Halak puts an exclamation mark on one of the best opening rounds in Stanley Cup history

The opening round of the National Hockey League's 2010 Stanley Cup championships produced a series of notable storylines, including:

• entertaining hockey, combining both a potent offensive display of 5.9 goals per game (the highest since 1996) and some superb goaltending, most notably that of Jaroslav Halak, who stood on his head to lead the Montreal Canadiens past Alexander Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals; 
• tight hockey, with a total of 49 games in the first round (the most since 1995) and 12 of them overtime results (the most since 2001). There wasn't a single four-game sweep, only one five-game series, five six-gamers and two that went the distance to seventh games;
• unpredictable hockey, with road teams winning 27 of the 49 games and four series going to the lower-seeded teams.

Yet with all due respect to the resurgent Detroit Red Wings, the resilient Boston Bruins and the surprising Philadelphia Flyers, the single biggest storyline of the conference quarter-finals is Halak and the Habs. The Slovak Olympian goaltender is one of the major reasons why this first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs has to go down as one of the best in modern history.

This is the first time an eighth-seed has knocked off a top-seed after falling behind three games to one. But it's more than No. 8 ousting No. 1 within a conference, it's actually No. 16 in the playoffs eliminating No. 1 overall.

That's why Halak has already earned himself a special place in the 100-year history of the Canadiens (and in the hearts of their fans). He stole the last three games for Montreal and his performance in game six at the Bell Centre was one for the ages, invoking comparisons with rookie Ken Dryden and the 1971 Stanley Cup champions and rookie Patrick Roy and the 1986 champion Canadiens.

Dryden and Roy made history because they won three and four series, respectively. Halak is only one-quarter of the way to the peak of Mount Stanley. What he has done, however, is what Dryden did 39 years ago: beat the top-ranked team in the Stanley Cup tournament. And even with Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins on the horizon, it's a start that's intriguing for Canadiens boosters and, even moreso, for Halak's agent, Allan Walsh.

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A sidelined Ovechkin hurts U.S. audiences but not necessarily overall North American numbers

There will be much hand-wringing over the Washington Capitals' stunning exit in the first-round of the National Hockey League's 2010 Stanley Cup tournament. Most of it will be in the Caps' front office, but a close second will be the disappointment shared by U.S. television rights holders Versus and NBC, both of which were loving their first-round playoff ratings and must have been salivating at the prospects of an eastern conference showdown between Alex Ovechkin and the Caps and Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins.

That Ovechkin-Crosby is no longer in the cards will also cause some long faces at the NHL's corporate offices in New York. And that's understandable from those who bank on star marketing to build a larger footprint in the U.S.

Yet if it is job one of the commissioner's office to create aggregate value through optimal revenue generation and profits -- for itself and its member franchises -- there is no need for any heads to hang.

This is a tale of two countries. What in this case is bad for hockey in the U.S. is good for the game in Canada and not necessarily bad for the NHL.

The bottom line is that another series for the Montreal Canadiens will be good for the NHL and its partners; most notably its Canadian broadcast and corporate partners. At the micro level, it will sell more tickets and pump up higher box office totals (especially with at least two games at the 21,273-seat Bell Centre, the second-biggest building in the league with the highest-priced tickets of any of the remaining eight playoff clubs).

It will engage more fans and drive larger overall television audiences, largely because CBC and RDS will drive numbers north of 3.5 M and even 4 M per game in Canada alone. Those ratings will help make more money for the NHL's single-largest broadcast rights buyer; the CBC.

It's true that fewer Americans will be watching the conference semifinals and finals than if Ovechkin and the Caps were on the marquee. The net outcome with the Habs in and the Caps out is positive for the core business of the NHL, however, because so many more people will be watching in Canada.

The NHL might not see it that way, because it is rarely prone to recognizing that on a per capita basis, 10 to 20 times more Canadians watch NHL hockey than do their American counterparts. What it should see is that when your business partners make money, it's good for your business. And in this case, no one pays the NHL more money for rights than the CBC and its Hockey Night in Canada franchise.

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Doughty and the Kings have a bright future

After pushing the favoured Vancouver Canucks to overtime twice and splitting the opening set at General Motors Place enroute to a 2-1 series lead, the Los Angeles Kings suffered three straight losses and are on the outside looking in this week while the Canucks prepare for the Chicago Blackhawks and Round 2 of the NHL's 2010 Stanley Cup playoffs.

That does not mean, however, that the Kings have little to celebrate going into the off-season. They in fact have every reason to be bullish about the next cycle of their franchise history in La-La Land.

Reaching the playoffs for the first time in eight years is a big step in the right direction. It also gives their young line-up a taste of what the Stanley Cup tournament is all about. As star defenceman Drew Doughty said after elimination Sunday, you sometimes have to learn how to lose before you can learn how to win.

Doughty himself is another reason to celebrate if you're a Kings' fan, a member of LA's hockey operations brass or an NHL league marketing executive coveting a presence in the second-largest media market in the United States. In #8 Doughty, the Kings have a gold-medal winning Olympian, a James Norris nominee as the league's best defenceman and a player who invokes comparisons with none other than #4 Bobby Orr...all at the age of 20!

The remarkably composed sophomore rearguard is the epitome of a young, up-and-coming Kings team that appears ready to contend for much of the new decade ahead. At an average age of 27.4, LA's future lies in Doughty, goaltender Jonathan Quick, rising star Anze Kopitar, Russian sniper Alexander Frolov, captain Dustin Brown and other youngsters in the line-up. Los Angeles also has to be considered a possible destination for free agent sniper Ilya Kovalchuk.

The bottom line is the new-look Kings are beginning to make strides in both hockey operations and business operations. Their attendance climbed five per cent and reached 96% capacity (averaging 17,313) at the Staples Center they share with the Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Clippers of the NBA. Their television audiences on Fox Sportsnet West and Prime Ticket are up 27% (although keep in mind, the Kings' average regional audience of 27,140 households and approximately 62,000 viewers is 15 per cent the size of Canucks' TV numbers on Rogers Sportsnet Pacific).

On the NHL Composite Power Rankings for the 2009-'10 regular season released this month by TheSportMarket.biz, the Kings placed 12th overall (ninth on the ice with 105 points and 15th off the ice with an estimated per game box office of $817 K US). http://www.facebook.com/thesportmarket?v=photos&ref=ts#!/photo.php?pid=3724749&id=280702824731
 
Much of their strength in overall operations comes from the solid business infrastructure provided by owners Anschutz Entertainment Group and the connection to their glory years provided by former stars such as Luc Robitaille, who now serves as the Kings' President of Business Operations.

For the LA Kings, the present is good; the future better. On and off the ice, they have such bright days ahead, Kings' branded sunglasses could become compulsory equipment in Hollywood for the first time since Wayne Gretzky made hockey fashionable in southern California 20 years ago.

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History Will Be Made promotional campaign is a winner for the NHL (and Young & Rubicam)

In this era of social media, you know you're onto something when people can't help but want to share digital files...story links...audio files...video files. You name it; if people want to share it, you've struck a chord.

That's the case with the National Hockey League's promotional campaign for the 2010 Stanley Cup championships; the History Will Be Made broadcast and in-arena video series.

Commissioned by the NHL's marketing department and developed by the global advertising agency Young & Rubicam, History Will Be Made is a winner.

When the series was unveiled last month, the NHL announced it would include six iconic moments in Stanley Cup playoff history.

