Okay, I need to confess something. I have been reading a lot of blogs and message boards lately. I know it’s not good for me, but sometimes you just can’t help yourself. The thing just keeps bringing me back in. It’s like train wreck, reality TV. You’ve probably guessed it by now. I just cannot stop reading about the Phoenix Coyotes – Matthew Hulsizer – Goldwater Institute fiasco. It’s fascinating and mind bogglingly irritating at the same time.
Every piece I read is bashing the Goldwater institute and calling for a rally to arms, almost, to save the sacred Coyotes franchise. Now it’s possible that many of my copious hoards of readers are not familiar with the details surrounding this controversy. I’ll give a little background.
The Coyotes are currently owned by the NHL because the previous ownership went into bankruptcy in 2009 and they could not find a buyer. NHL commissioner, Gary Bettman, stepped in to save the franchise because he needed to save hockey south of the Mason-Dixon Line, which, unfortunately for him, is going to end up as a major part of his legacy. The NHL has been trying to find a buyer for the franchise that would agree to keep the team in Glendale, since the city just spent an awful lot of money to build a brand new arena in 2003. Enter Matthew Hulsizer. Hulsizer is a Chicago businessman who put together an investment group to buy the team under the condition that he would sign a lease to keep the team in Glendale for at least 30 years. If the Hulsizer group cannot finish a deal, then the team will all but definitely relocate to Winnipeg, Canada.
Here is where the problem begins. There are questions about the legality of the deal. The city of Glendale has promised large incentives to Hulsizer’s group because the city fears that the loss of the team would be a major economic burden on the city, which of course is feasible because they are still on the hook about $300 million for the initial cost of the arena. The expected sales-tax revenues in the surrounding retail centers are a major source of income for the city in repaying some that debt.
Now enter the Goldwater Institute. The Goldwater Institute, named after former Arizona Senator and fiscal conservative Barry Goldwater, is a conservative think tank that sees itself as the watchdog for the taxpayers of Arizona. The Goldwater Institute is challenging the deal with Hulsizer because they say that the deal is illegal because it puts taxpayers at risk.
Personally, I believe that the Goldwater Institute is getting a bad rap for all of this. They make some very valid points, and even if the deal is considered legal by the courts, I think we still need to take a long look at how these economic incentives are being handled. Let’s look at the deal piece by piece.
-Hulsizer agreed to buy the team from the NHL for an estimated $160 million
-The City of Glendale agreed to pay Hulsizer $97 million to operate Jobing.com Arena
-Glendale also agreed to pay $100 million for the right to charge for parking, by selling bonds which the team will pay back over time at an estimated 6% interest.
-Hulsizer will pay the city rent for the arena of around $54 million over the 30 year lease
-Hulsizer can then purchase the arena from Glendale for $40 million at the end of the 30 years
Glendale city officials claim that this is all a great deal for Glendale because the team brings in around $500 million in overall economic surplus for the city. I am not really going to address this claim, but just know that every impartial economist who has looked at the impact of sports subsidies agrees that economic impact studies are enormously exaggerated.
Sounds like a good deal, right? Pay $197 million for “$500 million” in economic output? Wrong. (Okay, I couldn’t help myself. This $500 million is describing lost revenue if the team left, but it accounts for nearly all of Westgate’s tax revenue. Westgate will still continue to operate and will still bring in money) First off, Forbes estimates that the Coyotes are worth $134 million. Wow, that’s only about 70% of what the Glendale is planning on GIVING to Hulsizer. Maybe Glendale could just buy the team themselves (Which is another story for another time, I personally think there is something to this idea. Packers anyone?). Oh wait, they really don’t want to do that because they probably won’t make very much money owning this franchise since no one else has either. Since the Coyotes came to the Valley of the Sun in 1996 they have lost money every single year, culminating in the previous ownership declaring bankruptcy and bailing. Everyone thought that once they had their own, brand new arena they would start making money. Guess not.
Next we have the issue of the parking rights. Glendale has agreed to buy the rights to charge for parking. I don’t understand. Glendale owns the arena. How do they not have the rights to charge for parking? Oh yes, it’s because they needed to find a clever way to pay Hulsizer to buy this sorry franchise. This is the main issue behind Goldwater’s lawsuit. Hulsizer did promise to pay back any unmet parking revenues, but that still doesn’t solve the initial problem. Glendale should already own these rights. It’s their arena!
