In fact, despite not featuring the Hanson brothers or anything close, the Coyotes invoke the cult movie storyline of the Charleston Chiefs of Slap Shot fame.
Barry Riz of TSN.ca channeled the 1977 flick, the most popular hockey movie of all time, in a blog Monday night as the Coyotes occupied -- albeit temporarily -- a share of first place in the western conference of the NHL.
Instead of the Federal League, it's the NHL...it's not Reggie Dunlap (Paul Newman), it's Shane Doan...Jobing.com Arena in place of War Memorial Arena...stories of relocating to southern Ontario (last summer) and now Winnipeg or Kansas City instead of Florida...instead of a new, aggressive team fronted by the Hanson brothers, it's a new, stubborn team fronted by head coach Dave Tippett.
What would be more unlikely: The Chiefs' league title in Slap Shot the movie in 1977 or the Coyotes winning the Stanley Cup in real life in 2010?
Two things for sure: 1. The Phoenix Coyotes are the NHL’s story of the year for their surprising on-ice performance and position near the top of the western conference. 2. They continue to be its off-ice dog in terms of ticket sales and sponsorship revenues and hence, its most troubling sport business story for the third or fourth year in a row.
With a franchise record 98 points, the Coyotes are fourth overall among the 30 teams in the NHL and tied for second in the western conference – just one point behind the Chicago Blackhawks and knotted with the San Jose Sharks.
They are making the most of a season which they began in bankruptcy protection before being bought and taken over by the NHL itself in the Bettman-Balsillie-Moyes love triangle and sport business soap opera of last summer.
Yet despite being a lock to make the playoffs for the first time in seven years, the Coyotes are playing dead at the box office, despite impressive walk-up sales this month by spring break visitors from Vancouver and transplanted Chicagoans.
Phoenix is dead last among NHL teams in terms of ticket revenues earned per game. It is almost certainly also last in sponsorship revenues and tied for last in local television audiences. It is in the bottom five in the league in merchandising.
Going into this weekend, the Coyotes are averaging just north of $425,000 US per game at the box office. That's $125 K less per game than the next weakest NHL ticket machine, the Tampa Bay Lightning. Even perennial losers such as the New York Islanders -- in danger of moving out of an outdated arena and perhaps out of New York altogether -- and the Atlanta Thrashers -- out of the playoffs and in and out of court in a lawsuit among its owners -- make at least $225 K more every night out than the Coyotes. That's $9 million a year and change.
The Coyotes need an entire season to make as much box office revenue as the Vancouver Canucks do in a quarter-season Ice Pak of 11 games. Conversely, the Toronto Maple Leafs need only eight dates at the Air Canada Centre to outperform a 41-game regular season of Phoenix home games.
The Maple Leafs are the opposite of the Coyotes. Poor on the ice. Solid at the box office and in every category of off-ice hockey business: sponsorships, television revenues and merchandising.
Unless they reach the third round of the playoffs, the Coyotes will still lose at least $20 million US this year. That's a third of the losses they suffered last year but it's still nowhere near long-term sustainable.
Considering that the Coyotes have more points than any Canadian team, even the Northwest Division-leading Canucks, the only question NHL commissioner Bettman should be asking and imagining is what the Coyotes' sport business performance -- ticket sales, sponsorship sales, television and merchandising -- would be in a Canadian market such as Winnipeg or Southern Ontario or in even any northern U.S. market.
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