“These are the moments from our game that have gone down in history as some of the most iconic in sports,” NHL Executive Vice-President of Marketing Brian Jennings said March 19th. "It’s that image of a flying Bobby Orr frozen in mid-air, when Bourque's 22-year journey finally ends with a championship, when Messier went from being a captain to 'The Captain.' The Stanley Cup Playoffs are where history is made, and this year will be no different.”

At the time, the NHL had plans for three other 30-second videos: one featuring former Montreal Canadiens goaltender Patrick Roy in his Calder Trophy-winning rookie campaign in 1986; one starring Stevie Yzerman scoring his double-overtime winner in the 1996 western conference final against St. Louis; and another putting the spotlight on Mario Lemieux in 1991.

This week, however, the NHL rolled out a seventh 30-second spot in the History Will Be Made campaign running across the league's national and local broadcast partners, NHL Network, NHL.com, in-arena, franchise web sites and various affiliated digital and social media websites. It featured 1984 vintage Wayne Gretzky, scoring a Stanley Cup final game winner for the Edmonton Oilers against the New York Islanders.

Gretzky actually had a cameo role in a Blues' uniform in one of the original six spots; watching helplessly as Yzerman raced away over the blueline before slapping his memorable winner. But no such vintage series is complete without Gretzky alongside Lemieux and Messier. Oversight or not, the NHL deserves credit for getting it right...better late than never.

More important, the NHL deserves credit for the campaign, period. It deserves kudos for the simplicity of the creative. Simple concept. Standard musical theme. A consistent three-part close, with 1. The specific storyline; 2. The campaign title; and 3. The NHL 2010 Stanley Cup logo.

It's what makes it work so well. It's what has allowed franchises such as the Vancouver Canucks to customize History Will Be Made videos starring Henrik and Daniel Sedin (two official versions so far, entitled "What if they hadn't called this "home"?).

Most importantly, it's what has created a buzz among the digital set, spawning more than 300 parodies in a little over three weeks. That means the campaign has captured the imagination of the young, interactive web set. And that's good news for the NHL and for Young & Rubicam.

The original six network-wide History Will Be Made videos, along with the seventh national spot featuring Gretzky, are listed below.

1970 - Boston Bruins: What if Bobby didn’t fly?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUnS5gq0BZ4&feature=channel

1984 - Edmonton Oilers: What if there was no Greatness? *
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMVgbHa0Fd0

1986 - Montreal Canadiens: What if Roy played like a rookie?
http://video.nhl.com/videocenter/console?id=65895

1991 - Pittsburgh Penguins: What if Mario wasn’t so super?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxoxGXyolVM&NR=1

1994 - New York Rangers: What if Messier didn’t lift an entire city?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ljv6f00E2nc&NR=1

1996 - Detroit Red Wings: What if Stevie Y didn’t inspire Hockeytown?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qc7fBl7vO0&NR=1

2001 - Colorado Avalanche: What if Bourque didn’t believe in one more year?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntccXmKmAxE&feature=related


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Early ouster by NHL Devils shows again that late-season hired guns rarely pay off

Lou Lamoriello is a smart hockey man whose career track record of Stanley Cup championships in 1995, 2000 and 2003 speaks for itself.

Yet on the night Lamoriello's New Jersey Devils suffered a disappointing 4-1 eastern conference quarter-final loss at the hands of the underdog Philadelphia Flyers, it has to be said his penchant for late-season shake-ups has failed to pay off once again.

This time, landing prized unrestricted free agent Ilya Kovalchuk from the Atlanta Thrashers did not give the Devils the extra bump Lamoriello was looking for in the NHL's 2010 Stanley Cup tournament, where New Jersey was among the favourites going in.

It's true the Devils' CEO, president and general manager has been more predisposed to coaching changes than big trade deadline deals. Three years ago, Lamoriello fired his head coach Claude Julien with just three games left in the 2006-'07 regular season, despite having the Devils in second place in the eastern conference. Lamoriello was hoping to repeat the magic of 2000, when he dismissed Robbie Ftorek with eight games left, took over behind the bench and led New Jersey to its second Stanley Cup.

The difference between late-season coaching changes and late-season player rentals, however, is the cost. Firings cost what's remaining on the employment contract (and some goodwill). Incoming player rentals, on the other hand, don't come without tangible player assets and/or draft picks going the other way.

In this case, Lamoriello pulled the trigger just before the NHL's 2010 trade deadline, acquiring Kovalchuk in exchange for Johnny Oduya, Niclas Bergfors, prospect Patrice Cormier and -- here's the biggie -- New Jersey's 2010 first-round draft pick. That is potentially a very big price to pay for 20 games in the Meadowlands.

It's not that Kovalchuk failed to produce offence for the second-seeded Devils against the seventh-seeded Flyers; he did, with six points in five games. The question is did he make the Devils a better team than they already were? After years of being conditioned to do so in Atlanta, did Kovalchuk try to do too much himself? Most important, what did he do to the chemistry of New Jersey in a heavily-structured, team-oriented culture?

Those are the smaller questions now. The bigger question for the balance of the post-season will be where Kovalchuk plays next season. Will Lamoriello and the Devils have anything to show for the high first-rounder they gave up to get the Russian star? Or will he choose to sign with the Los Angeles Kings or another more offensive-oriented, free-wheeling team?

The big sport business question is, however, whether such late-season deals make sense in the salary cap era of the NHL, where building through the draft and player development seems to be the right formula.

Sure, you get the odd year like 2008 where a hired gun like Marian Hossa will get the Pittsburgh Penguins to the Stanley Cup final (and then leave) or a Brad Richards will drive the Dallas Stars to the western conference finals (and stay for the longer term).

The odds are that Kovalchuk will be like most late-season player rentals in the NHL (or any sport for that matter). Just ask his trading partner on the Kovalchuk deal, Atlanta GM Don Waddell, who in 2007 sent four draft picks to St. Louis to get Keith Tkachuk (for a few weeks) and Braydon Coburn to Philadelphia for Alexei Zhitnik. Or Calgary Flames' general manager Daryl Sutter, who sent two players and his first round draft pick last year to get Olli Jokinen.

Late-season shake-ups of coaches and players are high risk. The Kovalchuk case is yet another example of one that is also low reward.

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The passing of an icon of the Olympic movement

The passing of Juan Antonio Samaranch today at the age of 89 represents the end of the life of one of the highest profile icons of the Olympic movement.

Whether you're among those who loved and respected the "ends" he achieved or despised and questioned the "means" he used to achieve them, one thing is certain about Samaranch: he made his mark. He is one of the three most dominant Presidents in the history of the International Olympic Committee; on the podium alongside modern founder Baron Pierre de Coubertin -- he of Citius. Altius. Fortius. -- and Avery Brundage.

Without doubt, Samaranch will go down in history as the IOC President who oversaw the greatest period of growth in the history of the Olympic Games.

He took over the helm the year of the boycotted Moscow Games in 1980 and resigned in 2001 the year after the millennium Olympic Games in Sydney. At every level -- number of participating countries, number of athletes, number of events, volume of sponsors, volume of television revenues and hours and volume of media coverage -- the Samaranch Winter Games of Nagano 1998 and the Samaranch Summer Games of Sydney 2000 dwarfed pre-Samaranch Lake Placid 1980 and pre-Samaranch Moscow 1980.

Under his watch, the Olympics were transformed from being the exclusive domain of the world's best so-called amateur athletes to a showcase for the best of the best, including professionals in hockey and basketball.  He oversaw exponential growth in sponsorship and television revenues. And by creating a two-year gap between the Summer Games and Winter Games beginning with Lillehammer 1994, his IOC raised
the profile of the Olympic brand through unprecedented levels of television, media and spectator interest in the years since.