This is all added to the $300 million already owed on the arena’s initial construction. Adding this altogether and we realize that the city has already put themselves in a bad spot by desperately trying to put themselves on the map, an now is trying to fix the problem by paying for a private businessman to come buy a team that’s worth less than what they are paying him. It just doesn’t make sense. And what’s to stop Hulsizer from declaring bankruptcy when the team just doesn’t bring in enough revenue? Another $200 million subsidy?
Now I have heard some people make the claim that it’s not all about money. There is something special about a kid falling in love with a sport. No really, I actually read this…by a real writer. We live in Arizona. No one plays hockey. No one really likes hockey. That is evident by the consistently bottom-feeding attendance records that the Coyotes boast; another reason why the team is losing money. We just don’t support hockey. But, do you know what we should support? I have the perfect fit to put another professional sports franchise in Glendale near Westgate. It’s a sport that kids actually play in Arizona, and can be played outside, without thousands of dollars in equipment. Glendale, it’s time to start putting together a bid for an MLS team!
Friday, April 15, 2011
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Suns Season Recap
The Suns season ended on a high note on Wednesday night as they beat rival San Antonio Spurs 106-103. The win staved off what would have been a season sweep for the Spurs less than a year removed from the Suns’ own four game sweep of the Spurs in last year’s playoffs. Although it was good to see a victory against the top seed in the Western Conference, the win cannot take the stink off the season that was a far cry from last year which had the Suns only two games away from a trip to the NBA Finals.
Most of the team’s struggles have been well documented as the year has progressed. Those issues range from poor rebounding, porous defense and inconsistency. However, there is one difference between this year’s team and last year’s team that has impacted the team the most. That one thing is Amare Stoudemire.
Amare Stoudemire was a dynamic scorer for the Suns, which were only accentuated by Steve Nash’s amazing point guardiness (eventually I plan to make this into a new advanced metric a la John Hollinger’s PER stat; just watch it will catch on). The overall makeup of the team is very similar to last year. They played an up-tempo style, high efficiency team that relied on a lot of jump shots to outscore their opponents. The major difference is that when the jump shots weren’t falling, they could rely on Stoudemire to create shots be taking a slower defender off the dribble and getting to the free throw line.
Once Robert Sarver decided not to invest in Amare’s knees the Suns dropped from 9th in free throws attempted to 20th. The loss of Stoudemire started a series of acquisitions that gave the Suns six wing players, and that’s being generous by considering Hakim Warrick is a power forward. The front office hoped that a combination of Hedo Turkoglu, Grant Hill, Channing Frye and Robin Lopez could all pitch in and fill the void that Amare left upon his departure to the Knicks. They were wrong.
As I have already written, the Turkoglu experiment was a massive disaster that Lon Babby humbly quit on after only two and a half months. Robin Lopez turned out to be the biggest letdown since the Obama campaign turned into the Obama administration (I kid, I kid). And although Grant Hill, Jared Dudley and Channing Frye have had good seasons they just couldn’t bring the consistency and scoring dependability that Stoudemire brought.
Moving on from the Turkoglu disaster, on paper, the Suns found a great remedy for the problem in the trade for Marcin Gortat, Vince Carter and Mickael Pietrus. Gortat was the rebounding defender they lacked inside. Pietrus was an athletic wing defender who could shoot from outside, and Carter was going to be the dynamic scorer the team could depend on for twenty points a night. It turns out that Carter may have been a more egregious miscalculation than the Turkoglu acquisition.
