NHL threatens to strip rangers owners of team

[Peter Parker]

i am amazed that this has not gotten more attention. tahe the knicks from these guys too.

The Associated Press: NHL threatens to get rid of Rangers' owners

 

[riffjim4069]

Who is more evil...James "Everthing gold I touch turns to stone" Dolan or the idiotic Gary "I did my best to kill the NHL" Buttman. I say toss 'em both out of hockey!

 

[SabresRule]

I think this thread may give Sandra a heart attack...

 

[SandraC]

Sorry, I saw the words 'Rangers' and 'strip' in the same sentence, and impure thoughts of Henrik Lundqvist immediately came to mind. :

What's this all about?


Sandra

 

[darrencp22]

Umm a struggling sports league attacking it's most valuable US franchise.. seems like a brilliant move.. and i'm sure Cablevision's lawyers wont have a field day destorying the NHL in the media and in the courts..

 

[wolfjc]

Perhaps the NHL has gotten hold of E* lawyers?

 

[bleedblue23]

The hardest part is finding the lesser of these two evils, especially being from New York.

 

[Derwin0]

The funniest part was they threatened to take the team away because the owners said the league violated anti-trust laws.
Talk about proving the owner's point.

Anyway, they should ask the NFL how well those kind of threats worked with Al Davis.

 

[Peter Parker]

Umm a struggling sports league attacking it's most valuable US franchise.. seems like a brilliant move.. and i'm sure Cablevision's lawyers wont have a field day destorying the NHL in the media and in the courts..

Aculaly the media seems to be saying that it would not be sucha bad thing to take the team away from the Dolans. and so far the courts are saying that the rangers should read their league contract.

I don't know how it will turn out. But it is hard to sympathize with either side quite frankly

 

[Peter Parker]

Sorry, I saw the words 'Rangers' and 'strip' in the same sentence, and impure thoughts of Henrik Lundqvist immediately came to mind. :

What's this all about?


Sandra

The original article pretty much tells the story. The Rangers wanted control of their website. The league reminded them that under league rules the websites have to meet certain standards and changes need to be approved by the league---also that the league contract clearly states that all merchandising etc goes through the league. The rangers proceeded to sue the league citing antitrust laws. That was in september. In November a court ruled in the league's favor.

Now the league has said that it is proceeding with disciplinary proceedngs against the rangers and has asked the court to affirm the league's right to revoke the team's membership in the league.


Again I don't know how it will turn out but it boils down to the rangers being uncomfortable with some provisions of their contract with the league and the league taking a hard stand in order to make it clear that they are not willing to give up their licensing/merchandising rights.

NOw the NHL

 

[Jimbo]

Umm a struggling sports league attacking it's most valuable US franchise.. seems like a brilliant move.. and i'm sure Cablevision's lawyers wont have a field day destorying the NHL in the media and in the courts..

Struggling .....
Most valued ????

 

[Peter Parker]

Struggling .....
Most valued ????

I think that the NHL is struggling. But giving up the licensing and merchandising revenue it gets now is probably NOT one of the changes they need to make.

 

[Jimbo]

I'm not sure struggling is the name for it.
I would imagine that all teams made a profit.

If your trying to compare the NHL of the Gretzke era to this one, you'll always be struggling.

The NHL playoffs are one of the most competative and demanding times in sports.
Playing the game of hockey EVERY other night is a grueling task, I wish the NBA would play thier playoffs every other night, unlike previous years where it takes 3 weeks to play 7 games.

Jimbo

 

[Derwin0]

Now the league has said that it is proceeding with disciplinary proceedngs against the rangers and has asked the court to affirm the league's right to revoke the team's membership in the league.

Which wont happen. NFL League rules at the time should have prevented the Raiders from moving from Oakland, and possibly have yanked Al Davis's franchise. The courts said differently as those actions violated anti-trust laws.

The NHL's stance of punishing the Ranger's owners for complaining and threats to yank their franchise will similarly be squashed.

 

[Derwin0]

I'm not sure struggling is the name for it.
I would imagine that all teams made a profit.

From what I heard, not many of the teams are money makers, only the Canadian ones a few of the bigger U.S. ones.

TORONTO, May 30 (UPI) -- An internal NHL report shows 31 percent of $1.1 billion in ticket revenue comes from Canada's six teams and 11 of the 24 U.S. teams aren't making money.

As for the league itself, it struggles to get TV contracts in the U.S.

The NHL playoffs are one of the most competative and demanding times in sports.
Playing the game of hockey EVERY other night is a grueling task, I wish the NBA would play thier playoffs every other night, unlike previous years where it takes 3 weeks to play 7 games.

All of which has nothing to do with it's viability, and also ran status as a major league sport in the U.S.

 

[Peter Parker]

I'm not sure struggling is the name for it.
I would imagine that all teams made a profit.

If your trying to compare the NHL of the Gretzke era to this one, you'll always be struggling.

The NHL playoffs are one of the most competative and demanding times in sports.
Playing the game of hockey EVERY other night is a grueling task, I wish the NBA would play thier playoffs every other night, unlike previous years where it takes 3 weeks to play 7 games.

Jimbo

It is a great sport and I love it. But many of the franchises are indeed struggling. As for the raiders comparison it might be correct. ItA closer parallel though would be the NFL lawsuit against the Cowboys for making their own merchandising deals or the Yankees lawsuit against MLB. But both cases were settled out of court though.

 

[SabresRule]

As for the raiders comparison it might be correct. A closer parallel though would be the NFL lawsuit against the Cowboys for making their own merchandising deals.

Was that when Jerry Jones cut deals with Pepsi and Nike in 1995?

 

[Derwin0]

As for the raiders comparison it might be correct. ItA closer parallel though would be the NFL lawsuit against the Cowboys for making their own merchandising deals

The Cowboys are a good comparison for the merchandising part. But the threat to take away the team leads right to the Raiders. The NFL lost that lawsuit big time in that anti-trust lawsuit, and thus lost any power it had over team placement and what they do. If the NHL tries the same against the Rangers, they'll lost just as badly.

If I recall, the NFL settled with Jerry Jones, as they were afraid they'd lost again in court due to anti-trust issues, and lose any control it had over merchandising.

 

[Peter Parker]

To be truthful I don't think the leagur=e REALLY wants to take away the franchise.

As for the outcome of the Cowboys and yankee lawsuits I mentioned that in my earlier post. But I don't think that he league or anyone else came to the conclusion that you did. I personally think that neither league really wanted to see the cases litigated froma PR perspective and neither league (especially MLB) reallly wanted to have the issue of antitrust trotted out. And that was my point----there was not est on the issue. but we are all free to interprete it as we see fit.

 

[Jimbo]

From what I heard, not many of the teams are money makers, only the Canadian ones a few of the bigger U.S. ones.

As for the league itself, it struggles to get TV contracts in the U.S.
All of which has nothing to do with it's viability, and also ran status as a major league sport in the U.S.

So from what you just posted, at LEAST 13 US teams ARE making money, also alot of the numbers are skewed each year to make it look what ever way they want it to.
For example, using the Red Wings, if they wanted to make it look less they would move the money to another business they own.
Illich owns a pizza business, NY owner Dolan owns a cable company AT LEAST and there are plenty of others like that.
The NFL and MLB are the same way.

Jimbo