Yet Samaranch was also President during the tit-for-tat boycott of Los Angeles 1984, during the emergence of the doping era of the Games and during the bidding scandal that led to Salt Lake City 2002. The vote-buying exposed a broken-down Olympic city selection process and a corrupt IOC. It exemplified the entitlement culture of the international sport system in general and Samaranch-style leadership in particular.

That will always be the cloud that hangs over the Samaranch IOC. It is also a case study in the downside of political power unchecked by term limits, accountability and proper succession planning.

It is because of Samaranch that the IOC now limits Presidential terms to eight and four for a total of 12 years. If Samaranch had not so brazenly pushed the envelope of his own Presidency well beyond Barcelona 1992 and beyond Atlanta 1996 -- ruling almost as if by personal decree -- he would not have been saddled with such a checkerboard legacy.

Juan Antonio Samaranch left an indelible personal mark on the Olympic movement. No question. He simply stayed too long.


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It's official: Vancouver for Memphis is worst trade in National Basketball Association history

There have been some lopsided trades in the history of the National Basketball Association.

Among the worst trades ever was the 1980 transaction which sent Robert Parrish and the #3 draft pick who wound up being Kevin McHale to the Boston Celtics for the two Golden State Warrior draft picks who became Joe Barry Carroll and Ricky Brown. Also popping to mind are draft day deals sending Kobe Bryant from Charlotte to the Los Angeles Lakers for Vlade Divac in 1996 and Dirk Nowitzki from Milwaukee to Dallas for Robert Traylor in 1988...and let's not forget Seattle sending Scottie Pippen to Chicago for Olden Polynice in 1987.

Yet the worst trade in NBA history has to be Milwaukee's Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to the Lakers for four players in 1975. Right?

Nope. It's Vancouver for Memphis in time for the 2001-'02 season. With the Memphis Grizzlies currently selling upper bowl season tickets at $5 per game -- that's no typo -- in preparation for their 10th anniversary season in Tennessee, it is now officially the worst trade the NBA has ever seen.

Franchise relocations are never a badge of honour, but this one might even rank as the least satisfying in the history of North American sport.

It's all in the 2009-'10 NBA Composite Power Rankings released Monday by TheSportMarket.biz. TheSportMarket.biz.http://www.facebook.com/thesportmarket?ref=ts#!/photo.php?pid=3702634&id=280702824731

And here's why: For the fifth straight year, Memphis is dead last in the NBA in pure sport business rankings, with an anemic box office of about $325 K US per game. The Grizzlies drew an average of 13,485 fans to the FedEx Forum in 2009-'10, despite offering the NBA's bottom-priced tickets averaging $24.10 a pop.

Let's put that in perspective: in 2000-'01, their last season in Vancouver -- with the relocation imminent and local fans enduring a sixth straight losing season -- the original Grizzlies somehow posted an average attendance of 13,737 at General Motors Place.

It's true that the Grizzlies were the 18th-ranked team on the floor this season, staying in playoff contention until the final weeks of the season. Yet that makes their plight in Memphis even more troubling for the NBA, which saw the original Grizzlies make the move south-east despite considerably stronger box office results in their six seasons in Vancouver. And that was despite the fact Vancouver's Grizz never had even a sniff of a playoff berth.

The relocation of the once-proud Charlotte Hornets to New Orleans (2002) isn't working out much better, but the Katrina factor is still in play there. It's also ridiculous that Seattle no longer has its Sonics, but last year's controversial move to Oklahoma City is so far, so good on and off the floor, with the Thunder in the playoffs and earning almost three times what the Grizzlies take in every night in ticket sales.

When it comes to basketball market swaps ranking as significant upgrades, you have Minneapolis to Los Angeles in 1960, which created a lucrative heritage brand for the Lakers and -- on and off the court -- one of the most consistently high-performing basketball franchises on the planet. http://thesportmarket.blogspot.com/2010/04/nbas-la-lakers-continue-to-fire-on-all.html
But at the other end of the spectrum, we have Vancouver to Memphis in 2001...a trade that is looking worse every season, for the Grizzlies in particular and for the NBA in general.

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NBA's LA Lakers continue to fire on all cylinders

On the court this National Basketball Association regular season, Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers continued their winning ways. Off the court, the drawing power of Bryant and the iconic Lakers brand was no less impressive.

That's why the defending champion Lakers top the first annual NBA Composite Power Rankings compiled for the 2009-'10 regular season by TheSportMarket.biz.

With appearances in the last two NBA Finals -- including last year's championship win over the Orlando Magic -- the Lakers are the best all-round professional basketball club on the planet on the strength of the composite power ranking which spans both basketball operations and business operations.

As is the case for the less-celebrated Vancouver Canucks of the National Hockey League (http://thesportmarket.blogspot.com/2010/04/vancouver-canucks-1-in-nhl-composite.html), the Lakers hold the best on and off court results of any franchise in the NBA during the 2009-'10 regular season. Third on the floor through 82 regular season games -- with a winning percentage of .695 -- and first at the box office, the Lakers score an overall performance index of 2.

That puts them #1 among the NBA's 30 clubs in the composite power rankings, which combine final regular season standings (the best way to guage of basketball operations performance across all lines of the game: management, coaching, scouting, sport medical, science and training support and player development personnel) with regular season box office clout (the leading indicator of business operations performance, with sponsorship, merchandise and broadcast sales typically built on attendance and ticket prices).

Powered by 41 virtual sellouts at the Staples Center (averaging 18,997 fans per game) and an average ticket price of $93.25 which is in a class of its own in the NBA, the Lakers edge out the two teams they're most likely to face in the 2010 NBA Finals and western conference finals, respectively; the second-ranked Cleveland Cavaliers and third-ranked Phoenix Suns.

With superstar Lebron James at the helm, the Cavs parlay a league-leading .744 on-court winning percentage and a sixth-ranked estimated box office of over $1.15 million US per home game into an overall performance index of 3.5. Phoenix saw its sellout streak of three plus seasons end last October, but the resurgent Suns have finished strong on the floor under veteran Canadian Steve Nash (fifth overall with a .659 winning percentage) and seventh in the league at the box office, averaging $1.13 million US per game. The Suns' overall performance index is 6.

Dwight Howard and the Magic are seeded to face the Cavs in the eastern final after another solid regular season in which they were second in the conference and second in the league. Yet their home in a small central Florida theme park market means they have to settle for an average ticket price of $40.30 US that is eighth lowest in the NBA and a box office that at $704 K US is about a third of what the Lakers take in at every home game (especially when one considers what the titlehoders make on their "Nicholsons", their VIP courtside seats at the Staples Center).

A new and bigger Amway Center next year will help the Magic move up the overall rankings but the Lakers are clearly well-established as the current league leaders across all aspects of the business of basketball, with a heritage brand, a superstar in Bryant and a winning team...not to mention a home in the second biggest media and television market in North America.

The full NBA Composite Power Rankings for 2009-'10 are available at www.Facebook.com/TheSportMarket.

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Vancouver Canucks #1 in NHL composite power rankings for 2009-'10

Fans of the Vancouver Canucks would happily trade it in any day for the real thing – Lord Stanley’s mug emblematic of National Hockey League supremacy -- but their team would be the top contender for a symbolic Stanley Cup awarded to the best in the hockey business.


In fact, according to a new set of composite power rankings compiled by http://www.thesportmarket.biz/, the Canucks would win the 2010 Stanley Cup based on their overall strength as an NHL franchise.

