Unpacking the Forbes “Business of Hockey” numbers this year

Well, the Forbes “Business of Hockey” list dropped earlier today, and predictably…it’s not a pretty picture.

The NHL is the most “gate-driven” of the four major sports, so the loss of fans in seats due to COVID-19 has been especially tough. Revenues fell 14%

I want to focus instead on the teams at the bottom of the list, those whose values and net operating incomes fell the farthest in the 2019–’20 NHL season. Let’s use the topline number that Forbes uses, the franchise’s overall value:

Several of these teams have had much more of an opportunity to succeed in the NHL than the Whalers did. (Source: Forbes)

At the top of the list, we have (predictably) the NHL’s two biggest financial slabs of dead weight, the Arizona Coyotes and the Florida Panthers. Now, the relocation rumors abound for the Coyotes post-Seattle expansion and realignment (looking at you, friends over @NHLtoHouston) but the Panthers are largely expected to stay put for the time being.

These are not teams experiencing momentary struggles due to COVID. That argument could be made of the Sabres and Jets, who generally fill the building under normal conditions, but not of the Panthers or Coyotes. In fact, both teams have almost continuously hemorrhaged money since their arrival in their current markets.

Let’s start with the Panthers. In a filing submitted to Broward County five years ago while the team was seeking a bailout, the Panthers admitted they’d lost an estimated $154 million since the 1997–98 season. That filing came at an auspicious time when the Vegas Golden Knights and Seattle Kraken hadn’t been awarded yet and it seemed like the Panthers could be headed for the exits. It resulted in a commitment of $86 million in public cash to keep the Panthers local.

An IV-drip of taxpayers’ cash will theoretically keep the team in Florida until the end of 2027–2028, but it contains an out clause if the team is still losing money hand over fist after 2023–2024. (expect to hear about this out clause again…) Put simply, this team is losing money badly and COVID’s only made the situation worse.

Okay, now for the Arizona Coyotes. Here’s a team that has literally never made money in the quarter century it’s occupied its corner of desert. They filed for bankruptcy a decade ago! And a professional hockey team that’s losing money on the reg is only going to get worse when disaster strikes and fans can’t come to the arena. Remember the story from September when the Coyotes were rumored to be late paying players?

It should be your main logo. You know it, we know it, everyone knows it. (Source: Wordpress)

I don’t even have room to get into the Blue Jackets’ ups and downs, here. Look, I don’t want the Coyotes or the Panthers or the Blue Jackets or anybody for that matter to lose their team. The league would be demonstrably worse off without the Kachina jersey, and after all, the Coyotes’ first ever regular season game was a 1–0 defeat at the hands of the Whalers. The Panthers…had John Vanbiesbrouck for a hot minute. I don’t hate these guys!

Now that’s one cool cat. (Source: gamewornauctions.net)

All I’m saying is this. The Florida Panthers have had 27 years to establish themselves in Broward County. The Arizona / Phoenix Coyotes have had 24 years to establish themselves in the desert. The Columbus Blue Jackets have had 20 years to establish themselves in Ohio.

The Hartford Whalers got 17 years to establish themselves in Connecticut, and that’s being generous, since for about a third of that, ownership was looking for the exits.

We deserve a chance as much as anyone else does.