Mental ramblings of a geek dad

I’m your average hockey watching and playing and coachign dad, but also a business decision maker.  When I see egos get in the way of product/service quality and most importantly the customer it drives me nuts.

Seeing that Jim Basillie is offering a mountain of money to take a team which has filed chapter 11 in a non-natural hockey market to a place it can be profitable and create a strong following in record time makes a whole lot of sense to me.  Yes I’m in Canada and would love to see a 7th team here.  I’d prefer Quebec City but Hamilton is in a hot market for this product.

Now seeing good old Gary get all defensive on this is shameful.  He said that he does not  abandon markets, but when attendance is 10-20% of capacity, once has to ask the sanity of moving the Jets from Winnipeg to Arizona.  I love Arizona by the way – phenomenal state.  But seriously, who cares about hockey there as the best way to ensure attendance is to build a franchise in a market when people “get it”.  Nobody plays recreational ice hockey there (lack of rinks, staff, coaches, etc.), and other sports are stongly entrenched.

So why keep Gary?  He wants to put teams in the US to “expand” the audience and create growth.  Not a bad idea at all, but secure your core markets first.  Since he does not get it or his ego prevents logical decisions, the govenors should fire him.  He’s costing the league millions and the NHL can barely make it on occasion on NBC and nowhere on the ESPN grid.  Shameful.

For the future of hockey and its growth, there you have it, sending a team to an owner who will not be a fan in a dead market or to a passionate billionaire fan in a hot prospect market.  If  I’d behave like that I think I’d get fired.