They are arguably the NHL’s best all-round club on the strength of the composite power ranking which spans both hockey operations and business operations. At a minimum, the case can be made that no NHL franchise has achieved better results both on and off the ice during the 2009-’10 regular season than the Canucks.

Vancouver had the fifth-best regular season record with 103 points but was even more impressive in business operations, ranking fourth in the NHL on the strength of box office revenues this year. If financial performance counted as much as on-ice results, the Canucks would be on their way to a Stanley Cup victory over Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals.

Along the road, the Canucks would post sport business wins over the Los Angeles Kings, Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Blackhawks in the western conference final before facing the Caps in this version of the Stanley Cup championship.

They’d do so on the basis of composite power rankings rating the 30 clubs in the NHL on the basis of their final regular season standing, which is clearly the best available measuring stick of hockey operations success across all lines of the game: management, coaching, scouting, sport medical, science and training support and player development personnel.

This ranking gives equal weighting, however, to each club’s box office performance; the best barometer of business operations as attendance and average ticket prices typically reflect each franchise’s capacity for sponsorship, merchandise and broadcast sales.

With a composite power ranking of 4.5, the Canucks rank first among the 30 teams in the NHL, just ahead of the fast-rising Chicago Blackhawks (with a performance index of 6) and the Capitals (7.5). Next in line are the San Jose Sharks (9) in fourth place, the defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins (10) in fifth and last year’s Cup finalists, the Detroit Red Wings (10), in sixth.

Rounding out the top-10 best-run organizations in the NHL in 2009-’10 are the 7th-place Montreal Canadiens (10.5), 8th-place Philadelphia Flyers (10.5), 9th-place Calgary Flames (10.75) and the New Jersey Devils (11.5) in 10th position on the composite power rankings.

The Ottawa Senators (11.5) are 11th, Toronto Maple Leafs (15) are 16th and the Edmonton Oilers (19) are 21st. The Leafs finished ahead of only the Oilers in on-ice results this season but are by far the league’s most powerful business unit, generating more than $2 million in box office revenues per home game at the Air Canada Centre.

When considering both on-ice and off-ice results in 2009-’10, the Tampa Bay Lightning were the worst-performing NHL franchise this season (ranked 30th with a composite power ranking of 27). The other bears in the NHL marketplace this season include the New York Islanders (29th with a composite index of 25.5), just ahead of the Carolina Hurricanes (28th) and the Atlanta Thrashers (27th).

This season’s most compelling story – both on and off the ice – are the Phoenix Coyotes, who place 19th in the sport business composite rankings, with a fourth-place on-ice record juxtaposed against a league-worst box office.

Four of the league’s five weakest performers in 2009-’10 hail from southern U.S. markets (Tampa Bay, Carolina, Atlanta and Florida) while five of the top 16 are the Canadian franchises based in Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary, Montreal and…yes, Vancouver; with the Canucks at the top of the list of overall performers this year.

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Salary cap helps raise the roof on NHL attendance

Attendance in the National Hockey League has grown each year since the lockout of 2004-'05, reaching an all-time high of a league-wide per game average of 16,458 in the 2009-'10 regular season which ended last Sunday.

Many would point to raucous big buildings such as the United Center in Chicago (21,356) and the Bell Centre in Montreal (21,273) as driving the league-wide average and they'd be at least partially right. Some would suggest new rules and an emerging crop of young superstars a la Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin have peaked fan interest and they'd also be right. Still others would point to shootouts and three-point games and how they pump up team point totals and compress the point differentials between contenders and pretenders.

Yet if the numbers have grown consistently since the lockout, isn't it also true that parity -- pure and simple --has gone a long way to keeping the turnstiles moving? What better way to sell tickets and drive attendance than on the promise of hope: with no clear Stanley Cup favourite, more fans from more markets can dream longer about their own team's prospects of making the grade.

The numbers would suggest the bull market for NHL tickets is the result of the perfect storm of all of these factors, but none more important than team balance.

Check this out: almost half of the 30 teams in the NHL (13) are drawing more than 18,000 fans per game...more than a third (11) of the league's teams are selling out every game...five of Canada’s six franchises are at 100 per cent capacity and the sixth is not far off at 98.8 per cent...six northern U.S. markets are playing to full houses.

Most impressive is that four-fifths of the NHL is north of the magic number most people in the business covet as a sign of franchise strength; with 24 of 30 teams at or above 80% arena capacity.

Despite the bull market for NHL tickets north of the border and in northern U.S. markets, the league clearly still has its work cut out for it in the southern U.S, where seven of its eight lowest-drawing teams are currently located...five of them in sun belt markets.

That includes Phoenix. Despite a fourth-place finish in the NHL's overall standings last week, the Coyotes closed the regular season dead last in attendance, averaging a reported 11,989 at Jobing.com Arena.

Yet Phoenix and the NHL's other weak links would be even weaker were it not for the elephant in the room; a salary cap implemented in 2005 and one which has to be given at least some props for helping drive these record levels of game attendance and fan interest.

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Contrasting family storylines pump up Masters television ratings in U.S. and Canada

A final round 67 gave Phil Mickelson his third Masters title and fourth major championship Sunday at the Masters at Augusta National. It also gave the iconic tournament one of the more interesting photo finishes in the world of sport in 2010.

Images of Mickelson embracing his wife Amy in a joyous yet tearful hug Sunday went worldwide on television, internet and print at the conclusion of the Masters, which was Mickelson's first major in four years. The photograph was worth at least the proverbial thousand words given the battle Amy is fighting against breast cancer and how the illness has shaped much of what her golfer husband has done or not done on the PGA Tour over the past year.

It was an emotional moment for Lefty and his family.

It also couldn't have painted a starker contrast between Mickelson as a poster boy husband and his rival Tiger Woods, who used the Masters to return to the PGA Tour after a five-month absence triggered by his bizarre car accident November 27th, 2009 and the sex scandal that followed.

The juxtaposition of Mickelson against Woods was not lost in all of the buzz surrounding Tiger's much-anticipated comeback.

The two diametrically-opposed storylines were one of the reasons why the 2010 Masters became the third most-watched golf event in U.S. television ratings history. At a rating of 12 and a share of 25, this year's tournament ranked behind only Woods' first Masters win in 1997 (15.8 and 32) and his second title at Augusta in 2001 (12.9 and 27). Not only did the television numbers grow by 36% over 2009 on CBS in the United States, they were up 74% on Global Television in Canada, with 1.8 million Canadians watching Sunday's final round.

Numbers like that and a 43% increase on ESPN in the U.S. and audience numbers on TSN in Canada that were 76% north of the previous Masters record do not happen on the strength of hard core golf fans alone. They are fueled by so-called "soft users", ranging from sports fans who only watch headline-making golf to non-sports fans drawn by other factors (in this case the comeback of Woods and the compelling family story surrounding Mickelson).

For all the anxiety felt inside the golf industry over the past few months as its cash cow struggled through a messy media firestorm and messier public relations, could it be that the Woods scandal will only prove to be a boost for the PGA Tour?

Is it possible that the bubble bursting on the public image of Tiger Woods will have many of us finding both him and his major rivals on the tour more interesting than we did a year ago, rather than less compelling?

The early returns on the television ratings for the 2010 Masters, along with the record internet page views and online traffic around the tournament, appear to suggest exactly that.

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Building brand equity for the NHL -- and stars such as the Sedins -- through a more balanced schedule

The one-two punch that is the Sedin twins is one of the greatest assets of the Vancouver Canucks Hockey Club as they prepare for the 2010 Stanley Cup playoffs and market for the future.

