Migrating Penguins?

The Pittsburgh Penguins and the state and local leaders of the Pittsburgh area still have not met on agreements for new arena. Once again, the possibility of a move for the Penguins seems to be increasingly close, and Kansas City might once again play host to an NHL team.

For months now owners Mario Lemieux and Ron Burkle have been trying to work an agreement out with government officials to keep the team in Pittsburgh, but have failed to close any deal. At first they made an agreement with the Isle of Capri Casinos to build the arena if they were given a license to build slots, but they were shut down by the state board. They would need $290 million to cover the construction costs and have come close in the past with government officials, offering them $120 million over the next 30 years, but still they have not reached a deal.

"We have made a single-minded effort to bring this new arena to a successful
conclusion and keep the team in Pittsburgh," owners Mario Lemieux and Ron Burkle
said in a letter to Rendell and local government officials. "... Our good-faith
efforts have not produced a deal, however, and have only added more anxiety to
what we thought at best was a risky proposition for us moving forward."

The move seems even more foreseeable now that Kansas City has completed their brand new Sprint Center. The pens would be playing in the newest arena in the NHL as opposed to Mellon Arena, the oldest in the NHL, where they play now.

This news is unfortunate, especially for the young team that seems so promising fir the future of the franchise. Young stars such as Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Jordan Stall have all put up extraordinary numbers this season even though they only average the age of 19. For the first time in six years the team is contending for a spot in the playoffs and they hold the top points leader in the NHL, Sidney Crosby, with 98.

It is predicted that the Penguins will sell out the final eight home games this year and there is already orders for season tickets for the 2007-08 season. They are one of the top teams in the NHL for overall attendance and TV ratings for the year. How can the Pens leave one of the strongest U.S. markets for hockey and go to one that’s smaller. None of this makes any sense to me.

"Scratch my back with a hacksaw!!" - Mike Lange

The "Fourth" Sport

The NHL can't get anything to go their way, can they? The league loses its entire 2004-05 season to a strike. Despite rules changes that make the game far more entertaining, they basically lose the entire 2005-06 season because most of America couldn't watch the games (owing to the league's truly STUPID decision to put themselves on the Outdoor Life Network, which promptly changed its name to Versus after last season). Now, in 2006-07, even more controversy reigns.

Slate.com's Daniel Engber penned a fascinating story the other day which highlights the ne'er-do-well atmosphere that seems to permeate the NHL's landscape. According to the article, the NHL's All-Star voting for this year's game turned into a complete debacle, when a grass-roots write-in campaign for little known Vancouver defenseman Rory Fitzpatrick turned into a war between self-proclaimed computer geeks trying to rig the system and the NHL offices, who risked the embarrassment of a nondescript player gaining a spot in one of the league's showcase events.

Meanwhile, the league's most marketable young star, forward Sidney Crosby, is stuck on a financially decrepit team that can't get an arena deal done and is in constant danger of moving to parts unknown --- whether it's Hamilton, Kansas City, or Sheboygan. While franchise instability is hardly limited to the NHL, no other league seems to be as distracted by the financial health of its franchises. Heck, the Colts were in real danger of moving to Los Angeles for the first part of this decade, yet the story was effectively kept on the back burner until Indianapolis announced a new stadium deal.

And, as ESPN.com's Damien Cox pointed out recently, the Penguins aren't the only team in sport purgatory. Cox's living autopsy on the Florida Panthers contained this sad (yet accurate) portrayal of the team:

This is, arguably, the NHL's weakest link, a team that was once very popular playing out of the bandbox Miami Arena when a hail of plastic rats meant the home team had scored but now lives in virtual seclusion somewhere near, but not too near, Fort Lauderdale.

Despite all the bad press, the biggest tragedy for the NHL in all of this is that very few people seem to care. That, more than franchise instability or All-Star voting problems, is the largest hurdle the NHL has to overcome.