The Phoenix fans found out, what everybody in the NBA seemed to already know: Vince Carter is a lousy sandbagger. Don’t get me wrong, he seems like he is probably a nice, easy going guy who would be fun to hang out with, but if you are depending on him to be a consistent force in the NBA then you will want to light yourself on fire. The most frustrating part is that he still has loads of talent. There were times where he would get up and throw down an alley-oop just like the Vincanity of old. There were games where he would continually drive the lane and get to the free throw line, but those were few and far between. For the vast majority of his time in Phoenix Carter was content on loitering around the three point line and jacking up a shot that anyone on the team could get at any point on the shot clock. This was evidenced by his 1.9 free throw attempts per game; well off his career average of 5.6. He just seemed indifferent. He cemented his legacy as a guy with tons of potential but who never was willing to do what it took to be the best. He just doesn’t love the game. Somehow, we need to find a way to steal talent, Space Jam style, and give it to someone else. Just think of what a player like Jared Dudley could have done if we mixed Vince Carter’s talent with Dudley’s basketball IQ and will to improve. I wonder if Phil Jackson already knows how to do this…
Now that the season is over, the Suns need to turn to the not-too-distant future in order to still find a way to capitalize on Nash’s talent. The team will certainly buy out Carter’s contract for $4 million. The Suns aren’t going to have much flexibility in the offseason to improve the roster, besides the 13th pick in the draft or whatever they can get in a trade by dangling one of their eleventeen wing players. Unfortunately neither of those options is likely to bring the Suns the dynamic scorer that they can depend on. After perusing the upcoming free agent class I can see a few options that might be intriguing for the Suns to look into that could come at a discount price. Both Greg Oden and Yao Ming will be free agents. The Suns training staff may be able to help resurrect their careers. Adding either of these two players could also free up Robin Lopez to be put on the trading block with Pietrus or Childress for a starting shooting guard. To fill the shooting guard slot, the Suns should look into Michael Redd, who is coming off a major injury or explore the possibility of bringing back Jason Richardson who certainly will not go for the $14 million that he was paid this season.
Whatever the case, the Suns should be back in the playoffs next year, even without significant upgrades. They just aren’t going to be championship contenders…but in the mean time I’m going to studying a little zen philosophy.
Most of the team’s struggles have been well documented as the year has progressed. Those issues range from poor rebounding, porous defense and inconsistency. However, there is one difference between this year’s team and last year’s team that has impacted the team the most. That one thing is Amare Stoudemire.
Amare Stoudemire was a dynamic scorer for the Suns, which were only accentuated by Steve Nash’s amazing point guardiness (eventually I plan to make this into a new advanced metric a la John Hollinger’s PER stat; just watch it will catch on). The overall makeup of the team is very similar to last year. They played an up-tempo style, high efficiency team that relied on a lot of jump shots to outscore their opponents. The major difference is that when the jump shots weren’t falling, they could rely on Stoudemire to create shots be taking a slower defender off the dribble and getting to the free throw line.
Once Robert Sarver decided not to invest in Amare’s knees the Suns dropped from 9th in free throws attempted to 20th. The loss of Stoudemire started a series of acquisitions that gave the Suns six wing players, and that’s being generous by considering Hakim Warrick is a power forward. The front office hoped that a combination of Hedo Turkoglu, Grant Hill, Channing Frye and Robin Lopez could all pitch in and fill the void that Amare left upon his departure to the Knicks. They were wrong.
As I have already written, the Turkoglu experiment was a massive disaster that Lon Babby humbly quit on after only two and a half months. Robin Lopez turned out to be the biggest letdown since the Obama campaign turned into the Obama administration (I kid, I kid). And although Grant Hill, Jared Dudley and Channing Frye have had good seasons they just couldn’t bring the consistency and scoring dependability that Stoudemire brought.
Moving on from the Turkoglu disaster, on paper, the Suns found a great remedy for the problem in the trade for Marcin Gortat, Vince Carter and Mickael Pietrus. Gortat was the rebounding defender they lacked inside. Pietrus was an athletic wing defender who could shoot from outside, and Carter was going to be the dynamic scorer the team could depend on for twenty points a night. It turns out that Carter may have been a more egregious miscalculation than the Turkoglu acquisition.