If it's true they've been undervalued in their own backyard of Vancouver until very recently, it's also true they've been even less appreciated elsewhere in the NHL, with 17 franchises in the eastern time zone and a heavily-unbalanced regular season schedule.

And that's largely because you can't fully understand what you never -- or rarely -- see.

It explains in part why even seasoned hockey media types from throughout the NHL and its 26 designated television markets (DMAs) don't seem to have cracked the code on just how terrific they are. The league is already the only one among the five big leagues in North America that is so largely skewed towards New York and Toronto with a majority of its teams in the Eastern Time Zone.

The geographic concentration of the NHL and its superstars is exacerbated by its schedule, one which does not allow for fans of each club to see the other 29 teams at least once. Seventy-eight per cent of regular season play is intra-conference and almost 30 per cent intra-divisional.

When I first raised the issue in the editorial pages of The Vancouver Sun and Sports Business Journal in the fall of 2006, the situation was even worse, with 87% of each team's 82-game regular season being played within its own conference and a whopping 39% within the division. That travel-saving, cost-reducing, highly-unbalanced format -- supposedly designed to promote regional rivalries -- was what the NHL took out of the lockout to say "Thank You Fans".

http://www.thesportmarket.biz/columns/2006/nov1306.htm

What it did was prevent fans in Vancouver from seeing emerging superstars such as Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins and Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals at least once each season. Instead, divisonal rotations meant we'd see #87 and #8 once every three years.

The NHL did slightly tweak its schedule three seasons ago, deploying a wildcard tool that at least allowed the Canucks to play host to Canada's three eastern teams -- the Montreal Canadiens, Ottawa Senators and Toronto Maple Leafs -- once each year.

Yet we still need to wait three years between visits from the marquee player brands and marquee team brands of the eastern conference. It's just not good enough for a league that is still a gate-driven business and relies on its season ticket holders for the vast majority of its revenues.

The flip side of this is that the Sedins and other top talents from the western conference are largely "site unseen" in the majority of eastern markets each year. The media and hence the fans rarely have the chance to see them play.

It's only part of the story, but the sooner the NHL's unbalanced schedule is replaced by a more balanced schedule -- i.e. like that of the NBA, which also has 30 teams and plays an 82-game regular season but limits intra-conference play to 63% -- the better. Annual visits (and the resultant television exposure, media coverage and fan impressions) will help build the personal brands of individual players like the Sedins, the team brands of all the teams in the league and, ultimately by extension, the brand of the NHL.

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Appreciation of Sedins must begin at home

With 112 points, Henrik Sedin is the National Hockey League's newest scoring champion. He is the first Vancouver Canuck player to win the points race and one of only three players to come close (along with former team captain and fellow Swede Markus Naslund and the Russian Rocket Pavel Bure). He now holds the Canucks' single-season mark for points, breaking Bure's record of 110.

One thing Henrik does not yet have is the recognition factor a consistent point-a-game player would typically have in the NHL (especially after this year upping the ante to almost 1.5 points per game). Many would say he doesn't have the respect he deserves for a player of his talent and, more important, track record. Some would suggest he's the victim of an eastern bias that permeates through the NHL, propogated by the eastern media.

In my view, it's more a case of the television exposure, media and promotional weighting that comes from simply having most of the NHL's teams playing in the eastern time zone.

It is true that the NHL is the only league with a majority of its franchises based in one time zone; the eastern time zone. The breakdown in the NHL is 17 in the eastern time zone, five in central time, four in mountain time and four in pacific.

The NHL is not, however, the only league to be subject to such a so-called bias that comes from having so much action take place in the eastern time zone.
 
The NFL has 50% of its teams in ET (16); with 10 in CT, two in MT and four in PT. Major League Baseball has 14 in the eastern time zone and 16 in the other three (eight, two and six, respectively) while the NBA is the least "eastern" of the four major North American loops: 12 in ET, 10 in CT, three in MT and five in PT.

Complaining about such geographic skews is one of the oldest pastimes in North America, on both sides of the border, but especially in Canada.

Yet those of us who have been closest to the careers of Henrik -- and his equally-gifted twin brother Daniel -- should consider how long it has taken for the Sedins to be accepted as the remarkable talents they are even here in Vancouver. That goes not only for west coast hockey fans, but for the media who cover the Canucks game-in, game-out.

Appreciation for Henrik and Daniel -- now in their ninth season playing with the Canucks -- must start in Vancouver before it's possible in other NHL centres and media markets.

If this season has been a threshold campaign for the Sedins on the ice, it has also marked a breakthrough in the way the local media has embraced them.  It's taken some time here in Vancouver for the twins to get the credit they're due. When Henrik skated off with this year's Cyclone Taylor Award as the Canucks MVP, it marked the first such honour either twin has received in Vancouver.

It might take some more time before that kind of recognition happens continentally, or even nationally.

The Art Ross Trophy is a big first step. A Hart Trophy nomination as league MVP should follow and would be another good step. A Hart win would of course be big in building the Sedin brand. But respect, like so many other things in life, must begin at home.

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A tale of two sport business storylines

Note: Penny Stocks is a regular feature of The Sport Market on TEAM 1040 and teamradio.ca Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 12 noon PT. It airs at 10:40 a.m. PT and identifies some of the smaller sport business stories which are worth watching in various sectors of The Sport Market. This week, the imminent appointment of Andrea Shaw to an independent executive contract as the new marketing and sponsorship boss of the Vancouver Whitecaps FC represents the intersection of two Penny Stock storylines we've projected since last fall: the need for the Whitecaps to ramp up their management team in preparation for their debut in Major League Soccer in 2011 and the imminent return of significant sport business talent to the marketplace as VANOC begins to disband post-Vancouver 2010.

The leap from United Soccer Leagues to Major League Soccer is a relatively small one in terms of on-field product. It's a massive leap, however, in all other aspects of the game of soccer, from brand management to television to marketing and game presentation.

That's why the status quo was never an option for the Vancouver Whitecaps FC when Greg Kerfoot and his expanded ownership group won the bid a year ago to bring Major League Soccer to the west coast of Canada in 2011.

Kerfoot and company always had only two choices as they considered the resources they needed to compete in Major League Soccer among the likes of Toronto FC (a division of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, which owns and operates the Toronto Maple Leafs of the NHL, Toronto Raptors of the NBA, Toronto Marlies of the AHL and the Air Canada Centre), the Los Angeles Galaxy (part of the global Anschutz Entertainment Group juggernaut) and the new kids on the block from Puget Sound, the Seattle Sounders FC (owned by Joe Roth, Drew Carey, Adrian Hanauer and Paul Allen but operated by Allen's Vulcan Sports & Entertainment, who also manage and market his NFL Seahawks).

The first choice was to form some sort of strategic partnership with Canucks Sports & Entertainment to gain access to the kind of customer sales and service, sponsorship and broadcast infrastructure that Toronto FC , the Galaxy and the Sounders have at their disposal.

The second choice was to expand their own in-house capacity in those areas, in part by expanding their people power and in part by bringing in those with big league experience to manage their in ticketing, branding, sponsorship and broadcast operations.

With the hiring of Paul Barber as their new Chief Executive Officer, the Whitecaps made it clear they would be taking the second approach. Barber took the reins March 1st and he will be tasked with building the organization in the year leading up to the debut of MLS here in Vancouver in March of 2011.

