In 1981, Finley sold the team to Wally Haas for $12.4 million (also about $31 million today).

Steve Schott and Ken Hofmann bought the A’s from Haas in 1995 for $95 million ($140 million in 2013), followed by Lew Wolff and John Fisher buying the franchise in 2005 for $180 million ($210 million today). If you’re looking for hockey-stick style growth, owning a pro sports franchise is a good bet.

That makes the big news this week out of Sharks camp rather eye-opening. Partners Kevin Compton and Stratton Sciavos are selling their stakes to Hasso Plattner, who has until now been the silent money in the ownership group. A reason cited was ongoing losses sustained by Sharks Sports and Entertainment, totaling $15 million during the 2011-12 season. Assuming that they’re not engaged in accounting hijinks, Compton’s and Sciavos’s individual losses (or cash calls) were probably in the $1-2 million range. While I can’t find a published net worth of either, it’s clear that neither approaches the wealth of Plattner, the SAP head (and Larry Ellison foil) who is worth $7.2 billion, more than the Giants’ Charles Johnson and Fisher combined. For Compton and Sciavos, $1 million is nothing to take lightly.

Plattner even admitted today that hockey teams don’t make money. A man of his wealth can truly own a team like the Sharks and absorb a loss without batting an eyelash. He also owns CordeValle golf course in South County (San Martin), several other golf courses in Africa and other hotels. That doesn’t mean he’ll start going crazy with free agent signings in the future, but he can afford to be less concerned about having to make cash calls when the time comes. The Sharks aren’t hurt by turnout at HP Pavilion. They’re hurt by lagging national and local TV revenues. Both of those can improve over time, but they’re definitely playing a long game, not one where a millionaire coming in might look for 8-10% annual returns. The Sharks’ lease is on the second of three five-year options, the last of which ends in a decade.

It’s that return-poor situation that probably doomed Greg Jamison, the former Sharks CEO who missed today’s deadline to assemble a group to save the Coyotes in Phoenix. That’s despite Glendale, AZ promising an eight-figure subsidy for each of the next 20 years to offset the team’s operating losses. Now that a new City Council has promised to not give away the farm for another Coyotes ownership group, speculation is rampant that the team will once again relocate. Prime candidates include the Toronto suburb of Markham, Ontario, where the City Council approved an arena last night. The favorite may well be Seattle, where an arena deal is in place and an ownership group has deep pockets, especially in the form of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.

If you want to be taken seriously in the business, it’s best to have at least one multi-billionaire on your team to cover the occasional lean times and cash calls. Especially in hockey.

• George Gund III, original Sharks owner, dies [Mercury News/David Pollak]
• George Gund III, ex-Cavs, Barons owner and philanthropist, dies Tuesday at age 75 [Cleveland Plain Dealer/Pat Galbincea]
• George Gund III, SF Film Society head, dies [SF Chronicle/Julian Guthrie]
• George Gund had his own quirky style [Merc/Mark Purdy]

What I’d like to do is tie his career into the fabric of the Bay Area sports world. First, we have to start in Cleveland. Gund was what we’d now call a trust fund baby. He loved sports, film, and classical music. In keeping with those passions, he bought two hockey franchises, married a filmmaker, and sat on the board of an orchestra. He partnered with his brother, Gordon Gund, to buy the Cleveland Cavaliers. George was always the hockey fanatic while Gordon was the basketball junkie. It worked out pretty well for both in the end.

The journey, however, was long and at times quite difficult for the Gunds. After George Gund permanently moved out to San Francisco, he took a minority stake in the California Golden Seals NHL franchise. The Golden Seals were sold by Charlie Finley, who tried and failed to establish his “branding” on the hockey club (green and gold colors, white skates). Gund partnered with Mel Swig, who owned the Fairmont in SF (like someone we know). For various reasons, running the Seals wasn’t working out at the Coliseum Arena. Swig tried to put together an arena deal in SF, but that fell through. The Gund brothers bought the team from Swig and relocated it to their childhood home of Cleveland.

Except that the team, now named the Cleveland Barons, played out in the sticks at the Richfield Coliseum, about halfway between Cleveland and Akron. The idea was to leverage the fanbase from both markets, and it failed miserably. With the Barons and the Minnesota North Stars in danger of folding and the NHL still struggling against the rival WHA, the league decided to merge the two teams. The franchise remained the Minnesota North Stars and would have a good deal of stability for the next decade, including a Stanley Cup Finals appearance in 1981 (a loss to the juggernaut NY Islanders). The Cavs stuck it out in Richfield for over a decade before moving back to downtown Cleveland. The new home was named Gund Arena.

