scruter de très près…ce qui va se passer dans l’éventuelle vente au groupe Jamieson. Cet institut est farouchement opposé à ce que Glendale donne un sous de plus dans l’aventure des Coyotes
Six reasons a Phoenix Coyotes turnaround could fail
Phoenix Business Journal by Mike Sunnucks, Senior Reporter
Date: Monday, April 16, 2012, 10:02am MST
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The Phoenix Coyotes have to find a way to draw more fans to Jobing.com Arena to be successful in Arizona in the long-term.
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Senior Reporter - Phoenix Business Journal
Last week I looked at what a new owner of the Phoenix Coyotes can do to turn around or mitigate the team’s $20 million in annual losses and possibly make hockey work in the Arizona market.
Today I’ll give you the flip side -- the biggest reasons a financial turnaround could fall short. In addition, we’ll talk about a few ways new Coyotes ownership and the National Hockey League can try to overcome those bottom-line obstacles.
The myth of the new guy: It’s common in professional sports and businesses as whole for a new CEO, manager or owner to think they can come in and turn a mule into a racehorse.
They won’t make the same mistakes as past owners, and they will turn a financial sinking ship into a revenue juggernaut. But sometimes a mule is a mule.
If former San Jose Sharks CEO Greg Jamison is able to close the deal and buy the Coyotes, he can certainly bring some of the lessons he learned from the San Francisco Bay Area and apply them here in Glendale.
The Sharks have been a perennial playoff team, and have been competitive in the Bay Area sports marketplace.
Over-saturation: Phoenix has four major pro sports teams, two Nascar races, a huge golf tournament, Cactus League baseball and Arizona State University .
From a bottom-line standpoint, it’s a challenge for local pro teams to rake in the big bucks because Phoenix doesn’t have a lot of corporate headquarters, and personal income levels aren’t as high as those in California, back east or Chicago.
So how can the Coyotes overcome that? Simple. Win. Then win some more.
Nothing has hurt the Coyotes more than their lack of success. The Coyotes have not won a playoff series since moving here. They had no playoff appearances in the Wayne Gretzky era. A playoff run (now and in the future) coupled with a sale of the team that keeps them here will get fans and sponsors committed. Fans back winners, and so do advertisers and sponsors whether they are in New York, Oklahoma City or Glendale. They don’t usually back losers.
Lagging revenue: Any business losing $20 million annually has to find a few more coins in the sofa. A new Coyotes regime in Glendale will charge for parking and aggressively go after more group sales and sponsors. The franchise has to find a price point that gets businesses buying suites and tickets and get enough regular fans in lower-level seats. The team has struggled to fill lower level seats and has to close the gap with the Suns, Cards and D-backs with sponsors and groups. The team needs a season-ticket and partial season-ticket base of 10,000 fans that bring spending to Jobing.com Arena -- not just during the playoffs or on the weekends.
Demographics: New Coyotes owners have got to find a way to convert more non-hockey fans into hockey fans.
Hispanics make up 30 percent or more of the fan bases for the Cardinals, D-backs and Suns. In general, Latinos just aren’t hockey fans. That doesn’t mesh well for the Coyotes with a high percentage of Latinos living in the West Valley.
There’s also a lot folks here from places that just don’t care much for hockey. For every New Englander, Canadian and Minnesotan in Phoenix, there are folks from Houston and Los Angeles. Suns games are still the place to be seen in town, and that’s a big competitive advantage. But ifSteve Nash leaves and the franchise doesn’t rebound, that could change. The D-backs play downtown and are coming off last year’s inspiring playoff run.
Hockey trails other sports: It’s not just that the Coyotes are playing catch-up to the Cards, D-backs and Suns. The National Hockey League is playing catch-up to other sports leagues, especially the National Football League .
The NHL isn’t aired on ESPN, which dominates sports media. On top of that, how many hockey players can you name? How many Coyotes other than Shane Doan?
