Another NHL team uses KC as leverage...

[Ez Street]

Interesting reads.....

http://www.newsday.com/sports/hockey/ny ... 2195.story

http://weblogs.newsday.com/sports/colum ... e_isl.html

[Ez Street]

http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/news;_ylt=A ... &type=lgns

and the beat goes on....

It seems to me that the New York media think they're gone and that it's not too big of a deal. Probably because they'd still have the Rangers and Devils.

No one cares about the Isles up there.

You don't see the fan backlash like Pittsburgh either.

[phxcat]

KC Islanders- you have a lot of sports teams that don't get around to changing their geographic specific names when they move (Rams, Lakers, Jazz, etc.), but would this one be too ridiculous?

[Spartan65]

http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/news;_ylt=A ... &type=lgns

and the beat goes on....

It seems to me that the New York media think they're gone and that it's not too big of a deal. Probably because they'd still have the Rangers and Devils.

No one cares about the Isles up there.

You don't see the fan backlash like Pittsburgh either.

Pittsburgh revolves more around their teams than NYC does. They have more team spirit than most places, for sure. Not to mention all of their teams have the same colors (black and gold), which the city seal and police department have also adopted.

[HockeyPunkKC]

No one cares about the Isles up there.

I agree.  I recently went to NYC for a week and no one up there cares about the Isles.  The local sports stores up there carry merch of every NYC team there except the Isles.  im a huge hockey fan and i asked the clerk there why there was no Isles stuff, and she said that it doesnt sell so they dont carry much.    If you saw anyone wearing anything hockey, it was the Rangers.

[Maitre D]

KC Islanders- you have a lot of sports teams that don't get around to changing their geographic specific names when they move (Rams, Lakers, Jazz, etc.), but would this one be too ridiculous?

Well, we do have the Isle of Capri nearby......

[bbqboy]

http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/news;_ylt=A ... &type=lgns

and the beat goes on....

It seems to me that the New York media think they're gone and that it's not too big of a deal. Probably because they'd still have the Rangers and Devils.

No one cares about the Isles up there.

You don't see the fan backlash like Pittsburgh either.

What a funny article.
  .....“I would say this is the first step to implementing what new suburbia looks like,” chief deputy county executive Marilyn Gottlieb said. “We have the old suburban model from 60 years ago and that was great. But what people want, what the economy has created, we need to look at a change or a refinement of the old suburbia to something we call new suburbia.....



During the Jan. 15 Bruins-Islanders game, it was announced that the Islanders would play the Kings in a preseason game at Kansas City’s state-of-the-art Sprint Center. Opened in October 2007, the Sprint Center can seat 17,001 for hockey. Built and run by Los Angeles Kings owner Philip Anschutz’s AEG Worldwide Group, the Sprint Center could host an NHL franchise as soon as the 2009-2010 season according to an arena spokeswoman.

Is the September visit to Kansas City a case of the NHL perhaps checking out new digs? Is it the first home game for a relocated Islanders franchise? Or is it simply a preseason game in a potentially untapped market?

  "As we travel from city to city during the season, we come across Islanders fans throughout the country,” Islanders’ general manager Garth Snow said in a statement last week. “I have had conversations with the Los Angeles Kings about and exhibition game and when they extended the invitation to play in Kansas City, I thought it provided a great opportunity to continue to grow our fan base.”

must be thousands of Islanders fans in KC

[kcdcchef]

any team has fans all over the country when winning. 10 years ago you saw no new england patriots shit anywhere. now, everywhere, EVERYONE is a patriots fan. detroit tigers and tampa bay rays shit pops up all over the place.

do you have any idea how much crap i took today wearing my kc chiefs stocking cap in wendy's today in downtown pittsburgh? good god, everyone razzed me. but i am a fan no matter what.

same with isles. if they ever start winning, they will have fans. they may have a shit ton of fans in kc here real quick.

[aknowledgeableperson]

Hey Chef, is your team going to make the playoffs this year?

[mgsports]

Gary Bettman got 3 Rejects to buying the Coyotes like the Suns and Diamondbacks Oners and also White Sox/Bulls Owner to. So maybe KC has a shot.

[Ez Street]

Not sure that the Coyotes lack of potential buyers helps KC....I can't see why it would.

Their lease is crap, it would take a lot of money or bankruptcy to get out of it.

The better odds are with the Islanders or someone like the Thrashers, Predators, or Panthers. But those are all LONG shots.

