data.3news-bydate.train.rec.sport.hockey.54728 Maven / Gradle / Ivy
From: [email protected] (Roger Maynard)
Subject: Re: Oiler's rumour - Team moving? Press conference next week
Organization: Dept. of Computer Science, Laurentian University, Sudbury, ON
Lines: 58
In <[email protected]> [email protected] (Gerald Olchowy) writes:
>So what's stopping Pocklington from going to a bank and borrowing $41
>million dollars to pay off his Treasury Branch loans...I was reading
According to the recent TSN report Peter Puck is not paying any interest
on the Treasury Branch loans. That's a lot of green.
>somewhere than Pocklington business have gross revenues of about
>$500 million per year...I don't think he would have much problem
>"borrowing from his VISA to pay off his Mastercard" if he wanted to.
Again, according to TSN, virtually everything that Peter Puck has already
has liens against it. Of course we can't really be sure of this.
>Pocklington is at the point of maximum advantage right now...and
>he is basically right in that Northlands (which is a creature of the
>City of Edmonton) must give him a better deal in the era of escalating
>salaries. Northlands and the city benefitted as much as he did during
>the eighties from the Oilers...and wealth generated by the Oilers
>success was shared...but the finanical viability of small market teams
>has radically changed in the space of a couple of years, and for
>the Oilers to remain viable and competitive, they need much more of
>the revenue stream from concessions, parking, and building advertising
>as most every other professional sports franchise in North America
>has. What was once a fair agreement that shared the wealth is now
>Northlands sucking the blood out of the Oilers franchise.
The Oiler rationale regarding the renegotiation of player contracts is
that a deal is a deal. Sather has spouted this repeatedly. Pocklinton
has a contract with Northlands until 1999. A deal is a deal. Perhaps
if he included the income he has received from his sale of assets (players
such as Gretzky) and the income he has received in expansion fees with
his revenues he wouldn't be losing money. He has admitted pulling this
money out of the Oiler franchise to put into his other businesses.
>The Oilers have paid several times over what the Coliseum cost to
>build, and bring Edmonton prestige and recognition throughout the
>world that is essentially priceless...to nickel-and-dime the Oilers
>just so Northlands can use revenue sucked out of the Oilers to
>subsidize their horse-racing operations is insanity.
I think that Pocklington has received ample provincial subsidization.
I can't really blame him for going after municipal subsidization but
he is certainly not entitled to it. Pocklington has "sucked" revenue
out of the Oilers in order to prop up his failing business interests.
Pocklington is not to be trusted. I doubt very much that any Oiler
team will ever again make the playoffs under Pocklington's stewardship.
As soon as a player shows himself to be a competent NHL'er and expects
to be paid accordingly he is shipped off for younger players and or
draft picks.
--
cordially, as always, [email protected]
"So many morons...
rm ...and so little time."