From: golchowy@alchemy.chem.utoronto.ca (Gerald Olchowy)
Subject: Re: Fight over the Oilers
Organization: University of Toronto Chemistry Department
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1993 06:57:53 GMT

In article <allan.726724600@st-lina> allan@cs.UAlberta.CA (Allan Sullivan) writes:
>
>I don't know how well people outside Edmonton are aware over
>the feud between the Oiler's owner (Peter Pocklington) and the
>city of Edmonton, but things are getting pretty nasty.
>
>Edmonton attendance is down this year. Of course the team has
>been playing pretty lousy lately, and the economy has suffered.
>Season ticket sales are down, and the most common reason given
>for not renewing ticket packages is lack of money.
>

The last time I checked, I'm pretty sure I read that the Oilers
had the fourth lowest ticket prices in the league overall...

>Peter Pocklington (aka 'Puck') wants to build a new arena (so he
>could earn more money from the concessions). And if he doesn't
>get community support, he is threatining to move the team. (This
>threat worked earlier, when he managed to get a new baseball
>stadium built for his team.)
>

Pocklington is absolutely right about this...this is why most
NBA owners are or have built their own buildings, because the
entire revenue stream from the building is necessary to generate
the revenue to be competitive...the Palace at Auburn Hills and
the Target Center are the buildings of the future.

The Blackhawks, the Rangers,
the Flyers, the Bruins, the Red Wings, the Leafs...(and the Capitals,
but Pollin is cheap and uses the Capitals to subsidize the Bullets)
all will own and control their own buildings and the entire revenue
stream.  Conservatively, the Bruins, Hawks, and Rangers have not
only deeper pockets, but generate at least twice the revenue that
the Oilers and Jets generate.

Essentially every professional ice hockey arena in Canada has to
be replaced for the existing team to really be competitive.  The Leafs,
because of their market, can probably exist the longest in their
facility...but the Oilers's inadequate facility is compounded by
a lousy deal on the facility.

Vancouver is building a new building...Winnipeg is being subsidized by
the government until the government decides about how much it will
subsidize a new building, Toronto may get more than one new building...
one for the Leafs, and one for the NBA franchise that will soon be
coming, Ottawa is building the new facility, the new Forum is already
planned, and the Nordiques are hoping to use the Winter Olympics bid
to get the governments to finance a new building.

>(In order to move the team, I believe that Puck would first
>have to try to find ownership that is willing to keep the francise
>in town, according to NHL rules. Puck claims that there are no
>potential buyers, since he was not able to find a buyer for
>the Edmonton Trappers, the local baseball francise. Someone
>should explain the difference between a minor league baseball
>team and a major league hockey team.)
>

About $45 million dollars...

>In the meantime, a sports columnist for the Edmonton Journal
>(I don't know who it was; I rarely read the journal)  has encouraged
>fans to write letters encouraging Puck to sell the team. So far,
>80% of the people writing in have agreed.
>

The Pocklington owned Oilers have yet to miss the playoffs, and have
won 5 Stanley Cups, and been to the finals 6 times, and won their
division in the playoffs 9 times...all in 13 years...Pocklington 
is an asshole, but to complain about the productivity on the ice
is ridiculous.  Even in the post-Gretzky era, only
Pittsburgh has won more playoffs series than the Oilers.

>Although people acknowledge the problems involved in running a
>small-market team, they are fed up with Puck selling the best
>players in order to earn money for his own pocket. Trading vetran
>players isn't bad; just make sure you get good players for them.
>(or at least put the money earned back into the Oiler's organization.)
>

Gretzky hasn't won any Cups in LA and Messier hasn't won any in NY...
neither has gotten their team even out of their divisions in the
playoffs...the Oilers have a Stanley Cup, and come out of their division
3 times in 4 years...spoilt fans...Edmonton fans deserve Harold Ballard.
Both Gretzky and Messier seem to have chronic back problems now...
and Gretzky's production has never come close to being what it was
in Edmonton...they were on the decline...it was and is naive to
think that Camelot would have hung around in Edmonton for much longer
even if Messier and Gretzky had not been traded.  Coffey was expendable
in both Edmonton and Pittsburgh...although he is the best offensive
defenseman since Orr.  

I am sentimental too, but the Gretzky trade was unequivocally a good
thing, the Oilers could not afford to pay a declining Messier $2.5
million...it would be a waste of money..., I would have paid Lowe.
And with Ranford, Fuhr becomes expendable...Ranford is the second
best goaltender in the world and a few years younger, so it is
justified to trade away the best goaltender in the world.


The problem is that Murphy and Damphousse aren't by themselves 
real franchise players...Damphousse was probably not asking for
too much money, but Sather got a reasonable deal, and Corson and
Gilchrist together make more money than Damphousse alone...Sather
figured Corson and Gilchrist would provide more offense than they
have, and would be better playoff performers...Damphousse disappeared
in the playoffs after the LA series last year.  This deal is hurting
right now, but I still don't necessarily think it will remain so...
Sather was looking for players to provide playoff production, and
figured Corson was a better bet, a better skater, and more versatile.

Joe Murphy is not a million dollar player (I guess it is around
$800 G's that he's asking now) unless you have the center to play
him with...Murphy is a reliable 0.8-1.0 PPG man...and until he
demonstrated that he could put up 100 points...he was just asking
for too much money.  Playing along side Jeremy Roenick he might
be worth a million dollars, but there isn't a Jerermy Roenick in
Edmonton to play beside...

>Will a buyer step up and buy the team, should the need arise? Or
>will the Oilers move? And how much is the attendance problems related
>to people's low regard for Pocklington? 
>

The hockey fans in Edmonton are being spoilt and stupid if they let
their personal feelings cost them the city's hockey team.  Pocklington
may have failed to produce with his trust company and with Gainers,
and taken the taxpayer for a ride in those enterprises, but with
the Oilers, he has put a winning product on the ice...

If the Oilers are sold, even locally, then the city probably loses
Sather, who is the man most responsible for saving hockey, by
tranforming the game away from goonery, and by demonstrating that it
was not only the Flying Frenchmen who could fly.  Even if Sather
could put together an ownership group to buy the franchise from
Pocklington, which would be the most desirable scenario, the
problem of the lack of a modern hockey facility in Edmonton remains.

The simple fact is that whoever the owner is going to be in Edmonton,
a new facility is going to have to be built, and a whole lot of
expensive private boxes are going to have to be presold to get it
built...and the new collective bargaining agreement is going to have
to be at least somewhat small-market-friendly.

If the city and the fans don't stop whining, all they will have left
to do on Saturday nights is to go down to the obscelescent Coliseum
and worship at the foot of Gretzky's statue.

Gerald