More evidence of what that second approach will entail will be announced soon by the Vancouver MLS franchise; the appointment of VANOC sponsorship director Andrea Shaw as the Whitecaps' new executive striker in marketing and revenue generation.

Shaw comes to the table hot on the heels of working with VANOC Executive Vice-President Dave Cobb and CEO John Furlong to help VANOC exceed the domestic sponsorship targets set for Vancouver 2010 - more than $750 million in marketing contracts and revenues for the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

Shaw will join the Whitecaps -- either as a full-time senior executive or on an independent executive consulting contract -- to complement the existing marketing and sales resources the team has used at the USL and now USSF-2 league levels.

In the works for months, her appointment will give the franchise the additional resources -- and corporate contacts -- they need to drive the much larger budgets of MLS. It will allow respected cause marketing specialist Andrea Wilkinson to focus on the Whitecaps Foundation, another important piece of the puzzle for the franchise, especially as it works hard to build a stronger connection with the local soccer and sports communities.

Barber and Shaw are only the beginning for the Whitecaps. The makeover will continue in the weeks and months to come.

Yet Shaw is also only the beginning for VANOC. Where her Vancouver 2010 land this year will have a big impact on professional sport here in Vancouver, the larger sport business landscape in Canada and potentially in other sectors in North America.

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Skulsky hiring a coup for the BC Lions and CFL

Owner David Braley finally pulled the trigger Thursday in announcing that highly-respected Canadian media executive Dennis Skulsky would be the next President & Chief Executive Officer of the BC Lions of the Canadian Football League.

Here are five big reasons why the hiring of Skulsky, who will complete his duties as CEO of Canwest Publishing on April 30th and begin at the Lions on May 1st, is a winner for Braley and the BC Lions:

1. The human side of the story: Skulsky's relationship with his predecessor, the late and loved Bobby Ackles, provides a strong personal connection to the appointment. He was a close friend of the little man who could and became one of his greatest disciples in the Vancouver business community as an original founder of the Waterboys, the team's ambassador network named after Ackles' original job in football;

2. The passion of the deal: As a founding Waterboy, Skulsky has worn his passion for the Lions and the CFL on his sleeves -- personal and corporate -- since 2003. That passion alone makes him a natural successor to Ackles;

3. A commitment to community investment: Bob Ackles repatriated the BC Lions brand of CFL football from the ground up, making the team the most community-friendly of all of Vancouver's professional sport franchises. That shared philosophy brought Ackles and Skulsky together in the first place early last decade. If there is a media or broadcast executive in Canada who better understands the importance of community relations and investment than Dennis Skulsky, I have yet to meet him or her. The same principles that made The Vancouver Sun and The Province leaders among community events and organizations in the Lower Mainland when Skulsky was their Publisher will be applied to the Lions. That will help extend the legacy of Ackles;

4. A powerful network: Skulsky brings a heavy-duty Rolodex to his role as BC Lions chief executive. He is among the most connected businessmen in British Columbia and his years with Canwest in Toronto expanded that network to the national level. Those corporate contacts will come in handy for the Lions and for the CFL as Skulsky becomes one of the league's most important salesmen;

5. His familiarity with the job: As chair of the Waterboys and the 2005 Grey Cup festival in Vancouver, Skulsky was among those most familiar with the day-to-day activities of Ackles. He has in-depth knowlege of the Lions' business operations. He knows the CFL deal and has already met several times with Commissioner Mark Cohon. His ability to get off to a running start is arguably the most important aspect of the appointment, because it comes at a critical juncture in the history of the Lions, as they play close to two seasons at their temporary home at Empire Fields before hosting the 2011 Grey Cup a renovated BC Place stadium.

Dennis Skulsky will make an immediate impact in filling the void that has existed since the passing of Bob Ackles in July of 2008. That is good news for dual owner Braley as he preoccupies himself with his latest CFL challenge, turning around the Toronto Argonauts, and it's good news for Lions fans. Most of what Ackles preached to rebuild the Lions is very much in the corporate and community leadership DNA of Skulsky.

More than anything, this is a coup for the CFL. To have an accomplished executive of Skulsky's pedigree choose to take this gig on reflects well on the league as stadium renovations and replacements appear to be ushering in a golden era for the CFL brand of football.

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Status of UEFA Champions League bolstered by the make-up of its final four in 2010 tournament

The UEFA Champions League has emerged this millennium as the world's biggest annual sports tournament. The European club championship is already the most important annual event in soccer. Its final match is now the most-watched single-day sports event on the planet, steadily growing in recent years to finally surpass the Super Bowl in worldwide television audiences in 2009.

Yet the UEFA Champions League still has considerable upside and will continue to gain clout and worldwide appeal in this and the coming years.

First, it will grow a larger television footprint on the strength of a weekend date for the finale, which moves from its typical mid-week slot to this year's championship match on Saturday, May 22nd, in Madrid. The worldwide television audience will also get a boost as the title match jumps from cable to FOX in the United States.

Second, it will gain more traction -- especially outside of Europe -- this year as all things soccer benefit from the global spotlight created by the 2010 FIFA World Cup. European club stars are bound to play leading roles in the theatre to be staged June 11th-July 11th in South Africa and that will only increase the number of those following UEFA member clubs in 2011 and beyond.

Yet arguably the most important boost to the profile of the UEFA Champions League will come from the make up of its final four and, ultimately, its championship pairing next month.

After having clubs from the Barclays English Premier League dominate the later rounds of the Champions League in recent years -- including last year when three English clubs reached the semifinals before FC Barcelona upset Manchester United in the finale -- the final four of the 2010 tournament features clubs from four different European leagues (for the first time in six years).

Represented in the semi-final stage April 20-21 and April 27-28 are titleholder FC Barcelona of the Spanish Primera Liga, Bayern Munich of the German Bundesliga, InterMilan of the Italian Serie A and Olympique Lyonnais of the French Ligue 1.

In a year in which CSKA Moscow and Russia were also represented in the quarter-finals, spanning Europe that way in the semifinals will only increase television, media, sponsor and fan interest throughout the continent. Moreover, around the world, it will create intrigue among millions of transplanted and second and third generation Spanish, German, Italian and French fans -- not to mention Brazilians, Argentinians and fans of the other internationals on those clubs.

That can only mean increased brand equity for UEFA and its Champions League competition this year and in the immediate future. It's a case of the popular gaining popularity and the strong getting even stronger.

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Canucks Sports & Entertainment: 10 keys to reaching 400 home game sellouts

After using late December to pass the Buffalo Sabres at 279 and the Los Angeles Kings' record of 282, the Vancouver Canucks reached their 300th consecutive home game sellout on Easter Sunday at General Motors Place, posting a 4-3 overtime win against the Minnesota Wild, the only National Hockey League team with a longer active streak (381 regular season and playoff games at the Xcel Energy Center).

A long playoff run could see the Canucks overtake the National Football League's Denver Broncos (309) this spring or early next season. Next up would be the Pittsburgh Steelers (317 as they head into the 2010 NFL season) and the NHL's Philadelphia Flyers (who sold out 319 straight at the old Spectrum between 1973 and 1981).