In 1991, George saw his opportunity to bring a team to the Bay Area. The NHL was starting its Sun Belt expansion phase, and it seemed a good time to put a team in the Bay Area. Howard Baldwin, who was already known as a sort of serial franchise owner, was pushing hard for the franchise to be in San Jose. George Gund stepped in to swap the North Stars for the rights to the expansion franchise, which eventually became known as the San Jose Sharks.

The Sharks played its first two seasons at the aging Cow Palace, an arena that was already outdated for both the Warriors and Golden Seals by the mid-70′s. A new, hockey-focused arena deal was in the works in San Jose, with recent transplant and future Sharks play-by-play man Randy Hahn playing a key organizing role. Gund had the opportunity to try the Oakland experiment again even though the Coliseum was small and poorly set up for hockey, or try to get an arena built in SF. He found willing partners in San Jose in Mayor Tom McEnery and numerous business leaders, all of whom were willing to do what it took to put San Jose “on the map”.

With two major franchise moves under his belt, George Gund could’ve been considered a carpetbagger. He didn’t live in San Jose, choosing to stay in SF and build an apartment inside San Jose Arena. (Frankly, I’d do it if I was asked to contribute.) Yet his legacy stands as a key figure who made San Jose major league and cultivated a great, appreciative fanbase – even though the Sharks mostly sucked during the Gund era.

Gund’s story as an owner is similar to that of Wally Haas, Jr. Both were scions of very wealthy families. Both were revered by their respective team’s fans. Both made great efforts to make their teams successful, business of the game running secondary to winning. Both were well known as philanthropists. Both bought teams from Charlie Finley. The biggest difference between the two was the state of their leagues – while MLB was still clearly the national pastime during the 80′s, the NHL had major competition, growing pains, and difficulty carving out a niche as the fourth major North American pro sports league. Haas was 20 years older than Gund and part of the established SF gentry, so I can’t imagine they ran in the same circles. But I imagine that when Gund took the elevator upstairs over the weekend, he was greeted by Haas and Franklin Mieuli. Mieuli handed Gund a cigar and the beverage of his choice, while Haas showed him the way to the lounge. They could talk about how the Warriors and A’s are resurgent, and that Gund got there just in time to watch his beloved Sharks start their new season. You’re home now, George. Relax and enjoy the game.

MLB remains the only major pro sports league in the US/Canada that has no salary cap. NHL cap and NBA salary floor figures are for 2013-14 season.

The untold story is league debt. The NFL is far and away the richest league, but it also has a massive amount of debt. In 2008 that figure was $9.5 billion and has only grown with the expensive new stadia in New Jersey, Arlington, and Santa Clara. MLB’s credit facility, which is meant as a short-term solution for teams, had $1 billion going into this summer and issued $300 million more since then. None of the leagues are in jeopardy because of their respective debt positions because in most cases, that debt is backed by long term TV deals. Individual teams are at greater risk due to the lack of revenue stability in weaker markets, which is frequently the case in the NHL.

Luxury tax structures implemented in MLB and the NBA have worked to reign in many free-spending teams. The NY Knicks are under the NBA’s luxury tax threshold for the first time in recent memory, and the Yankees are set to follow suit in baseball.

All of this goes to show that for all of the talk of economic parity in pro sports, there are instances of haves and have-nots everywhere. It’s unavoidable, and thanks to CBAs that will run for as long as a decade, it’s enshrined. Cheers!

• The revenue share split is 50-50 of HRR (hockey related revenue)
• While the salary cap remains at $64.3 million, the salary floor is $44 million.
• An NBA-style amnesty provision has been inserted into the CBA to allow teams to drop salaries to get under the cap. Each team has two amnesty buyouts it can use to cut high salaries.
• To keep teams from structuring deals that would circumvent the cap, no single player contract can have a year-to-year raise of more than 35%, and the highest salaried year can be no more than 50% above the lowest salaried year.
• Revenue sharing from rich to poor teams will grow to $200 million. (I assume this is annual.)
• The 50-game schedule would start January 15. The 48-game schedule would commence January 19.
• Specifics regarding pro participation in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia remain missing. Those are to be determined after the CBA is ratified. (My guess – owners will be very restrictive about allowing their players to go, perhaps not even allowing for a season carveout to accommodate the Games.)