Now think of how many NFL, NBA and Major League Baseball players you can name? How many Cards, D-backs, Suns, pro golfers and even Nascar drivers?
That will tell you a lot where fans and advertisers and put their money. It’s why investment banks pick Phil Mickelson, State Farm picks Aaron Rodgers and why Diet Mountain Dew picks Dale Earnhardt Jr.
The media: New Coyotes owners and NHL owners in most American markets have to overcome their low-level status with local and national media.
The guys at ESPN in Bristol, Conn. will talk NFL, Tebow, LeBron, Tiger, Yankees and Red Sox before Barry Melrose gets his three minutes to talk hockey.
Here in Phoenix, it’s safe to say the Coyotes aren’t top of mind for sports talk radio or media, other than at playoff time.
The media dynamic is true everywhere outside of Canada. It is just something hockey teams have to work around and find ways to get their message to fans and advertisers outside the realm of ESPN and mainstream outlets.
It might, however, take some new approaches by the NHL and Coyotes to give their fans and prospective fans more exposure to the product.
The digital world has shaken up the media dynamic and the music industry. Maybe, hockey can try the same for markets like Phoenix.
Mike Sunnucks writes about politics, law, airlines, sports business and the economy.
Goldwater Institute ready to scrutinize next shot at Phoenix Coyotes sale
Phoenix Business Journal by Mike Sunnucks, Senior Reporter
Date: Monday, April 16, 2012, 6:54pm MST
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Sports Business, Phoenix Coyotes, Glendale
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The Goldwater Institute is ready to examine the next possible sale deal involving the Phoenix Coyotes, which are in the middle of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
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Senior Reporter - Phoenix Business Journal
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The Goldwater Institute is ready to give the once over to a possible sale of the Phoenix Coyotes hockey team to see if a deal is kosher with Arizona law prohibiting government gifts to private businesses.
The National Hockey League and city of Glendale are up against the wall and are trying to work out sale of the league-owned team to a new owner who will keep the team in Arizona. The NHL and city are trying to forge a deal with an investment and ownership group led by former San Jose Sharks CEO Greg Jamison. Two other groups are also interested in the Coyotes but Jamison is the lead pick by the city and league.
Goldwater attorney Carrie Ann Sitren said the conservative watchdog group hasn’t received much information lately from Glendale about the Coyotes deal but is ready to examine a possible deal with Jamison or another prospective owner.
“We’re going to scrutinize it,” Sitren said.
The Phoenix group opposed a previous Glendale deal that involved city bonds to facilitate a Coyotes sale to Chicago investment executive Matthew Hulsizer. Goldwater threatened to sue the city over the bonds in a move that helped scuttle a Coyotes sale to Hulsizer.
The Arizona Constitution prohibits government financial gifts to businesses. Goldwater took plenty of heat from Glendale and Coyotes fans for opposing the Hulsizer bonds.
Glendale and the NHL are working to make the next incarnation of a Coyotes sale immune from a Goldwater lawsuit over the state constitution’s gift clause.
Golwater’s scrutiny of a new Coyotes sale will likely center around what kind of arena management fee the city might pay a Jamison group or another owner and whether some portion of a sale is aimed at helping a new owner absorb some of the hockey teams’s $20 million in annual losses.
“A subsidy is a subsidy,” said Sitren.
The watchdog group previously sued the city of Phoenix over a $97 million tax break given to the original developer of the CityNorth commercial complex next to Desert Ridge Marketplace. TheArizona Supreme Court ruled the future government subsidies to businesses need to have some public purpose and make sense to financially to economic benefits.
The Goldwater group has not challenged two $25 million payments approved by the city of Glendale for the NHL to run city-owned Jobing.com Arena. The NHL has owned the Coyotes since 2009 and the franchise loses $20 million to $25 million. Skeptics say Glendale payments are to help the NHL deal with the Coyotes financial losses as well as to run the arena.
The city and league need to get a deal done soon or the franchise could be sold and moved to another market.
Mike Sunnucks writes about politics, law, airlines, sports business and the economy.
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