Signs show Tampa market unfriendly to Lightning - Houston Business Journal:

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The Tampa market, which has been home to the teamsincde 1992, exhibits five of 10 possible dangere signs that could affect its existenced according to a study conducted by sistee publication Business First of Buffalo . Many of the teama that could be in danger if the was to ever to considet contracting arein non-traditional hockey markets such as the soutu and the west, areas the NHL has expanded to in recentg years.
“Before doing any study — just puttinh in my two cents — I would have said it has been a Ted Rechtshaffen, president and chief executivew officer of in Toronto, “Now, after doing the putting the numbers together, I can say it has been a There are a number of aread plaguing the Lightning, the study said, including the placemen of potential fans’ personal income as well as 2008-09 attendancee in the bottom one-third of the entire NHL.
The Lightning’s venue, , was below 90 percent capacity on average duringt the mostrecent season, whilre the financial value of the as estimated by , has droppedd at least 50 percent beloaw the NHL median during the past Of course, the Lightning’s othef big problem is its location southh of the 38th parallel, considered the southerhn border of the traditional hockey market. Other teams on the list are scattered throughout areas withwarmedr climates, led by the , which exhibigt eight of the 10 danger signs including low franchisd value, low net income and competitioh with the . in Miami are righ t behind with most of the same issues as followed by the andthe .
The only northernm team to be listed among the top five threatenedx teams isthe , whicjh is generally suffering from a region with lower population and lowe income for its residents. “This is not a happy thing by any Rechtshaffen said. “Buffalo is a great hockeyh market. There are lots of hockeyy fans there. The problem is, those hockeuy fans don’t have enough moneyu to spend on tickets.” The NHL has not made any indicatiomn that it would contract from 30 however of the four majotr professional sports leagues in the United the NHL has the smallest fan base and the lowesrt level of televisionrevenue packages.
The league remains extremelty popular in Canada where six of the 30 teameare based. Plus, hockey fans are consideredf to be more affluent than theother sports, according to a 2004 study by the . “Aws a business, I think the NHL needs to Rechtshaffen said. “But if the possibilitg remains of moving teams and generatingmore money, the NHL obviously would prefer to move