Possible financial woes for the Minnesota Wild?

For Minnesota Wild fans, we’ve been sitting on the sidelines during the post-season.  Not only is it distressing that once again that we don’t have a chance to watch our team in a quest for Lord Stanley’s Cup, but it seems that yet another failure to reach the post season might have possibly more severe implications regarding the health of the franchise. 

Frequent playoff appearances do many things for a franchise.  First off, it makes a team appealing to quality free agents.  There have been several times in recent years, where the Wild have attempted to get involved for bigger name free agents, most notably Kristian Huselius, Olli Jokkinen, and even Peter Forsberg.  Time after time, the free agent in question opted to go to another team, usually a team more likely to make a playoff push.  Success breeds success.  Until the Wild can find success, it seems we will have to give up hope of attracting those quality free agents for some time.  Of course it doesn’t help that the Wild are in a bit of a salary cap crunch, and are unable to work those quality free agents into the budget.  However, that is story for another day.

Continual playoff runs also do one other, and very important, thing for a franchise.  A playoff appearance guarantees additional income for a team, and of course the longer the team stays in the running, the more money is generated.  We’re not only talking about ticket sales.  Living in Wisconsin, I have seen how improvement and playoff appearance suddenly create more fans who purchase merchandise.  With the recent turn around of the Milwaukee Brewers of Major League Baseball that has happened over the nine years I’ve lived here, I’ve seen more and more Brewers hats, jerseys, t-shirts, stickers, etc.  Having grown up on the Minnesota-Wisconsin border (albeit on the Minnesota side of the Mississippi River), I know for a fact that for quite a while prior to this resurgence, the Brewers haven’t exactly been on the collective mind of Wisconsin sports fans.  Let’s face it, the Brewers are not the Green Bay Packers who actually can afford to weather lack of post-season appearances over several seasons.  Playoffs effect fans of different levels differently.  For the die-hard fan, it further cements their fan-hood.  For the casual fan, a playoff run encourages them to run out and purchase all sorts of merchandise of “their” team.  If a team is only an occasional playoff contender, the casual fan most likely won’t stick around for the long haul.  If that team is a regular contender, that casual fan just might turn into a die-hard fan.  Teams needs both kinds of fans.  The die-hards to continually buy the tickets during the regular season, and the casual fan to further pad the bank account with merchandise and occasional ticket purposes.

With the Wild once again outside of the playoffs, the ramifications of that seem even more severe based on a recent rumor at ESPN Insider.  According to Mike Ozanian of that financial powerhouse publication, Forbes Magazine, the Wild are short on cash, mostly due to another season of not making the playoffs.  While being once again short that income will hurt the team, the financial problems do not stop there.  What appears to be of even greater concern, is that Wild minority owner, Philip Falcone, is under two investigations by the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC).  Wild owner, Craig Leipold, might have to get loans in order to fund the upcoming season.  With Falcone under investigation and suffering financial losses, getting additional funds from minority owners and other investors might be a challenge to Leipold.

The Wild suffered a minor dip in attendance this season.  Fewer tickets sold obviously hurts the bottom line.  Add that to another year without playoff revenue, owners with their own financial and legal issues, a salary cap problem, ridiculous contracts (including the buyout of Mark Parrish still on the books), I don’t see things changing any time soon.  You can’t improve until you bring in quality free agents.  However you can’t do that until you have the finances to do so.  It’s hard to get the finances when you don’t have the salary cap space and the playoff revenue.  The increase in ticket sales won’t come back until there’s a quality product on the ice.  It’s an ugly cycle that has no end in sight, at least not in the immediate future.  I wish the future was brighter. 

The only bright spot on the horizon is that the Wild are hosting the 2011 NHL Entry Draft.  That will inject some much needed cash into the Wild’s coffers, but not enough to make up for the other financial problems facing the team.  What is interesting to point out is this.  If the Wild, who sell as well as they do (which is amazing considering the roster) are facing financial woes, what does that mean for teams that can’t put fans in the seats on a regular basis?  Are more teams in the financial straits of say, the Phoenix Coyotes?  All of this makes you really wonder what is the truth about the health of the league.  Since professional sports are owned, managed, and played by millionaires, I doubt we’ll ever know.