The Phoenix fans found out, what everybody in the NBA seemed to already know: Vince Carter is a lousy sandbagger. Don’t get me wrong, he seems like he is probably a nice, easy going guy who would be fun to hang out with, but if you are depending on him to be a consistent force in the NBA then you will want to light yourself on fire. The most frustrating part is that he still has loads of talent. There were times where he would get up and throw down an alley-oop just like the Vincanity of old. There were games where he would continually drive the lane and get to the free throw line, but those were few and far between. For the vast majority of his time in Phoenix Carter was content on loitering around the three point line and jacking up a shot that anyone on the team could get at any point on the shot clock. This was evidenced by his 1.9 free throw attempts per game; well off his career average of 5.6. He just seemed indifferent. He cemented his legacy as a guy with tons of potential but who never was willing to do what it took to be the best. He just doesn’t love the game. Somehow, we need to find a way to steal talent, Space Jam style, and give it to someone else. Just think of what a player like Jared Dudley could have done if we mixed Vince Carter’s talent with Dudley’s basketball IQ and will to improve. I wonder if Phil Jackson already knows how to do this…
Now that the season is over, the Suns need to turn to the not-too-distant future in order to still find a way to capitalize on Nash’s talent. The team will certainly buy out Carter’s contract for $4 million. The Suns aren’t going to have much flexibility in the offseason to improve the roster, besides the 13th pick in the draft or whatever they can get in a trade by dangling one of their eleventeen wing players. Unfortunately neither of those options is likely to bring the Suns the dynamic scorer that they can depend on. After perusing the upcoming free agent class I can see a few options that might be intriguing for the Suns to look into that could come at a discount price. Both Greg Oden and Yao Ming will be free agents. The Suns training staff may be able to help resurrect their careers. Adding either of these two players could also free up Robin Lopez to be put on the trading block with Pietrus or Childress for a starting shooting guard. To fill the shooting guard slot, the Suns should look into Michael Redd, who is coming off a major injury or explore the possibility of bringing back Jason Richardson who certainly will not go for the $14 million that he was paid this season.
Whatever the case, the Suns should be back in the playoffs next year, even without significant upgrades. They just aren’t going to be championship contenders…but in the mean time I’m going to studying a little zen philosophy.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
NCAA Rumblings
First off, I would like to congratulate the University of Connecticut for winning the 2011 Men’s Basketball National Championship. They certainly had a great run and they deserve to go down in history as champions for winning the NCAA Championship.
Secondly, I need to say that I love March Madness. The 64 team tournament field is perfect. I have so many good memories waiting until Monday morning after Selection Sunday to cut out “the bracket” out of the morning paper and keep it in front of the TV so I could fill it out as the games progressed. The first weekend of the tournament is easily the best time of the year. Honestly, I think Thursday and Friday should be national holidays (along with baseball’s opening day). Heck, I’ve even taped a hundred square foot bracket to my wall to get into the action.
Shirking responsibilities and family commitments in order to watch college hoops is pure bliss. It astonishes me how I can fall in love with a team and a coach that I have never even heard of previously as they try and take down a traditional power with back-door screens, gritty defense, and last second heroics and then immediately fall in love with four more teams who trying to do the very same thing.
This year was no different on that accord. We saw small schools upsetting goliaths like Kansas and Georgetown. However, this year was also the final blow that helped America realize that this tournament is not the same as it used to be.
Just take a look at the championship matchup, Butler versus UConn. UConn, a traditional power in the power conference of all power conferences, the Big East, finished ninth…NINTH! Most conferences don’t even have nine teams. UConn may have missed the tournament altogether if they hadn’t have started their tear by winning the Big East conference tournament. Don’t get me wrong, Kemba Walker is a great college player and Jim Calhoun is a hall of fame coach, but UConn is NOT a great team. They just aren’t.
Butler is much of the same, yet different. Butler showed us why their needs to be a playoff - a second straight championship game out of the Horizon League. Butler can and did play with anyone in the country, and to me, that’s where the problem lies. Butler is not a great team. They have some nice players who play hard and play smart, but those guys aren’t going to make it in the NBA. They can play with anyone, but UConn just overmatched them. Butler couldn’t buy a bucket inside (please excuse the cliché…although for all we know, maybe someone was buying buckets). UConn’s Alex Oriakhi was just a dominating presence inside. Butler’s bigs just couldn’t put the ball in the hoop, plain and simple, to the tune of 18.8% shooting.
That’s what brings me to my main point: this Butler team should not be able to play with anyone in the nation. They were severely overmatched by a good, but not great team that got hot, but only finished ninth in their conference. There are no great teams. Let’s look at some of the other teams in the past twenty years who have made consecutive Final Four appearances. 1990-’91 UNLV Runnin’ Rebels. 1990-’92 Duke teams featuring Grant Hill, Bobby Hurley and Christian Leattner. 1995, 1997-’98 North Carolina teams with loads of NBA talent. Even the Florida teams from 2006-’07 had deep NBA talent between Al Horford and Joakim Noah, who decided to stay a few extra years in college to win and develop their respective games.
