From: Karim Edvard Ahmed <ka0k+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: Minnesota Shame?
Organization: Senior, Economics, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Lines: 28
NNTP-Posting-Host: po5.andrew.cmu.edu
In-Reply-To: <C62xpu.MD3@constellation.ecn.uoknor.edu>

>I've been under the impression that Minnesota was one of, or possibly,
>THE hockey state in the U.S.  So why is the team moving to a city in
>Texas?  Is it that the owner is a greedy, self-serving profiteer, or
>were the Stars really not making a profit?  Or was the city or whoever
>owned the arena doing some price gouging?


Norman Green claims that he has lost money over the last three years
that he has owned the team.  When he bought the team, it seemed kind of
obvious that he was going to have to deal with a few years in the red,
before the team started making a profit again.  He gave the impression
that he was willing to do so.  He claimed two years ago that the team
needed to average only 8000+ fans per game in order to pull a profit,
but this season the team averaged 12000+ fans, despite increasd ticket
prices.  I think the team's attendence and play was clearly in an upward
trend, which leaves me dumbfounded as to how he could ignore that in
deciding to move.  He was even offered the many concessions he rudely
demanded, such as guaranteed season ticket sales, cheap rent at the
other two arenas in town, etc.

Oh well, I guess the bottom line is $$$.  Green wanted immediate huge
returns in Dallas, and wasn't willing to wait another year or so in MN. 
Dallas gave Green a pretty stellar deal to play there (although I feel
Minnesota's was quite reasonable), and he also has some cronies down
there as well.  All this means, is that Minnesota is without an NHL team
for a year or two.  Too bad for the NHL.

KEA 
