Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Redo Part Deux?

Now that Atlanta has successfully lost not one but 2 NHL franchises, the Winnipeg folks are getting their second go round at this game. Eventually some other random city will break this viscous cycle and get a stab at the NHL, but where the dice will lie no one knows. I know, it's Canada's game and they deserve another team but there are so many issues that have to be looked it, I wouldn't be shocked if at some point in the future (not the near but the far far away future) that they pack up their bags and move again (maybe Europe? Gary Bettman help me out with your crystal ball). You have been warned, sort of long post addressing the first issues that came to mind when it was first rumored and today confirmed.

The first issue with this new team is we keep calling it various concoctions of the Winnipeg Jets and Atlanta Thrashers like this is a celebrity relationship. Winnipeg Thrashers? That's out. The name Thrashers is apparently Atlanta's to keep. The Winnipeg Jets Part Deux seems the most logical (imagine the sales for nostalgia jerseys), but the one being said in a quiet whisper is the one that makes the most sense to me: Manitoba Moose, NHL style.

Since the NHL will be taking over the Moose's home arena, the AHL Moose are now in limbo. Will they shutdown for a season, who will their parent club be, where could they relocate to? All important questions and since the Newest Shiny Toy (NST) of the NHL is offering the season ticket holders of the AHL Moose, I think it's a safe bet that they will be shutdown for a season. There's already enough AHL team issues with parent clubs with the Sabres, Amerks and Pirates drama and I'm sure throwing a displaced team with no home arena now isn't going to help. Maybe they can go to ATL and be the consolation prize for the fans that actually did care about losing a team. AHL games are much cheaper and can be loads of fun. In the end the owners of Thrashers gained them through a deal and treated them like the step-child they never wanted and never tried to market them to the people.

Side note about the AHL Sabre issue: Pegula who bought the team earlier this year wants to rejoin them with their former affiliation to the Rochester Amerks in place of their current agreement with the Portland Pirates. Unfortunately it's not as easy as just the parent clubs switching their afflictions since each farm system player is stocked by the parent clubs draft picks and under contracts. Pegula would like to actually BUY the Amerks and own them as the Lemiuex Group owns the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. As I have watched first hand players be developed and come through a solid system I can say it has lots of positives. I have seen half the current NHL roster of the Pens (minus the big guns) play here and get called up. Pretty awesome and it ties you to your team and players even more. Other than player development as a major advantage to them rejoining with the Amerks is location location location. Although Portland isn't a long flight, check a map and see how much closer Rochester is to Buffalo. Same state. You can call up a guy as the Penguins do and have him hop in a car and he's there within hours. You try arranging flights that fast. This was a massive advantage to the Penguins even fielding a team half the season.

Back to the actual topic at hand- the NST. Since I've already addressed the naming issues of NST, the next is what happens to the workers who don't want to move to the never ending winter central? From sunny, south Atlanta, Winnipeg is a hard sell and I don't foresee many people other than players packing up and moving. Plus there's this other issue of a work Visa. Yes, the team will probably help take care of those pesky papers and fees, but your moving to a different country. New weather, currency, dialect, new everything. If you have a family this is not happening unless this was dream to move to Winnipeg. Of all the places in Canada, I'm guessing Winnipeg didn't even crack the top 10 for most people. Winnipeg will gain jobs which will help boost their economy, but wasn't their economy and the weak dollar why they first fled? That arena will be filled for the first few years since season ticket holders have a contract for 3-5 years depending on tickets. Wait till after that grace period and we shall see how the NST is doing.

Lets not forget new owners will infuse new talent with new money but the core of this team is still the Thrashers and their on ice product didn't exactly fare well. Time will tell, but the economy needs to hold steady and the fans need to still support the team in 10 years even if they haven't gained any hardware. That's when we will really know if Winnipeg Part Deux works. If they do ever get uprooted again, I hope the league moves on from it's habit of Sloppy Seconds and they try a new place. I think a place where the AHL has thrived would be a good place to start or within a distance of an AHL team. Fan base is already there.

