The Puck Stops Here
The Sharks’ season ended a little over a week ago in a thrilling playoff game that was decided in the fourth overtime period. The Sharks were picked by many experts to get to the Stanley Cup Finals. Some had the Sharks winning the whole thing.
Once again, the Sharks failed to get past the second round of the playoffs. What’s the problem? Should the coach be fired? Should players be traded? What do the San Jose Sharks really need?
Ray Ratto, sportswriter for the San Francisco Chronicle made some interesting comments and observations about the state of San Jose’s NHL franchise. In his May 6 column, Ratto suggested that the team’s owners aren’t spending enough money!
“The Sharks were fifth in most cap room (they had more than $10 million in unspent salary, more available money than every team but Washington, Nashville, Phoenix, and Columbus) and 27th in payroll…”
According to Ratto, only three other NHL teams (Nashville, Phoenix, and Columbus) had smaller payrolls than the Sharks.
“You want to stop coming up short…then stop hoarding your cap space.”
For years, there’s been some dispute over the claims that the Sharks are losing money. On that question, Ray Ratto pulls no punches…“The building you run makes money hand over hoof, so don’t hand us that ‘We’re losing $5 million a year’ nonsense.”
Are the Sharks losing money? Last year, the City of San Jose helped to pay for new, state-of-the-art scoreboards, sound system upgrades and other improvements. While these upgrades may have been legitimate expenses for the city to assist with, shouldn’t the city also receive a proportional share of any increased ad revenues generated by the improvements?
How can Sharks be losing money? – Not possible Sharks are losing money without “sports owners shell game”
Silicon Valley Sports and Entertainment – Sharks owner has best professional sports arenas and leased parking sweetheart deal in North America probably worth $10 -15 million less cost per year than any other sports arena deal and was renewed by Gonzo before he left City Hall – giving more taxes to owners
70 Shark’s games year for 190 games, events, concerts total per year which is 7th best paid attendance in world and 3rd in US – say unreal profits
http://www.svse.net
Yea, only way Sharks are losing money is “sports owners shell game” transferring tens millions to pay Silicon Valley Sports and Entertainment owners each year or invest in more sports and entertainment tax subsidized deals
Owners run San Jose ice rink, Fremont Ice, merchandise, publishing. SAP Open, Fight Night etc etc while getting tens millions in San Jose tax subsidies and more future tax millions as partners in Earthquakes stadium insider deal and Council gives insiders more millions in taxes and land conversions
Mayor (Reed) shelves deficit worries for Sharks arena upgrades
April 25, 2007 Despite having proclaimed San Jose’s budget deficit as “public enemy No. 1,”
“Mayor Chuck Reed on Tuesday endorsed new subsidies for the San Jose Sharks (NHL) to buy better audio and visual equipment for HP Pavilion. The new equipment—including a scoreboard, sound system and flashing light display to ring the arena’s interior—will cost $16.5 million, with the cost evenly split between the Sharks and the city. While some of that money already has been budgeted, the new proposal would divert an extra $3.75 million from the city’s general fund in future years.
Asked how the subsidy squared with his message of fiscal restraint, Reed said the cost was justified as “part of our long-term strategy to increase revenue to the city through economic development.”
http://www.arenadigest.com/archives/2007/april23_29.htm
Yea. economic development means tens millions more to Silicon Valley Sports Entertainment owners and free tickets, meals and campaign contributions to Council while fans pay for higher ticket, merchandise. food and drink profits
Truth will come out about insider’s tax millions deals
The Sharks need a few more goal scorers on both offense and defense. How many games did they win or lose this year by just one goal? To many!
Yes, they need to open up the wallet and spend some money. And give JR a bonus for this year, and a raise for next.
We have a good young team but not enough top seasoned consistent game winning talent
Sharks owners are following high profit sports team owners play book and hire young players who are good enough to get team in playoffs year after year which boosts ticket sales but won’t spend money for few consistent top game winning players needed to win Stanley Cup
San Jose will maybe win Stanley Cup in 2-5 years unless owners greed trades away top young winning players for cash or they get hurt then no Stanley Cup for 5-10 years
Although it is easy to make criticisms about a player here or a position weakness there, it is, I think, much harder to make the case that the Sharks lacked the hockey skills necessary to compete with and beat every other team in the playoffs. There were simply too many times during both the regular season and the playoffs when we saw the Sharks turn it on and become an all but unstoppable offensive machine—something you just can’t do without superior skills. There were, on countless occasions, entire periods in which the Sharks put truth to the old adage about a good offense being the best defense. I recall a number of games, especially in that last, long winning streak they put together, in which the only concern was whether Nabokov was seeing enough shots to keep sharp.
With a disappointing performance in both the first and second rounds, I can’t help but conclude that the team failed itself: that the sum total of its determination, grit, and poise under pressure was insufficient for the task at hand. These intangibles, which all but define the Stanley Cup playoffs, can be learned. That’s the good news. The bad news is that they can’t be taught, and changing head coaches, as the Sharks did today, will do nothing unless the team changes its own character. Not one player, or one line, but a change that encompasses the entire team and alters the skills/character equation enough to give them the edge in the toughest battles.
Ron Wilson once said something to the effect that greatness comes when good players bust their butts for each other. Unfortunately, his players wouldn’t do that for each other, dooming themselves to an early exit from the playoffs and him to the unemployment line. They deserved what they got; he didn’t.
The Sharks’ players need to figure out how many more seasons they can squander and coaches they can doom before the clock runs out on their own cup dreams.