Bad Hockey Is Bad Business

I do not know this particular economics analyst. Nor do I know this particular writer. But if they were to show up in the Lounge, they would be on a cash-first basis, especially when the Stanley Cup finals are on the big screen.

This particular economics analyst, who appears in the sports pages when reporters need a quote on economics and sports, can be handy. He's a good quote when you need an expert opinion (although I believe he misses the mark here).

And I'm no expert on economics. In college, I had an economics class at 8 a.m. Failed it. Then I retook the course, but this time the class was at 2 p.m. Passed it. I learned about guns and butter and the negative side of twice paying dearly to have a seat for the same lecture.

And I learned that when the time is right and the product is right, success can be had. Economics at 8 a.m.? Not a chance. In the afternoon? We have a winner.

I bring up this particular economics analyst because he is in an article about sports franchises that may or may not succeed after a move.

And in this article, the writer gives an unattributed thumbs down on NHL teams in the South and the West. Excuse me while this Colorado native shows someone the sunnyside of the front door.

Hockey in the South and West was never going to be an easy sell. Even with significant numbers of transplants from the Northeast and Midwest, there's no natural affinity for a cold-weather sport in a warm-weather climate. It's not part of the daily conversation. Kids don't grow up playing it, and there are no powerhouse college programs to generate interest.

I'm going to speculate on the passage above: South, to the writer, must mean anywhere below South Holland, Ill., the point where the Tri-State Tollway flows into the Kingery Expressway, and West must mean somewhere past O'Hare Airport. If you've lived or followed hockey from any point beyond the Tri-State Tollway, which I remember as that bland ribbon of Howard Johnson's and prairie grass, you know that good hockey is appreciated in your local precinct.

Where good hockey has had trouble drawing consistently strong crowds has been in East Rutherford/Newark, N.J. The Devils win Stanley Cups and struggle to fill their building when the Rangers are not sharing the marquee. And out on Long Island, the good times of the 1980s have been buried in the dunes of ineptitude left by various ownership groups. Two teams in the Northeast, not the South or the West.

This is something the writer does not mention. (I will give the economics analyst a bit of credit here; he might have mentioned something about this point when he was being interviewed -- I doubt it -- but the writer did not include it in the article.)

You offer me a bad product and I will give you no money. Better hide behind that mound of rotten butter because I have spent my money on guns and I'm coming after you. That's an economic fact I learned before I passed economics on the second try.

I know hockey in Chicago is experiencing a revival. But many of the Lounge's patrons can recall the Blackhawks' numerous Empty Seat Night promotions at the United Center just a few years ago.

If you eventually give people a good product, you just might find a winning business as well. That's true in anywhere. This article has a scent you can pick up, north, south, east or west.

So don't give me an economics lecture on bad markets for hockey. Better that you lecture a few owners and a league commissioner about how bad hockey is bad for business in Atlanta, Chicago, Long Island and anywhere else you might find on a map.