Franchise Notes
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Red Wings Fail To Fill Seats Despite Sellout
For Thursday's Playoff Game Against Stars |
In Detroit, Mitch Albom writes of Thursday's Stars-Red Wings Western Conference Finals Game One, "I have to say how bad it looked to see so many empty seats at Joe Louis Arena. Cheaper seats. Expensive seats. Empty clusters. Half-empty rows. Hey, this ain't Nashville, folks." Albom added, "I don't know if those tickets weren't sold (bad) or just not used (worse). I know only that if the Wings win seven more games, if they capture the [Stanley] Cup, if they keep up this excellence and they do it with this many empty seats, we don't deserve the name Hockeytown" (DETROIT FREE PRESS, 5/9). The announced attendance at Thursday's game was a sellout crowd of 20,066 (THE DAILY).
PRICE IS RIGHT: In Toronto, Dave Perkins writes under the header, "Profit Picture Clear For Bills Games In Toronto." The games will earn a minimum of C$13-15M in "gate receipts, without the first nickel of considerable ancillary revenues, starting with sponsorship dollars." And at "less than [C$10M] a game to the Bills, you can see it working." Once they "pack the expensive house for these games, promoters will put themselves on the fast track for a full-time franchise. Then will come the plan to build an 80,000-seat stadium, using the lottery list as a starting point for" PSLs (TORONTO STAR, 5/9).
IN CONTROL: In Toronto, Damien Cox wrote of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (MLSE), "It's pretty clear based on these latest shenanigans -- the board spending all of its time to purchase an English [Premier League] soccer club, then canning [Maple Leafs coach Paul] Maurice in its spare time -- that the MLSE suits have no intention of handing over control of their profitable-if-not-successful hockey toy to anybody." With MLSE execs "still unwilling to give up power," and with Ducks Exec VP & GM Brian Burke and Devils President, CEO & GM Lou Lamoriello, among others, "out of reach, the search for a new hockey boss is now clearly into the second rung of candidates." The "kind of 'home run' the Leafs had been hoping for is now out of reach" (TORONTO STAR, 5/8).
SEATTLE SLEW: MLS Commissioner Don Garber "expressed excitement for the over 14,700 season ticket deposits" sold by the fledgling Sounders FC franchise, which begins play next season. Garber: "I think we got lightning in a bottle in the Pacific Northwest" (SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER, 5/8).
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