Kansas City

Kansas City Not Ready For NHL: Always The Bride’s Maid, Never The Bride

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After looking at the reasons why Kansas City should get an NHL team and looking at possible targets for relocation, let’s face reality. KC still isn’t NHL ready, or the NHL isn’t ready for KC.

The NHL doesn’t have plans for expansion. And it seems the league, especially Gary Bettman, has no appetite for relocation. Bettman has made the promise to the city of Tempe, Arizona that if they build a new arena for the Coyotes, they will get a 30-year commitment for the Coyotes to stay put (it’s odd how I haven’t heard ownership make that same comment). While the Senators are for sale, that’s contingent on the team staying put in Ottawa.

And about those other teams I focused on being possible targets for relocation. The Flames look like they’re closing in on a new deal with the city for an arena, plus they’re committed given that they relocated their AHL affiliate there. The Sharks look to have a little bit of a post-COVID bump in attendance (a little…not a lot). They’re also committing to rebuilding under new GM Mike Grier as everyone except Hertl is said to be available. They also are committed to their city, having just opened a new arena with the AHL affiliate. That leaves the Sabres. This team, while not great, seems to be improving slowly. They also look like they’ve had a bit of a bump in attendance, although I admit that’s going by games I’ve viewed on TV, I don’t have hard numbers to back that up. So, those teams I thought could possibly be movers now seem like they’re staying put.

Also, cities like Houston and Quebec City look more attractive to the NHL for any possible relocation or future expansion. There is someone in Houston interested in bringing a team to town. In Quebec City, there is the facility and proven support for an NHL team. Kansas City doesn’t seem to have any local person interested in bringing a team to town that has the financial capability to do it, and we are now on the clock with our NHL-caliber facility as it is now 15 years old (half way to talk of needing a new building). So, what’s next? Do we just give up on the NHL dream and stick with ECHL hockey? Well… My opinion is KC should be home to an AHL team. So, in my next blog, I’m going to talk about why an AHL team could work here

NHL Back in KC: Target #4: San Jose Sharks

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The fourth team we’ll be looking at is a headscratcher. They’ve always seemed to pack the building in the Bay, but the last few years have not been kind to attendance at Sharks games. You can blame the pandemic, you can blame poor play on the ice, and you can also blame…traffic? That’s one of the issues the Sharks brought up with their current home at SAP Center. During the 2021-22 season, the Sharks average attendance was 12,573 of capacity, which is 71.6% of their arena capacity. But if you watched their games on TV, it rivaled Ottawa Senators and Buffalo Sabres games in number of empty seats. (Remember all attendance statistics are based on announced attendance, which usually is defined as tickets distributed—meaning it’s not necessarily the number of butts in seats.)

What’s this about traffic? Well, there’s a Google project that will be causing traffic headaches for downtown San Jose. So much so the Sharks had placed a few veiled threats about moving. In November 2020, they sent letters to fans about their issues with the project and the hassle it might cause. In April 2021, an email went out with their hints at not being happy about the project and the hassles they’d be facing as result of traffic reductions in front of the arena. But apparently, the city and team settled whatever the beef was with the project, although no details were released about how that happened.

Now, let’s talk about the SAP Center. The arena, originally known as San Jose Arena broke ground on June 28, 1990. It opened on September 7, 1993. The Sharks played their first two seasons at The Cow Palace in Daly City while waiting for the building to be finished. The Shark Tank, as it is affectionately known, is almost 30 years old putting. That puts it on the list of older NHL arenas. The Sharks continuously make updates to the building, the latest being a new video scoreboard set to debut this season.

The building did eventually get a naming rights owner becoming the Compaq Center of San Jose, eventually becoming the HP Pavilion. In 2013, SAP became the naming rights owner of the arena, which made a lot of sense since the co-founder of SAP Hasso Plattner was the Sharks owner since being a charter member of the local ownership who purchased the team from original owner George Gund III in 2002. Plattner is now the sole owner of the Sharks.

While Plattner seems to be committed to the Bay Area, having brought the AHL team to the city. The Sharks recently completed construction and opened a new arena dedicated to their AHL affiliate San Jose Barracuda team. They have also invested a lot of money in improvements to the SAP Center.

But with the drama that’s gone on with the team in the last year; the Evander Kane fiasco, Erik Karlsson not wanting to be part of a rebuild (which the team clearly needs), what happened with Doug Wilson, and that little bit of friction with the city over the Google project; could they think of a move or maybe a sale. The Sharks have signed a deal to keep the team at SAP until 2025, but what happens after that? What if attendance continues to flounder? What if they aren’t satisfied with the Google construction and the changes that it makes to the area? By 2025, they’ll have a clearer picture of what the area is going to be like…maybe change their view on sticking around.

NHL Back in Kansas City: Target #3: Ottawa Senators

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The third team on the list of targets for a move is the Ottawa Senators. Their attendance numbers last season put them at the bottom of the league averaging 9,155 fans, which put them at 47.8% capacity. The Senators have been the center of scrutiny while being owned by Eugene Melynk. Upon his death in March, the team was left to his daughters. While in most cases this would stir up speculation, this seems to have had the opposite effect. Most of that can be contributed to the drama and antics swirling around Melnyk the last few years of his life, from rumors of employee abuse to threats to move the team to legal issues abound.