The last issue of this move I will address is where do they fit in in the already wacky alignment of divisions? Currently they will stay in the Eastern Conference Southeast Division, which since next seasons schedule is close to being completed makes sense (I think they area also holding out on seeing where the Coyotes soap opera leads to) but after that where do they fall? Western Conference Northwest Division makes the most sense which means a Western team comes East. There are various options people have been figuring out for weeks. The most logical one with the least amount of shuffling league wide would be Winnipeg goes Northwest, Colorado goes Central and Nashville goes Southeast. Although Nashville is in the Central timezone, they are rather East and this causes the least amount of feathers being ruffled. The other contenders are Detroit and Columbus.

Columbus makes sense since they are in fact the most Eastern Western team, and they could possibly form a rivalry with teams closer to them (of course their ownership issues and bleeding millions a year into a black hole make me think they are staying put since who knows what will happen). Them coming East causes lots of issues though since they are in a Northern location. Detroit will cause the same issues with moving and since they are an original 6 team and the biggest draw in the West, how do they just hop on over? They are a goldmine and have fans everywhere I doubt the league, I mean NBC, will let that happen. No more Hawks-Wings games on Sundays? Might as well rip up the shiny contract right now. Bettman will personally buy Detroit a new plane before they move East in my opinion.

Either Columbus or Detroit will take a lot of work to realign the East because every rivalry people live for would be dead. I've seen people write up scenarios where Philly and Pitt are in different divisions. Is this real? They are in the same state, each game is about who is the King of the Keystone, plus fans in Philly would riot. How about breaking up Habs and Bruins? Can't even fathom that. And what about the tri-state teams. The Islanders and Rangers are 30 miles apart and what about those Devils? They are even closer to the Rangers than the Isles are. Explain how one of those teams would be chosen as Northeast or Southeast when they can throw stones at each other and all have access to the Atlantic ocean in the flash of a an eye? You can't logically do it.

There's so many aspects to this move that will have positive and negative effects to varying degrees over the course of time. Ending this now since I'm sure I could find 10 more things if I give myself a few more minutes to think about it.

The first positive to this move for our NST is the death of their amazingly hideous wardrobe. RIP Thrashers. And leave your uniform designers wherever you found them,

Monday, May 30, 2011

Mega TV Deal

Since the playoffs are in the final stage and we have our teams set, this is a perfect time to point out the insanity of this new TV deal that will apparently help reach new audiences that ESPN couldn't offer.

Not too long ago the rights for NHL games were up for grabs and because NBC had exclusive rights to match any offer from another party (ESPN) and therefore you knew right away they were going with NBC. What the NHL failed to realize is many people do not get Versus in their cable deals. For example I can get it added on for a arm, but I will NEVER get to watch a single Penguins, Rangers, Devils, Islanders game (Sabres at times too) because I live in the Bermuda Triangle of the NHL. Basically their home networks (MSG, Root Sports etc) have airing rights to the games and can blackout games on Versus or any other channel so you have to watch their broadcast. Clearly I'm not paying an arm to watch games and never get to see any team I care about or near to me. Makes no sense.

The next issue I have with the NHL on NBC for better part of eternity is NBC only will air certain teams. They always air teams that have huge draws and good story lines (hey there Sid vs Ovi), but what about Nashville who came outta know where to prove they have the goods this season. I want to see them play more because maybe they didn't come out of nowhere. Reading is not seeing. A team can lose by 5 goals but that doesn't mean they are a bad team. It could be any number of factors and I want a fair chance to watch them all.

NBC has offered to air a Black Friday game. Great timing. After everyone awakes from their Turkey coma, they wake up at the crack of dawn to go shopping on Friday so by the time the game airs, everyone will be on nap number 2 of the holiday weekend. Obvisiously they will still have the Winter Classic and supposedly they will have a game Saturday and Sunday (once football is over of course), but only 1 game per day. Still cant figure out how we can watch football on every channel from the crack of dawn till we pass out and watch football non-stop but we are regulated to 1 game per weekend day and only AFTER football season ends.

