Vancouver Canucks fans eager to have a rival a short drive away will cheer the news that at least two business groups are planning to submit bids by the NHL’s July 20 deadline to own an expansion franchise in Seattle. One is headed by a former Vancouverite.
Five groups have requested application packages to make expansion bids despite the hefty US$10 million-per-bid price tag, according to a July 8 report in the Hockey News.
With US$2 million of that application fee being non-refundable, the league is making sure that only serious bidders apply.
In addition to two bids likely to come from groups that want to locate a team a three-hour drive south of Vancouver are likely bids to put teams in Las Vegas, Quebec City or Greater Toronto.
Vancouver native Victor Coleman, who is CEO of Los Angeles-based Hudson Pacific Properties Inc. (NYSE:HPP), heads one of the groups set to bid to put a team in Seattle, the magazine and the Seattle Times reported yesterday.
Coleman, who is in his fifties, was not immediately available for comment. He told King 5 in an interview last year that he grew up around Granville Street and West 41st Avenue and attended Sir William Osler Elementary School and Magee High School.
The other bid is believed to be from Connecticut-based RLB Holdings managing partner and investment banker Ray Bartoszek.
The Seattle Times speculated that a third potential bid, headed by NHL and NBA “power broker” Jac Sperling, is to put a team in nearby Bellevue.
If any of these groups win their bid for a team, they would have to pay the league US$500 million.
“If you divide the US$500m by the 32 teams, the owners don’t care if there’s going to be anybody in the [expansion team's] building,” said Vancouver Ticket and Tour Service principal Kingsley Bailey.
“Look at the piece of the action that each owner would be getting.”
Neither Vancouver Canucks owner Francesco Aquilini nor director of hockey operations Trevor Linden were immediately available to discuss how important they see a Seattle franchise being in heightening fan excitement.
Bailey, however, said the team needs some kind of jolt to stimulate demand for tickets.
The team officially ended a 12-year, 474-game streak of consecutive sellouts last October and Bailey believes that there were “many” games that failed to sell out later in the year.
He has also noticed recent ticket promotions that hint that the team is having trouble selling season tickets.
“The fans aren’t coming to the games because the price is too expensive and the price is too expensive because the product is watered down,” Bailey said.
Some of that “watering down” happens by requiring season ticket holders to pay full price for pre-season games when many of the players are not likely to make the regular season squad, he said.
Other watering down happens when the NHL expands, he added.
