From time to time, you have heard me rail against media pundits for their lack of criticality; original thinking; creativity; and basic non-understanding of what they are writing about.
Well here is another rant. This time against Ross McKeon and his blog post mentioning contraction of six NHL teams including the Washington Capitals. Read it here.
First, the throw away notion of shuttering six major league teams is just mean-spirited. Those six teams employ thousands and thousands of people and support tens of thousands of families. I guess Ross wants us to lay off all those people in the toughest economy ever. And those teams generate dollars for their cities in taxes and they generate dollars to hundreds and hundreds of small businesses as vendor/ suppliers. All of that would go away and the benefit and glow of a major sports team franchise would leave those cities marked as second rate for a long, long time.
Second, those teams in the aggregate are worth to their ownership groups - let us say in round numbers - $ 1.2 to $ 1.5 billion. Wow. Would the owners be compensated? What would happen to their investments? Would we just write that investment off? Why? Our teams are growing revenues, value and payments to players. We are essentially growth stocks.
Third, the cities that had built or supported building arenas for these teams would certainly have a say in the matter. Leases would be violated. Tax payments would be forfeited. Lawsuits would be filed. Buildings would be empty. Tax payers would be furious. Pretty non-pragmatic, huh?
Fourth, fans would suffer. Why would we punish the fan bases of any city with contraction? Why would we stop playing in cities that have started to fall in love with hockey generationally? Why punish kids and families that play youth hockey and come to games and have supported the teams and have fallen in love with all of the stars in these cities?
Fifth, last time I looked, Carolina had recently won a Stanley Cup; Tampa Bay too. When was the last time the San Jose Sharks won a Cup? Nashville is a good team. I believe the Caps will be a good team for a long, long time. These teams add to the competitiveness to the league and they have some of the brightest stars in the game playing for them.
Sixth, so we should just cut 150 players’ jobs? Put them out of work? I am sure the players union would love that notion. The average NHL player makes more than $ 2 million per season so there would be about $250 to $300 million less in payroll to players to be paid. They wouldn’t then pay taxes. They wouldn’t buy houses in their communities. They wouldn’t support local charities, etc. etc.
Seventh, the South is important to media buyers and the national TV contract. Trust me. Advertisers care about these markets even if Ross doesn’t.
Lastly - speaking for my own team - we play in the Nation’s Capital, the sixth biggest media market in the US. We are the fastest growing team in the league. We have the reigning NHL MVP on our team. We are a team that is built to last. We have a great and growing fan base. We will be a perennial playoff team for a long, long time. We intend to win a Stanley Cup. We are part of the fabric of our community. We love our fans and they love us back. We have built a franchise that is worth a quarter of a billion dollars with blood, sweat, tears and a major cash investment. I love this team. I have to defend it for the benefit of my partners, my family and our fan base.
I found this notion of contraction to be a slap in the face to hundreds of thousands of fans and to great ownership groups and to great cities. It is offensive to the NHL as a league and is just wrong-headed.
For the sake of being provocative on a blog, Ross - as a freelance writer - just put a big bulls eye on his back. His analysis was shallow at best. He doesn’t know what he is talking about. As my friends in Brooklyn would say, “Ross - contract this!?” 
Tags: Hockey, NHL, Ted Leonsis, Ted's Take, Washington Capitals
Whether you want to admit it or not, the talent pool is watered down. I agree that the league needs to contract. Figuring out how to do it fairly is the problem.
Well this is coming from a ‘Caniac, THANK YOU FOR DOING THIS! A owner who is not afraid to say what he thinks is always welcome……even if it is a division rival. (Sorry, just wait till we get ya on the ice!!)
ya, pretty sure no one who’s lived in florida their whole lives gives a crap about hockey. Ted, it really doesnt matter what stars play for these teams, because good players will have jobs. There are just too many teams who have zero fan base during the regular season and it’s embarrassing. LA, Tampa, Florida, and Nashville (the franchises mind you, not the players) are really a joke. no amount of success is going to build them a fan base because unfortunately americans just wont cling to hockey. There’s not enough time to eat, sorry, overeat, or get wasted during the action. I wouldn’t have contracted washington, but please, hockey and dollywood in the same city?
I hope the players read this article and all other publish articles doubting the Capitals. Use as motivation to play hard and prove all the doubters wrong about hockey in Washington. This franchise has done an amazing job rebuilding and it’s only going to get better with the number of prospects they have in the system.
Using an absurd notion to try to goad a targeted reply out of an owner and painting it as a “challenge” is contemporary American journalism at its best.
Mr. McKeon says himself that contraction is never going to happen regardless of how many people feel it should or shouldn’t. And some of his opinions as to why contraction would make for a better league (stated as if they’re facts only a silly person would disagree with) are as silly as any notions to the contrary…
* Fewer teams/players will increase the talent level and give us a better show? No, because the increase would be relative. McKeon envisions a league where the goal lamp gets tired. I see a league where the defensive and goaltender talent increased right along with the offense, yielding virtually no change while driving team salaries up pretty dramatically.
* The entire Southeast Division? Seriously? I get that it’s supposed to be “tongue-and-cheek” (”tongue-in-cheek” would have worked better, especially for a professional editor), but eliminating hockey from an entire section of the country is just plain stupid. If he wants to present an absurd idea for serious consideration, he’d be best served painting it in the best light — not in a way that defies logic.
* 78 games meaningfully shortens a season? By how much? Less than 2 weeks in an 8- or 9-month season? Wow. Staggering. Let’s set aside that a switch in season length tweaks the record books irrevocably and simply consider that this is a very small, meaningless amount of time in the grand scheme of things in the NHL. If he wants to talk about shorter seasons having a positive impact on a game, he should apply for a transfer to Yahoo’s MLB section.
* Bad ice in June? Look, it’s as difficult to make ice in June in most places as it is to make ice ALL YEAR in some markets, which kind of makes his point moot. Of course, eliminating Tampa and Florida (Miami) would make it a slightly better argument, but temperature’s an issue most of the season for more than a few teams. And again, 2 weeks isn’t going to make a difference at all, regardless.
His ideas are provocative, I’ll give you that. They’re also ill-considered, and watching him try to defend them intelligently is more entertaining than the actual content of his writing. But I hope he continues to enlighten us with unrealistic ideas… “The league should get smaller! Owners should just toss that $200 million for the Good of the Game!” Yeah, and there should be unicorns and pixies on the ice, too…
I hope Andre Roy never loses his place in the league. That guys is money.
[...] So then, my boy and yours Washington Capitals owner Ted Leonsis responded with a genuine post politely calling him a dummy. [...]
I agree with you in most part, Ted… except for the notion that somehow the rest of the world would suffer if 150 NHL players would suddenly be out of $2 million/year. That money would quickly find its way somewhere else… Trust me, we will all be fine if hockey players stop making big bucks.
do you censor comments teddy
First, I’ve lived in south and north carolina all my life and I am a ‘Caniac. And this summer has been killer waiting for the season to start.
Second, Contraction isn’t going to happen. The NHL will eventually expand to 32 teams. I think one in Las Vegas and another in eastern Canada (Hamilton or elsewhere). It’s just the next logical growth step for the league.
Third, if you wanted to see more of the skill pool, here’s a thought: How about divisional All-star teams that play a cross-conference tournament. Or in exhibition games with the KHL or something. I think it’d be fun and we’d get to see some great hockey.