I really wish I could have seen what ESPN was offering since they have many advantages (including not being owned by NBC which seems to have gained about 9 egos since their mega merger). First off they have how many ESPN stations that play non-stop news. One of them can easily be converted to air games. Secondly they are owned by mega-conglomerate Disney, who in turn also always ABC. What exactly is ABC airing on weekends theses days? Help. I remember Wide World of Sports on weekends when I was a kid but this is also when they owned figure skating rights and Robin Roberts hosted. So again what is on weekends? Don't know what ESPN offered but they could have offered weekend games (they don't air NFL, just NCAA) every weekend, plus games on ESPN and I'm sure Disney world come up with some crazy tie in. How about after the Conn Smythe winner from the Stanley Cup Finals gets his award and they do a "I'm going to Disney World" like they do with the MVP of the Superbowl. I'm sure they could come up with something.

I'm sure there's many points on both sides of this awkward deal as there always are, but I'm just not a fan. Thank god for computer geniuses who will put the game online so I can stream from. I thank you very much for doing such a wonderful service. One of the most intriguing points of this tv deal comes into play now. You don't want to see a team swept and the odds of it happening in the Finals are probably on the low side (although who saw the Caps being swept by the Lightening? I didn't) if a team is swept and wins it all in Game 4, it will be hidden on the depths of Versus. For some wacky reason Games 1,2,5-7 will be aired on NBC. Versus has rights to Game 3&4. Don't ask. It has no sound rhyme or reason.

As its approximately a million degrees out (ok 80 and humid but it's going up to 90) and it's Memorial Day I am going to a BBQ and a pool. Had enough of the inside world today.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

I need more time in a day....

I haven't completely forgotten about the blog, but I've had a busy past week. This week is looking much better so check back soon! As the hockey season is winding down to 2 teams, I will start this off by looking back at some parts of this past season. From 24/7 to a horrible TV deal (in my opinion) to concussion gate and relocation possibilities there's lots to reflect on. We could even make up our own awards show since I for one can't go to Vegas for the real one. Plus we could have more fun categories like Best Goalie Fight (step up Brent Johnson), Best Use of F-Bombs (Bruce Boudreau, it's all you all the f'ing time) and Best Use of an AHL team when your starting lineup is partying on the IR together (it's all you Penguins).

Speaking of relocation if this Thrasher to Winnipeg move happens, do you really think people, outside of the players making at least a six-figure paycheck really want to move there? We already heard from Ilya Bryzgalov and his love for parks and sunshine. I guess those rumors of Russia having brutal winters were all a lie?! If you paid me that much money, I'd move to Winnipeg. Think that the possibly to be reformed Jets or whatever they shall be named need someone to work for them in PR/Writing/Ops/Jack-of-All-Trades type person? Hiiiiii call me!

Next post will be some fun topic about the season that was. I really like the idea of venting about Versus and NBC's enormous ego to be honest, but with Winnipeg looming who knows.

Side note- I want to move to Arizona. They were selling season tickets for $10 a seat and you got to go in and look at them. Umm what? I know it's partially because the league owns the team this type of wackiness can happen, but a Baby Pens ticket can run you almost double for a game and they are AHL. That's pretty awesome and I hope the residents in the area of Glendale actually take advantage of it to show they want and truly support the team. Next step is getting them an owner.

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Welcome!

Hopefully I will keep up with this. Majority of my ramblings will be about sports, hockey in particular, but also happenings on and off the field and ice. Living local to the Penguins AHL farm team, I have had lots of chances to catch games and see how the players transition from one league to the next. Seeing how they transition is intriguing to say the least.

Remember everything posted on here is my opinion. Just agree to disagree and all will be good :)