The Canucks could reach the even more exclusive 400 Club in 2012 by continuing to build on what they're already doing and consider these as the 10 key ingredients to potential box office supremacy in the NHL:

#10 - Acknowledge season ticket holders this spring with a tangible show of their appreciation for helping drive the remarkable streak of sellouts from November 14th, 2002 to April 4th, 2010. Selling out 300 games -- selling out more than a handful of games in a row for that matter -- is impossible without a large season ticket base. There is no more important factor in the Canucks' ability to navigate around the NHL lockout of 2004-'05, the recession of 2008-'09 and the Olympic year of Vancouver 2010 than a season ticket base capped at 17,000 in a building seating 18,810;

#9 - Push the envelope on season ticket holder benefits and continue to emphasize the preferential pricing advantage offered through subscribed tickets (full season, half-season and quarter-season Ice Paks);

#8 - Make the most of their 40th anniversary season in 2010-'11 with special events, promotions and incentives to consolidate their season ticket base, expand their priority waiting list of 4,000 and increase their already massive database to support group sales. Pump up the wait list! Think Green Bay Packers and their Lambeau Field-size season ticket waiting list of more than 70,000. A General Motors Place-size waiting list of 9,000 accounts representing another 18,810 season tickets would be the equivalent target;

#7  - Continue the two-pronged approach to regular and premium clients: Deployment of a team dedicated to suites and club seat holders not only helps retain those premium clients, it allows for optimal customer service for both segments. And on that note and of immediate priority, focus on contract renewals for luxury suites; a group of which come due after the current season...and develop contingencies (including suite-sharing packages) to replace those companies which cannot continue or otherwise choose not to renew.

#6 - Keep the product accessible: Ensure the vast majority of Canucks games continue to be available on Rogers Sportsnet at the regional level and TSN and CBC at the national level and resist the temptation to expand pay-per-view much beyond where it is at the start of the decade (and with some bias, continue to leverage the unrivalled power of all-sports radio and keep pushing the boundaries of http://www.canucks.com/ and social media to provide the widest possible access to all things Canuck);

#5 - Build on the power and clout of the Canucks for Kids Fund, making sure season ticket holders and the larger ticket-buying public fully understand the scope of its community philanthropy;

#4 - Ensure that We are all Canucks: The team's brand management and advertising are second to none in the marketplace (despite the team's identity crisis over which of its three logos should prevail as the primary mark). Maintain the advantage for the blue-and-green, especially with the arrival of Major League Soccer in 2011 and the leverage the BC Lions will have in hosting the 99th Grey Cup at a newly-renovated BC Place;

#3 - Exercise extreme prudence on ticket price increases, avoiding the mistakes made by the Detroit Red Wings in 2007 (when steep playoff ticket premiums offended many season ticket holders and left thousands of seats unsold during the team's playoff run). The Red Wings streak of 452 ended that spring;

#2 - Provide strong value through game presentation and amenities, an entertaining on-ice product and by pushing the NHL to repatriate a more balanced schedule in which all 29 other teams visit Vancouver at least once per regular season. Seeing Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin and emerging young stars such as Steven Stamkos once each season adds significant value to every season ticket package;

#1 - Win....win the Stanley Cup.

Contending might be enough to get the Canucks to 400 if all other things remain strong, including the economy. But none of the box office champions and sellout record-holders in North American professional sport (the NHL's Avalanche, the Portland Trailblazers of the NBA, the Boston Red Sox in Major League Baseball and the Green Bay Packers of the NFL) got there without winning the Stanley Cup or its equivalent at some point during their streak.

Winning in 2010 or 2011 would not only clinch 400 in 2012, it would go a long way to making 500 in 2014 an entirely achievable target for Canucks Sports & Entertainment.

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If Tiger Woods can bottle some of that humility, his public relations drive will go further

He wasn't even in the game of effective crisis management in December and January...he was out of bounds on proper media relations with his unilateral video statement February 12th...in the rough with his two controlled, five-minute interviews with Tom Rinaldi of ESPN and Kelly Tilghman of the Golf Channel on March 21st.

Finally, in his third shot at it in the first three months of 2010, Tiger Woods finally made it onto the fairway of professional public relations today with his 35-minute media conference at Augusta -- his first truly interactive PR event since the bizarre car accident of November 27th, 2009 and the resulting flood of allegations and eventual admissions of infidelity throughout December.

Off the tee, Woods did the right thing by apologizing to his fellow PGA Tour players for causing them to have to deal with the fallout from his sex scandal -- while he was either silent or disrespectfully fueling even more questions by scheduling his media statements in the middle of Tour events. He was sorry for being such a distraction and for inconveniencing them as he has over the past five months.

While he is still having difficulty getting his head around some of the areas of questioning -- which will not go away anytime soon -- he still gave enough new information to make the media conference more than just a necessary evil for him; five stitches and a sore neck, a torn achilles and blood platelet therapy from Toronto's own Dr. Anthony Galea to help him heal faster.

Yet more than anything, what Tiger did right today was finally show some humility.

If Tiger Woods the athlete can find a way to bottle that humility and humanity, his public relations drive will go a lot further. It might never fully repatriate the impossibly clean image he had before the car crash and sex scandal, but it would do enough to largely restore Tiger Woods, Inc. as a billion-dollar empire and an athlete corporation valued at more than $600 million US.

To get there, he needs to strike a balance between the two very different Tigers on display today at Augusta, four days before he strikes his first ball back on Tour in the opening round of the Masters on Thursday.

The first was the Tiger who was tight, stern and sometimes short in the face of questions on the scandal. The second was a Tiger who smiled and comfortably handled the golf questions, even gushing at the prospect of playing again and winning on the PGA Tour.

The second Tiger is someone the golf media and the world haven't seen a lot of since his early years on the tour. It's a Tiger who would bring a lot of people -- fans, media and sponsors -- back into his tent over time. It might even earn him some new fans among those of us who have found it difficult to connect with the robotic Tiger, largely because he rarely worked to engage us at any level other than as a golf superstar.

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Vancouver Canucks' home sellout streak reaches 300 plateau and makes its mark on NHL

The Vancouver Canucks of the National Hockey League can clinch their third Northwest Division title in four years with a win tonight over the Minnesota Wild.

They can also clinch a sport business milestone that only 16 other franchises in the history of North American professional sport have to their official credit: 300 consecutive home game sellouts.

http://www.teamradio.ca/news/story/?id=2917

The streak at General Motors Place dates back to November 14th, 2002 and has straddled the NHL lockout of 2004-'05, survived the worst economic recession in a half-century and navigated around the complexities of hosting the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. It has also stayed intact at an expanded capacity this year created by the launch of 180 premium seats in the Best Buy Club at Level 500.

http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/2010wintergames/Playbook+sellout/2760496/story.html

Reaching the 300-plateau consolidates the Canucks' place as one of the box office juggernauts of the NHL, behind only tonight's visitors among active sellout streaks in the 30-team league. The Wild have sold out every one of their games played at the XCel Energy Center (381 regular season and playoffs and another 27 pre-season contests). It puts the Canucks in elite company and within striking distance of venerable streaks by iconic sport brands such as the Denver Broncos and Pittsburgh Steelers of the NFL.

http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/Stoking+coals+hockey+hotbed/2760498/story.html

Canucks fans would gladly trade in those status symbols of sport business success for one thing: the club's first Stanley Cup in its 40-year history. Yet the sellout streak still matters as more than a ticket marketing statistic.

First and most simply, it makes it more fun for fans to go to games when they're sold out. There's a certain civic pride and sense of community that accompanies full houses at sport events.

Second, the sellouts and per game pops of $1.2 million and more underlines the solid financial position of the franchise. Even in the salary cap era of the NHL, strong revenues increase the chances for long-term on-ice success through investment in athlete services and amenities. There are limits to what the Canucks can spend on player contracts, but no limits to what they can pour into player development and resources.

