Apparently Edmonton Oilers owner Daryl Katz does have some shame after all: After first upping his subsidy demands and then flying to Seattle to play footsie with city officials there, Katz took out a full-page adin Friday’s Edmonton Journal and Edmonton Sun apologizing for “[taking] for granted your support and your love of the Oilers. That was wrong, and I apologize.” Though he kind of undercut the apology by making a veiled threat to move the Oilers if he doesn’t get his way, saying, “I’m fighting for a deal that will enable the team to stay in Edmonton – and not because I want them to be anywhere else.” Like, say, Seattle. Oops, did I say that out loud?
In any event, Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel is sticking to his newly-acquired guns, insisting that Katz needs to present his new arena demands to City Hall, in public, by October 17. Or else … okay, he didn’t say or else what. But being that “Deliver your ransom note by two weeks from Wednesday” isn’t exactly hardball negotiating, you have to figure that Katz would have to be crazy to ignore Mandel’s deadline.
Perhaps the politicians in Edmonton should start kicking the tires on the coyotes who should be in play. Why cant they play the same game.
Hilarious. Katz puts crap teams on the ice year after year. His team finishes at the bottom of the league, 3 years running….and he has sold out over 250 games in a row in the best economy in N America in a hockey mad city and province, and has MADE money with such a woeful team and he is threatening to leave? Where else could such a crappy product make money and attract sell outs year after year? Even with the current proposal, he makes buckets of money. Heaven forbid he put a decent team on the ice that makes the playoffs.
The only place this “business plan” of having a horrible team where one can treat the fans like garbage and make money is a) Toronto b) Montreal c) Vancouver or d) Edmonton or e) Calgary. Any other place in the league…..the fans wouldn’t be around after 3 years of being at the bottom or 6 years without a play off entry.
What a fool. Move to Seattle, enjoy half empty rinks and fans that could care less. Lets see you make money there…..
I highly doubt Daryl Katz became a successful businessman using such transparent ploys! Of course he wouldn’t move to Seattle. His team would be a tenant in Hansen’s building, in a market where hockey would be third banana to Football and Baseball (and likely Basketball). Right now he has a license to print money in Edmonton, to move the Oilers anywhere besides Southern Ontario (GTA or Markham) would be a huge downgrade financially. He doesn’t have a bargaining chip.
Also, shame on Wayne Gretzky for being such a complicit tool in all this.
Dave:
The Oilers in Seattle would also be behind the Sounders, the Sonics (as you’ve suggested) and probably at least two NCAA teams.
As stated elsewhere, Katz would lose at least $30m in gate revenue in moving to Seattle and would also have to pay his own operating expenses (something he doesn’t do in Edmonton) and some form of rent to Hansen. Any way you look at it, that’s a $40-50m hit.
Katz is a fool. And what is worse is that he’s a fool who thinks he’s a genius and surrounds himself with sycophants who are afraid to say that the emperor has no clothes.