Let's face it, the economy is not going to help our chances of landing a team.

[aknowledgeableperson]

Let's face it, the economy is not going to help our chances of landing a team.

Said it before and will say it again.  The fastest, surest way of getting a team to play in the SC is to have local ownership come into play.  Get someone, or a small group, local speaking out about buying a team and one would be here in a year or two.  Even with NHL 21 out there promoting hockey no one local has stepped forward to pursue a team.  Even AEG had to go to a felon, who wan't even local, to get someone to express an interest in moving a team here. And still there were no locals identified willing to invest in a team.

[Ez Street]

Leiweke did "claim" that he was hosting some prospective local owners during the exhibition game this fall.

Whether or not that was just lip service, we'll probably never know.

[mykem]

Not saying it can't happen, but it would be very difficult for the Islanders to break their lease that runs until 2015 with Nassau county. From what I have read the lease is so airtight that if mr. Wang was to relocate the team before 2015 he could face contempt charges, and face jail time! There is also a no buy out clause in the lease.

[mgsports]

Maybe another Team can relocate here or even a NBA team that Whitock is talking in today's Newspaper.

[TheSmokinPun]

You guys need to understand that Bettman will do anything to make money. He'll find loopholes in the Isles contracts so he can move them out as soon as he can. I mean I want NHL more than anything, but let's do it right. Get Winnipeg a team, which is great because the old franchise is losing money in Phoenix and they wouldnt have any fight getting the old Jets name back. I see us getting a team after that, either the Thrashers or the Panthers, with the other team most likely moving to Hamilton, of course pending if Maple Leaf Co would let another team into Ontario.

[Ez Street]

Boots shares sold to Canadian "Rich Dude".

http://calsun.canoe.ca/News/Alberta/200 ... 1-sun.html

Preds ain't moving.

The List:
Pittsburgh Penguins
Nashville Predators
New York Islanders
Atlanta Thrashers
Phoenix Coyotes
Florida Panthers

[mykem]

From my post above, this is why the Islanders may not be the team that calls KC home.
I found this at ballparks.com
ISLANDERSÕ LEASE MAKE RELOCATION DIFFICULT
February 5, 2009
Copyright 2009 MediaVentures

Uniondale, N.Y. - Even if billionaire Charles Wang wanted to move his New York Islanders off Long Island anytime soon - as worried fans have speculated in recent weeks - it wouldn't be easy. That's because the hockey team's lease with Nassau County contains strong language that prohibits such a move - at least for six more years.

The agreement says the Islanders can't play any home game during the regular season anywhere but the Nassau Coliseum, which is owned by the county, until 2015. And legal experts say the lease can't be broken by paying off the remaining years because the prohibition, written as part of the 1985 lease and upheld by a Nassau State Supreme Court justice in 1998, says the team's presence on Long Island is what's important.

If the owner attempted to move the team, Nassau County Attorney Lorna Goodman said, he could be held in contempt and face the possibility of jail time, high fines and the payment of any damages incurred by the county.

Wang has expressed frustration over the slow progress of getting a new arena and his Lighthouse redevelopment off the ground. His comments, coupled with the team's recent announcements that it will play an exhibition game in Kansas City, Mo., which is actively seeking a National Hockey League franchise, and hold a training camp in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, have fueled concern over the team's Long Island future.

If the Islanders were to contest the lease, Alfred Brophy, a University of North Carolina professor of commercial real estate law, said the county would win the case in court.

"It's a more extreme lease than you typically see," Brophy said. "If I'm the New York Islanders, I'm not sure I would want to sign this lease. From their perspective, it's a bad lease. But just because it's bad, it doesn't mean you can get out of it."

To go elsewhere, then-Justice Burton Joseph said, "would cause the county irreparable harm." The Islanders have generated at least $2.5 million in revenue for Nassau County just from admissions and advertising since 2006, county comptroller records show. (Newsday)

[NDTeve]

maybe a judge could rule the lease contract as unconscionable. Lenexa??

[LenexatoKCMO]

maybe a judge could rule the lease contract as unconscionable. Lenexa??

Never seen the document but it is usually pretty hard for a sophisitcated business party, employing a team of lawyers to claim that a contract they all reviewed and singed off on is unconscionable.  I doubt the Islander's owner just signed the lease on the trunk of his car without having it thoroughly reviewed and scrutinized first.