Let’s discuss the rocky history of the team. The modern-day version of the Senators was the idea of Bruce Firestone in 1988. After campaigning two years, he was awarded a franchise on December 6, 1990 to begin play for the 92-93 season. The team played in the Ottawa Civic Center, while they worked on the development of the new arena. During that process, that included getting rural land rezoned, Firestone had to bow out. Rod Bryden took over ownership in 1993.

After playing the first few seasons at the Civic Center, the Senators finally got to play in the new home on January 17, 1996. What was first known as The Palladium became the Corel Centre one month later. It’d later be named Scotiabank Place, then Canadian Tire Centre. The arena would plague the team with debt, as well as scrutiny for being so far from the city. The debt that Bryden incurred led to a bankruptcy filing on January 9, 2003.

In 2003, Canadian businessman and philanthropist Eugene Melnyk bought the team and arena. At the time, he was seen as the savior, vowing to keep the team in Ottawa. Things went good under his ownership, the team went to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2007. Then, things started to go bad. In 2017, he began threats to move the team if he didn’t see more support. In September 2018, he released a video with plans for a team rebuild, where he referred to the team as being “in the dumps”, which got him criticism. That saw the beginning of the push from fans for him to sell. He had no intention of selling. The 2018-19 season saw the franchise record for empty seats drop to a 22 year low, with the average attendance trending down since 2012-13. In 2019, the New York Post called the Senators the laughingstock of the NHL because of debt, lawsuits, and drama surrounding Melnyk. Part of the lawsuits and drama was tied to Melnyk’s desire to build a new arena Senators in a project known as LeBreton Flats. A project that fell apart for him when the relationship between him and John Ruddy turned sour.

Melnyk died March 28, 2022. Immediately questions arose about the future of the team. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman told reporters team was left to Melnyk’s daughters, Anna and Olivia, saying it was “completely stable and functioning in the ordinary course.” May 4, 2022 saw a report there were parties interested in purchasing the team. One of those was Quebecor, which would be looking to purchase it to move to Quebec. The other was John Ruddy, who was previously a partner of Melnyk’s in the exploration of the LeBreton Flats project.

June 23, 2022 saw the announcement the Senators had won a bid to build a new arena at LeBreton Flats. Populous Design (KC company) has been named as the design team. With that, it seems almost certain the team’s future in Ottawa is secure and John Ruddy probably has the inside track on purchasing the team if it were to be sold anytime soon. But a dark horse could always come in and throw a monkey wrench into plans, it’s been known to happen.

NHL Back in Kansas City: Target #2: Calgary Flames

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First off, I want to say I’m not going through the teams in any kind of order. And now on to the second team, it might be a shock to some, but the Calgary Flames are on the list. They only averaged 74.1% of capacity this past season (not sure if Canadian COVID regulations were taken into consideration for part of the 2021-22 season when calculating capacity). Of the teams I’m covering in this series, they had the highest percentage of capacity. But, even if the Flames are drawing well and putting a quality product on the ice, there are arena issues. They’ve been looking to get a new home built since 2017 and have had unsuccessful negotiations with the city. Deals have been struck on a couple of occasions, only to be backed out of. Could the Flames be looking for something better than what Calgary has to offer them?

Let’s start off with the history of the organization. The franchise was originally the Atlanta Flames. They started play in 1972, the team was quickly put in place to balance the NHL when they added the New York Islanders franchise to keep the WHA out of the brand-new Nassau Coliseum. The Flames were owned by a group that owned the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks, led by real estate developer Tom Cousins. They played in Atlanta’s Omni Coliseum for eight seasons. Eventually Cousins was forced to sell the team to stave off bankruptcy. Former Edmonton Oilers owner Nelson Skalbania and a group of Calgary oil magnates purchased the team for $16 million. They announced on May 21, 1980, they would be moving the team to Calgary, Alberta, Canada. This gave the province of Alberta two NHL teams.

Skalbania sold his interest in 1981. Since then, the Flames have been under complete local ownership. The first three seasons, the team played in the Stampede Corral before moving to the Saddledome in 1983. The Saddledome was not only built to be the home of the Flames, but also to host the 1988 Winter Olympics. The Scotiabank Saddledome is still the home of the Flames, having served in that capacity for almost 40 years. This makes it the second-oldest arena in the NHL after the New York Rangers’ Madison Square Garden. It has been renovated once in 1994. It underwent some repairs due to flooding in 2013.

The team has expressed interest in getting a new arena since 2017. That was when they gave their first proposal to the city, but they eventually threw in the towel. In 2019, the Flames and city had reached an agreement, but it fell apart in 2021. The official termination of that deal happened January 1, 2022. There’s reportedly a $10 million gap between the city and team. In May, it was reported that a group of Calgary businessman was working as a go-between with the city and team in hopes of facilitating a new deal, but nothing has been reported recently.

While it sounds like this team would be ripe for a move, it’s unlikely with the local ownership group the Flames currently have. Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corporation own the WHL Calgary Hitmen, Calgary Stampeders Lacrosse team, Calgary Roughnecks (CFL), and Calgary Wranglers (AHL affiliate of Flames). They also have managed the Saddledome since 1994. With the group’s major local ties, it seems unlikely they would move. Yet, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has told the media Calgary will not host any NHL events (i.e. Draft, All-Star Game, Awards) unless they get a new building. If ownership and city continue to bicker on building a new arena, it might be possible that ownership gets frustrated enough they decide to sell. Only time will tell what happens with the franchise, but you never know, five years of trying to get a deal done seems like an awful long time for no ground to have been broken, yet.