The Leafs may not win a lot of games but make a ton of money AP Photo/Darren Calabese
SI.com has published its annual list of the best and worst sports owners. Since hockey owners have been in the news let us take a look at the hockey owners. One little note first, I consider SI to be among the worst sports publications on he market today. The Sporting News is superior in every way but, for the most part I am in agreement with this list. With a few exceptions of course.
Let us start with the worst NHL owners, SI has them ranked like this:
1. Maple Leafs Sports and entertainment-Toronto Maple Leafs
2. Alan Cohen-Florida Panthers
3. Charles Wang-New York Islanders
4. Atlanta Spirit- Atlanta Thrashers
5. Predator Holdings LLC-Nashville Predators
Overall that is a pretty good list of terrible NHL owners; however there are a few notable exceptions. I would place Phoenix Coyotes owner Jerry Moyes as not only the worst NHL owner, but quite possible the third worst sports owner in America (directly behind Raiders boss Al Davis and Detroit Lions owner William Clay Ford Sr.).
Of course if we are to believe the NHL Moyes is no longer in control of the club, but technically he still is the owner who has lost 30 million dollars a season trying to make hockey in the dessert relevant.
This list seems to speak to a breakdown in how the NHL allows groups to own sports teams, and where the league chooses to place their franchises. Three of the five teams on SI’s list are team in non traditional hockey markets; three of the five teams on SI’s list are owned by consortiums (in the case of the Predators there are 30 some investors keeping the team in Nashville).
On top of that two of the teams on SI’s list are teams who have another NHL franchise in their own state or media market. The point to all of this is the NHL is complicit in these owner’s and team’s failing.
One could construct a strong case to relocate, or contract four of the five teams on the SI list. We could also add the Los Angels Kings to that list giving the NHL five teams that could easily be absorbed by other clubs or moved to traditional NHL markets.
In the case of the Maple Leafs, a team in a strong hockey market, Forbes has tem listed as the most valuable NHL franchise at 413 million. More than that Maple Leaf Sports and entertainment, which also owns; Toronto Raptors of the NBA; Toronto FC of MLS; and Leafs and Raptors TV, is the second mast valuable sport conglomerate in North America behind Madison Square Gardens Enterprise. MLSE is worth almost 1.5 billion dollars and its majority owners the Ontario Teachers pension find.
According to ESPN, Toronto was 6th in NHL attendance this past year with 791,795 fans or an average of 19,312. The Fan cost index as an average Maple Leafs ticket costing some 88 dollars. That means the Maple Leafs are produced around 69 million dollars in ticket sales revenue over the last NHL season.
SI has them listed as bad owner because they do not win. They finished in last place in their division with a 34-35-13 record for 2008-09. However they are making their owners, the Teacher pension board a boat load of money. Forbes as the annual return for the pension board’s investment at nearly 20%. In this case sports is a business, and the Maple Leafs are a highly successful one. With those facts in mind Toronto has no business being on this list.
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