Mark Spector

Mark Spector is a columnist for sportsnet.ca

Perhaps it was timing, or perhaps it was just pureness of heart. But somehow, it took the National Hockey League longer than most people expected for the downturn in the economy to really hit home.

But as the owners gather for their board of governor meetings at the tony Inn at Spanish Bay in Pebble Beach, CA beginning on Tuesday, they will find that perhaps they are living a bit large on the Monterey Peninsula, when their budgets are more suited to the Holiday Inn on Route 9.

If you squint real hard next week in Pebble Beach, you might be able to see the old World Hockey Association owners, whose squabbles when the bill came were borne not of generosity, but of the fact that so many had credit cards that were maxed out.

Although the league-owned Phoenix Coyotes will still take top billing when commissioner Gary Bettman takes the lectern to apprise the governors on franchise matters, there are no shortage of trouble spots on the NHL’s landscape:

• In Dallas, Sportsbusiness Journal reports that owner Tom Hicks is funding Stars’ losses using a reserve of cash from a $525 million loan he defaulted on last March. Major League Baseball was forced to forward money to Hicks’ Texas Rangers last season as his financial troubles mounted, and it is unknown whether the NHL has already helped Hicks make payroll this season, or if they may yet asked to be.

Hicks is said to be holding fast to a $250 million asking price for the Stars.

• In Tampa, ownership squabbles continue, with neither Len Barrie nor Oren Koules able to buy the other partner out. Despite the NHL’s claim that the Lightning averages 14,403 fans per game, the people who run the arena report an average turnstile count of 10,576 through the first 12 games at the 22,000 capacity St. Pete Times Forum.

Shortly, season-ticket revenues and the $15 million the team received in revenue sharing will run out. Then what?

The rumour mill has the Lightning available for less than $100 million.

• In Columbus, the Blue Jackets are desperate to rewrite the lease at Nationwide Arena, with losses of $12 million per season beginning to grow. Even with the NHL’s inflated attendance numbers, the Blue Jackets still do not report 15,000 fans per game at home.

• In Nashville, attendance is still the third worst in the NHL, and the team is at risk of losing $7 million in funding from the Metro Council, an arm of the civic government. Also, principal owner David Freeman has admitted to a "short-term personal liquidity problem" caused by a need to settle with the IRS.

• In Carolina, yet another team on the receiving end of revenue sharing, NHL reported attendance is down more than 2,000 per game from the previous season as the Hurricanes find themselves dead last in the 30-team NHL. If they embark on a rebuilding process, it is doubtful attendance will increase.

• In Colorado, where the Avs qualified for revenue sharing for the first time last season, the surprising Avalanche have spent most of the young season in first place in the Northwest Division. Yet, attendance is down 1,300 per game from 2008-09. Colorado was once one of the NHL’s strongholds in the U.S. Not anymore.

On the TV front, Versus, the league’s primary American cable carrier, just lost distribution to nine million homes when free preview periods ended with three separate cable carriers.

There will be discussion at the NHL’s meetings as to where the league stands vis-à-vis getting its games back on ESPN, a stated goal of most American owners.

"The one thing we always talk about is the state of the league. Revenues and how we’re doing," one governor told sportsnet.ca. "That’s what will interest me the most."

Escrow was set at 18 per cent at the start of the season. If it leaks into the 20 per cent range — or one-fifth of players’ pay checks — that will raise the ire of the dysfunctional NHLPA, a relationship that will also be updated at the meetings.

The body of work down south has several governors ready to take a hard look at going back into Canada.

"There is certainly room for more franchises in Canada," a governor said. "It seems to me there are more willing people who want to run a franchise in Canada than there has been for a long time. The Canadian dollar is doing great."

The league would prefer to expand to Canada, and reap the expansion fee windfall. But if the Coyotes cannot exist in Phoenix — and many governors privately do not believe they can — there is growing belief that a move back to Canada would be better than planting another southern flag in a town like Kansas City or Las Vegas.

A second team in the Air Canada Centre — home of the Toronto Maple Leafs — makes the most sense for the league, with Winnipeg second. Hamilton and Quebec City, though both vocal advocates, need to erect NHL calibre buildings before the league will give those cities serious attention.