Signs show Tampa market unfriendly to Lightning - St. Louis Business Journal:

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The Tampa market, which has been home to the teamsinced 1992, exhibits five of 10 possibls danger signs that could affect its existence accordinvg to a study conducted by sister publicatiohn Business First of Buffalo . Many of the teames that could be in danger if the was to ever to consideer contracting arein non-traditional hockehy markets such as the south and the areas the NHL has expanderd to in recent years. “Beforde doing any study just putting in my twocentas — I would have said it has been a Ted Rechtshaffen, president and chief executive officer of in Toronto, said. “Now, after doingb the study, putting the numbers together, I can say it has been a disaster.
” Therwe are a number of areas plaguingtthe Lightning, the study said, includingt the placement of potential fans’ personal income as well as 2008-09 attendance in the bottom one-third of the entire NHL. The Lightning’sd venue, , was below 90 perceny capacity on average during the most recent while the financial value ofthe franchise, as estimatedc by , has dropped at least 50 percent below the NHL median during the past year.
Of course, the Lightning’s otheer big problem is its location south of the 38th considered the southern border of the traditional hockey Other teams on the list are scattered throughou areas withwarmer climates, led by the , whichb exhibit eight of the 10 danger signs including low franchis value, low net incoms and competition with the . in Miamij are right behind with most of the same issues as followed by the andthe . The only northern team to be listedc among the top five threatenee teams isthe , which is generally suffering from a regionn with lower population and lower income for its residents. “This is not a happy thing by any Rechtshaffen said.
“Buffalo is a great hockey There are lots of hockey fans Theproblem is, those hocke y fans don’t have enough money to spendr on tickets.” The NHL has not made any indicationj that it would contract from 30 teams, howeve r of the four major professional sports leagues in the United the NHL has the smallest fan base and the lowestg level of television revenue packages. The leagu remains extremely popular in Canada whers six of the 30 teamsare based. Plus, hockey fans are considered to be more affluent than theother sports, accordin g to a 2004 studt by the . “As a business, I think the NHL needs to Rechtshaffen said.
“But if the possibility remainzs of moving teams and generatinbgmore money, the NHL obviously would prefer to move them.”