I have always been interested in business and economics, but another one of my passions is hockey. I like the sport but I also like the business of hockey, both in terms of the salary cap (and team building) and in terms of making it work as a profitable business. The NHL is an odd league in that some of the teams absolutely gush cash while others lose staggering amounts every year. Teams like the Nashville Predators and the Phoenix Coyotes struggle to sell tickets, and it is not uncommon for a struggling team to lose between 10 and 20 million dollars USD in a single year. That is why I was interested to read that the Minnesota Wild, a team that has sold-out their home games a staggering 409 times in a row, actually lost approximately $2 million USD last year. Another interested dimension to this story is that Minnesota had a hockey team before, the Minnesota North Stars, but the team was sold to a new owner who moved the team to Dallas. Hockey is very popular Minnesota, and there is a lot of interest at both the college and professional level. As much as I love hockey and the NHL, it really does seem as though it is a very hard business to make money in unless you are in a large Canadian market like Vancouver, Montreal, or Toronto, or a large American market like New York or Boston. It is strange to think that the owners in Minnesota can sell out every game for years, and actually lose money. It makes you wonder how exactly teams are making the majority of their money, and where the profits for the average team end up.
Referrence Link:
http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/hockey/other_nhl/view.bg?articleid=1283348&srvc=rss