Third, it strengthens the capacity for the market to host other sport events and potentially even new professional franchises when promoters and investors see the 18,810 box office score each and every night at General Motors Place.

Most impressive about the home game sellout streak is that it happens under NHL reporting protocols that are as stringent as any in North America. Unlike the NFL, the sport marketing Goliath which requires only non-premium seats to be sold out to lift its local television blackouts, the Canucks and the NHL include all seats: luxury suites, club seats, restaurant seating and regular seats.

If the Canucks were an NFL club, for example, about 14,300 would constitute a sellout at General Motors Place.

Now there are skeptics -- including my good friend and respected colleague Bob Mackin of Business in Vancouver and 24 Hours Vancouver -- who question the integrity of the Canucks' sellout streak: http://thesportmarketguest1.blogspot.com/2010/04/canucks-tri-centennial-not-legit.html

To those of you in that camp, I say good on the Canucks for having us question the odd empty seat rather than criticizing them for sluggish ticket sales (witness the half-empty buildings that greet a half dozen teams in both the NHL and NBA and describe many of the ballparks in Major League Baseball).

Remember this is not about actual attendance or tickets scanned at the gates. It's about tickets sold.

Empty seats are not necessarily unsold seats. Mostly they are either season tickets not used that night or scalper tickets not resold. They can be un-used tickets from large group sales. They can be "corporate holds" held for NHL sponsors or "player holds" held for the visiting team in compliance with the league's collective bargaining agreement. The latter two categories typically account for about 200 seats and when they're released on game day, all but the odd single are gobbled up quickly.

The Canucks' sell-out streak measures up to what I'd consider to be best practices in the industry. And the bottom line to it all is that it's made possible by a season ticket base capped at 17,000. As long as that base and a waiting list of another 4,000 stay in place, the sellout streak has some real staying power to hit 400 straight by 2012. Last month's renewal pace of more than 95% is a big step in the right direction as the club prepares for its 40th anniversary season.

Reaching 400 would put the Canucks into an even more exclusive group of North American major pro teams. Currently, it's a club of one: the Boston Red Sox of Major League Baseball (550 going into tonight's 2010 home opener against the New York Yankees at Fenway Park). All-time the club of 400 or more includes the BoSox and Cleveland Indians, the NBA's Portland Trailblazers, Boston Celtics, Chicago Bulls and New York Knicks and the NHL's Colorado Avalanche and Detroit Red Wings.

The Wild are already at 400 including pre-season games. Depending on their own season ticket renewals after missing the playoffs again this season, they should get to 400 officially by the 2011 NHL All-Star break. The NBA's Dallas Mavericks are also closing in on 400.

By 2012, there could be a roster of 10 or so on the all-time list of franchises at 400 or more. For the Wild and the Canucks, it's not the big prize -- the Stanley Cup -- but it's still worth celebrating, appreciating and shooting for.

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NHL Attendance: A Solid Bull Market

For all of the criticism directed at the National Hockey League on several fronts, we need to give it credit where credit is due: its performance in arena attendance.

Sure it still has its desert dogs and other problem childs, but the fact is, next to the NFL, the NHL has more franchises playing to full or near capacity than any other major league in North American sport.

Only two of Major League Baseball's 30 clubs sold out their games in 2009 (the Boston Red Sox of the American League and the Philadelphia Phillies of the National League). That's seven per cent. Sellouts are the norm at only two of Major League Soccer's 16 franchises (Toronto FC and Seattle Sounders FC) or 12.5%. In the NBA, it's 15% (five of 30 teams).

The NFL had 28 of 32 clubs -- or 87.5% -- selling enough tickets to avoid television blackouts throughout 2009.

In the NHL, a third of its teams (10 of 30) are selling out every night. It's over half (17 of 30) when you include those virtually selling out (98% capacity or more).

There are five-year plus consecutive home game sellout streaks at five of six franchises in Canada and multiple-year streaks in northern U.S. markets such as Minneapolis, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Washington. Throw in near capacity sales at Boston, downtown New York (where the Rangers ended a 187-game sellout streak in February), Ottawa, Buffalo, Detroit, St. Louis and San Jose (where the Sharks have been virtually sold out all year).

Almost two-thirds of the league plays before sellouts or crowds of more than 18,000 fans. Less than half of its direct competitors in NBA arenas can say the same.

The NHL has more teams among the top-20 North American active home game sellout streaks (seven) than any league except the NFL (11). The NBA and Major League Baseball have only one team each in that top-20 club (the Dallas Mavericks and the Red Sox).

http://www.teamradio.ca/news/story/?id=2917

The NHL also has seven of the top-20 all-time sellout record holders, more than the NBA (six), NFL (five) and MLB (two).

http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/Stoking+coals+hockey+hotbed/2760498/story.html

What's more, the NHL can boast those sellout streaks despite the most stringent sellout standards in the industry. Top-selling NFL teams benefit from the league's rather liberal definition of a sellout: it does not require that all luxury suites or club seats in its respective stadiums are sold out. Selling out the non-premium tickets does the trick and lifts the NFL television blackout.

Heading into the last week of the regular season, average attendance of 17,475 is good news for the NHL (and outshines the NBA by about 500 tickets per game or 600,000 fans per season league-wide). Imagine the brand equity the league would carry, on both sides of the border, if only it could find solutions for the weak links it has in some of the NHL's southern markets.

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Being John Furlong: The Podium of Leadership Qualities behind Vancouver 2010

SportBC did a very good deed Wednesday night at the River Rock Resort & Casino, honouring VANOC Chief Executive Officer John Furlong as Sportsman of the Decade for his leadership of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

The decade tag was particularly appropriate, given that Furlong led the largest sports festival in the history of the city and the province from bid phase to organizing committee to the Games themselves -- executive staying power that is atypical among Olympic event management marathons.

Whereas most Olympic host cities go through two or more CEOs -- either through the natural pairing of skill sets with the requisites of different phases of the multi-year campaign, politics associated with the process or sometimes sheer burnout -- Furlong defied early skeptics to go the distance and help make Vancouver 2010 one of the best Winter Games in history.

He did so as the epitome of personal character and professional leadership.

Furlong built his leadership of Vancouver 2010 around a strategic vision, one which he articulated clearly, championed passionately and defended smartly. These were to be Canada's Games. That vision, manifested in the Olympic Torch Relay presented by RBC and Coca-Cola, drove record levels of domestic sponsorship, ticket sales, merchandising and television audiences.

Furlong was Presidential in style, using the royal "we" instead of the self-centered "I". That made him well-respected internally and well-liked externally. It broadened coalitions of support when he needed them most, both domestically and at the level of the International Olympic Committee.

Finally, Furlong showed a remarkable human touch, especially in the way he handled the inevitable challenges he and VANOC faced along the way; none more impressive than how he respectfully managed the tragic training run death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvilli on the day of the Vancouver 2010 opening ceremonies.

That podium of leadership attributes made Furlong a highly-effective front man for the Games. Adhering to strategic vision, consistently deferring to the larger body of staff and volunteers behind him and simply being John Furlong the person gave him significant political capital.

That capital helped keep things together whenever VANOC was particularly challenged, made mistakes or was otherwise subject to the intense public pressure or media criticism that is part of the territory of staging the Olympic showcase.

Even among critics, he was always one of the most reliable and likable things about Vancouver 2010 and VANOC.

Furlong was all about consistency and personal follow-through. In attending a memorial in Kumaritashvilli's home town -- well after the Games had ended -- he brought together the personal and professional characteristics that defined his leadership in particular and the Games in general.

Visionary. Inclusive. Human.

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