I’m sure you have heard a thousand times before; there is so much parity in today’s game. Well…they’re right. There is. And to some extent it’s not bad, but to the extent that we are subject to games like we saw Monday night, with a combined 94 points it is almost too much to bear. I want my champions to be champions. I want to see superstars win the national title. And if every once in a blue moon some no name school shocks the world, then awesome. I want to see that. I want to see the Cinderella story. I just don’t want Christmas to come every morning. It loses its value. And I think that is what we saw the past two years with Butler. Now, if Brad Stevens can turn that program into a legitimate powerhouse, that attracts top talent, then that’s also great. I respect that and think that the tournament opens up the door to teams that may not have had a chance.
Now, the real crux of the problem is not the rise of some of these mid-major schools siphoning some good talent away from The UCLA’s and the Duke’s of the world. The real problem lies with the NBA. The NBA is continuing to harvest before the crop is ready. Kids are going to school with the knowledge, not just the idea, but the knowledge that they are going to declare for the draft as soon as their first season is over. Kentucky’s sixth man was drafted in the first round last year for crying out loud! That is ridiculous to me. Not only does that hurt college basketball, but it hurts the NBA as well. General managers and owners are too scared that they are going to miss the next big thing they overlook playing performance for potential. Brandon Knight, I think, is a prime example. He is nowhere near the level of John Wall and Derrick Rose were at when they left John Calipari’s system after one season. Yet, he will probably still be a top ten pick in this year’s draft, because some team will see his raw athleticism and the fact that he played for John Calipari.
The NBA can fix this problem quite easily. They just need to get the owners and the NBPA together and hash out an extended age limit to the one already in place. I would like to see the same rule as in the NFL: three years out of high school. Look, these players are still going to make it to the NBA, they are also going to be better prepared when they make the jump. They will have played against better competition in college. They will have had more time to work on some of the more fundamental aspects of the game, and the NBA decision makers will have a deeper understanding of how good a player is and how adept he is at handling many different circumstances.
Right now the NFL requires that a player be three years removed from high school in order to declare for the draft. The NBA requires a player to be at least 19 years old. Some argue that these limitations are neither fair nor legal. However, they are legal. Former Ohio State running back Maurice Clarett lost in a lawsuit that would have allowed him to declare for the NFL draft after only one season at Ohio State.
Changing this rule would not only help both basketball in the NBA and the NCAA, but it would be more beneficial to these kids. Requiring them to stay at least three years requires them to take their education seriously. No longer can a player enroll in fall semester with 12 credits of English, baking, sports and dancing then skip class every day in the spring because he knows that his paycheck is coming in June and he doesn’t need those classes anymore.
It’s the right thing to do and not just for sports fans like me who might not be able to stomach another “championship” game like the one we just witnessed, but also for the good of the game and for the good of the children. Please, do it for the children!
Secondly, I need to say that I love March Madness. The 64 team tournament field is perfect. I have so many good memories waiting until Monday morning after Selection Sunday to cut out “the bracket” out of the morning paper and keep it in front of the TV so I could fill it out as the games progressed. The first weekend of the tournament is easily the best time of the year. Honestly, I think Thursday and Friday should be national holidays (along with baseball’s opening day). Heck, I’ve even taped a hundred square foot bracket to my wall to get into the action.
Shirking responsibilities and family commitments in order to watch college hoops is pure bliss. It astonishes me how I can fall in love with a team and a coach that I have never even heard of previously as they try and take down a traditional power with back-door screens, gritty defense, and last second heroics and then immediately fall in love with four more teams who trying to do the very same thing.
This year was no different on that accord. We saw small schools upsetting goliaths like Kansas and Georgetown. However, this year was also the final blow that helped America realize that this tournament is not the same as it used to be.
Just take a look at the championship matchup, Butler versus UConn. UConn, a traditional power in the power conference of all power conferences, the Big East, finished ninth…NINTH! Most conferences don’t even have nine teams. UConn may have missed the tournament altogether if they hadn’t have started their tear by winning the Big East conference tournament. Don’t get me wrong, Kemba Walker is a great college player and Jim Calhoun is a hall of fame coach, but UConn is NOT a great team. They just aren’t.
