Sports commentators have been speculating that Jim Balsillie, the tentative owner of the Pittsburgh Penguins, will shake up the hockey world by moving the Penguins to southern Ontario, should the club fail to get a favourable arena deal in Pittsburgh.
The Ontario BlackBerrys, the theory goes, would play out of a new arena near Waterloo, Ont., where Balsillie's company, Research In Motion, is based.
The BlackBerrys, named after Balsillie's mobile e-mail device, would draw from a large area, including Kitchener-Waterloo, London and parts of the Hamilton region. And, since the club would be doing business outside the Toronto Maple Leafs' territorially protected zone, there would be no way for the National Hockey League or the Leafs to stop them.
True enough, but there is a problem: Television.
A second team in Southern Ontario would be chaotic for TV and the big loser would be the BlackBerrys.
The Leafs, you see, not only have the right to stop a club from locating inside its protected zone in the Greater Toronto Area, they also own the marketing and TV rights within that zone.
That means the BlackBerrys would never be seen on regional TV in the GTA. And, of course, that region, populated by corporate sponsors and six million people, is where the money is.
Advertisers and sponsors would take a pass on the BlackBerrys because the team's footprint would be restricted to Southwestern Ontario, which consists mostly of Leafs and Detroit Red Wing fans, anyway.
Still, if the Penguins did relocate to Ontario, the NHL would be forced to give them a broadcast region, as it did for Ottawa when it was awarded a franchise.
But it's hard to imagine the NHL cutting the BlackBerrys a break, such as forcing the Leafs to share the Toronto market. Balsillie, after all, will make no friends in the NHL by moving the Penguins.
As for hockey fans in Southwestern Ontario, they would be denied Leafs regional telecasts, because the BlackBerrys would control the market. That would cause resentment.
Nationally, the CBC's Hockey Night In Canada wouldn't have any interest in the BlackBerrys. The Leafs are Hockey Night's meal ticket and that's not going to change.
NHL clubs don't earn a lot from national TV money. The revenue produced from rights fees paid by CBC, TSN, RDS, Versus in the United States and whatever is made from the NBC-NHL profit-sharing agreement amounts to about $3-million (all figures U.S.) a year for each club.
But regional TV deals are important. They often determine whether a club makes a buck or is in the red. The wealthy clubs, such as the Leafs and New York Rangers, rake in more than $25-million a year from their regional deals.
Small-market teams earn a fraction of that amount.
It's safe to say a regional TV deal for the BlackBerrys, barred from the Toronto market and drawing small audiences in Southwestern Ontario, would produce very little.
So, the Penguins would be doomed to the smallest of the small-market existences if they moved to the Waterloo area.
But there is a way for a second NHL team to relocate to southern Ontario and become financially viable.
How? You jump into bed with Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, which owns the Leafs, Toronto Raptors, Air Canada Centre and two TV channels, Leafs TV and Raptors NBA TV.
You throw money at MLSE — $100-million in upfront money. You locate, not in Waterloo or Hamilton, but in downtown Toronto. You sign a long-term lease with MLSE to play your home games at the ACC. You agree to place a share of your game telecasts on Leafs TV.
MLSE could reject the offer, probably would, many would say.
But on the other hand, it may consider the cost of a court battle if, down the road, there was a hostile entry into its market — if an Al Davis type went to war against the NHL and the Leafs. MLSE would think about the 41 extra dates at the ACC and the rent fees that the new club would provide, not to mention the major-league hockey content carried on Leafs TV as well as all that up-front money.
MLSE may think, better the devil you know and the devil you can control, than one you can't.
It might say yes. It's the only way Toronto is likely to get a second NHL team.
Audience drop
The CBC's football audiences on Thanksgiving Day dropped significantly from last year. Game 1, Saskatchewan Roughriders-Montreal Alouettes, drew 448,000 viewers, down 33 per cent from last year's Game 1, Edmonton Eskimos-Toronto Argonauts (673,000). Game 2 this year, Esks-Argos, had an audience of 750,000, down 17 per cent from last year's 909,000 for B.C. Lions-Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
Rogers Sportsnet's regional Leaf-Florida Panther game, with 466,000 viewers, outdrew TSN's Monday Night Football (385,000, Baltimore-Denver).