Butler is much of the same, yet different. Butler showed us why their needs to be a playoff - a second straight championship game out of the Horizon League. Butler can and did play with anyone in the country, and to me, that’s where the problem lies. Butler is not a great team. They have some nice players who play hard and play smart, but those guys aren’t going to make it in the NBA. They can play with anyone, but UConn just overmatched them. Butler couldn’t buy a bucket inside (please excuse the cliché…although for all we know, maybe someone was buying buckets). UConn’s Alex Oriakhi was just a dominating presence inside. Butler’s bigs just couldn’t put the ball in the hoop, plain and simple, to the tune of 18.8% shooting.
That’s what brings me to my main point: this Butler team should not be able to play with anyone in the nation. They were severely overmatched by a good, but not great team that got hot, but only finished ninth in their conference. There are no great teams. Let’s look at some of the other teams in the past twenty years who have made consecutive Final Four appearances. 1990-’91 UNLV Runnin’ Rebels. 1990-’92 Duke teams featuring Grant Hill, Bobby Hurley and Christian Leattner. 1995, 1997-’98 North Carolina teams with loads of NBA talent. Even the Florida teams from 2006-’07 had deep NBA talent between Al Horford and Joakim Noah, who decided to stay a few extra years in college to win and develop their respective games.
I’m sure you have heard a thousand times before; there is so much parity in today’s game. Well…they’re right. There is. And to some extent it’s not bad, but to the extent that we are subject to games like we saw Monday night, with a combined 94 points it is almost too much to bear. I want my champions to be champions. I want to see superstars win the national title. And if every once in a blue moon some no name school shocks the world, then awesome. I want to see that. I want to see the Cinderella story. I just don’t want Christmas to come every morning. It loses its value. And I think that is what we saw the past two years with Butler. Now, if Brad Stevens can turn that program into a legitimate powerhouse, that attracts top talent, then that’s also great. I respect that and think that the tournament opens up the door to teams that may not have had a chance.
Now, the real crux of the problem is not the rise of some of these mid-major schools siphoning some good talent away from The UCLA’s and the Duke’s of the world. The real problem lies with the NBA. The NBA is continuing to harvest before the crop is ready. Kids are going to school with the knowledge, not just the idea, but the knowledge that they are going to declare for the draft as soon as their first season is over. Kentucky’s sixth man was drafted in the first round last year for crying out loud! That is ridiculous to me. Not only does that hurt college basketball, but it hurts the NBA as well. General managers and owners are too scared that they are going to miss the next big thing they overlook playing performance for potential. Brandon Knight, I think, is a prime example. He is nowhere near the level of John Wall and Derrick Rose were at when they left John Calipari’s system after one season. Yet, he will probably still be a top ten pick in this year’s draft, because some team will see his raw athleticism and the fact that he played for John Calipari.
The NBA can fix this problem quite easily. They just need to get the owners and the NBPA together and hash out an extended age limit to the one already in place. I would like to see the same rule as in the NFL: three years out of high school. Look, these players are still going to make it to the NBA, they are also going to be better prepared when they make the jump. They will have played against better competition in college. They will have had more time to work on some of the more fundamental aspects of the game, and the NBA decision makers will have a deeper understanding of how good a player is and how adept he is at handling many different circumstances.
Right now the NFL requires that a player be three years removed from high school in order to declare for the draft. The NBA requires a player to be at least 19 years old. Some argue that these limitations are neither fair nor legal. However, they are legal. Former Ohio State running back Maurice Clarett lost in a lawsuit that would have allowed him to declare for the NFL draft after only one season at Ohio State.
Changing this rule would not only help both basketball in the NBA and the NCAA, but it would be more beneficial to these kids. Requiring them to stay at least three years requires them to take their education seriously. No longer can a player enroll in fall semester with 12 credits of English, baking, sports and dancing then skip class every day in the spring because he knows that his paycheck is coming in June and he doesn’t need those classes anymore.
It’s the right thing to do and not just for sports fans like me who might not be able to stomach another “championship” game like the one we just witnessed, but also for the good of the game and for the good of the children. Please, do it for the children!
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