Both sides heavily credited federal mediator Scott Beckenbaugh for pulling both sides away from the abyss. Until he guided the negotiations, talks were so acrimonious that it was common for one side to accuse the other of trying to screw them over or hide something whenever a deal point was brought up. It’s much akin to the recent federal fiscal cliff debate, which required both sides to come off hardline stances and let some level of common sense reign. Like the fiscal cliff talks, the actual deal came weeks, if not months later than it should have. Too bad that the people who really paid the price for the lockout are the fans. The hardcore fans will come back, somewhat begrudgingly. Will the casual fan?

======

At 5:09 AM EST, reports started to emerge out of New York that a tentative deal to end the 113-day NHL lockout had been reached. It’s not a done deal yet as there are still issues to work out, but apparently the major deal points have been agreed upon. Here’s what we know so far:

• The CBA will run 10 years, with either side able to opt out in year 8.
• 2013 schedule will have 48-50 regular season games, all in-conference.
• Season will start January 19.
• Individual player contracts are limited to 7 years, 8 for re-signed players.
• The initial salary cap for each team will be $64.3 million.

That last point is interesting, because that’s the same figure as the 2011-12 cap. That’s a pretty big concession on the players’ part. It’s not clear yet the revenue share percentages will be. Last summer, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman projected the cap to be $70 million or higher. During the most recent negotiations, the league was not budging from a $60 million cap.

If the NBA’s post-lockout schedule is any indicator, the upcoming 48-game schedule is going to be brutal. Expect lots of back-to-back games, maybe even some back-to-back-to-back scheduling. Starting on January 19, it’s extremely unlikely that 48 games can be fit into the remaining 12 weeks of the regular season (4 games a week!). Instead, the regular season should be extended 2 weeks to accommodate more rest, with the potential for a compressed or extended Stanley Cup Playoffs schedule on the back end.

This session was, like other fruitless sessions during the fall, handled by a federal mediator. It is unclear exactly how much influence mediator Scott Beckenbaugh had on the process as opposed to the desperation of the two sides, but Bettman made sure to thank Beckenbaugh during his press briefing after the 16-hour marathon session was over.

We’ll dig into the specifics later in the morning.

• The A’s are getting closer to a deal to play at Hohokam Stadium, the current spring training home of the Cubs. An announcement is expected to be made in January. The City of Mesa will contribute at least $15 million of the $20 million cost of renovations to Hohokam and Fitch Park, with the team and city splitting costs between $15 million and $20 million and then the A’s paying for the rest. When the announcement is made, I’ll devote a post or two to the transition and the differences between Hohokam and Phoenix Muni. [Arizona Republic/Gary Nelson]
• For the two spring training games being held at the Alamodome at the end of March, no lower deck ticket can be had for less than $35 (plus Ticketmaster fees, natch). If you have time, watch the Alamo Bowl today and imagine what a baseball game would look like in there. Consider that the first row down the third base line will be several feet above the field.
• Minnesota’s Hennepin County and the District of Columbia have pulled in greater tax revenues than expected for their respective ballparks. In Washington, city leaders have chosen in the past to pay for other budget items, whereas in Minneapolis they’re paying off ballpark debt early. In the case of Target Field, ballpark debt could be retired 5-10 years early – at long as the Twin Cities doesn’t turn into Detroit or Cleveland in the next decade. Or Cincinnati for that matter. [Minneapolis Star-Tribune/Rochelle Olson | Washington Times/Tom Howell Jr.]
• Maury Brown estimates that revenue sharing for the 2012 MLB season is around $400 million. If you look at the history of teams and their relative financial status, there are usually 10-12 who constantly are on the receiving (welfare) end, including the A’s towards the higher end. By that measure, I figure that the A’s check for this year has to be in the $40-45 million range. [Biz of Baseball/Maury Brown]
• AT&T Park is the #1 ballpark in America when it comes to Facebook and foursquare check-ins. What about the Oakland Coliseum? I mean, Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum? I mean, Oakland Stadium? I mean, O.co Coliseum? Um, nevermind. [ESPN/Bill Speros]
• Take time to read @muppet151‘s request for the Victory Court EIR. It is on point. [TwitLonger]
• Honestly, I should add an “Oakland dog park” item to the counter. This is laughably ridiculous. [SF Chronicle/Matthai Kuruvila]
• If you’re not working or too hungover, head to the Exploratorium on Wednesday. That’s the last day in the wonderful Palace of Fine Arts location before it moves to Pier 15. It’s also FREE.
• The NHL and NHLPA had conference calls to set up further talks. They’re running neck-and-neck with Congress for the most dysfuctional situation right now. Here’s the current NHL proposal. [ESPN/Katie Strang]
• The Maloofs continue to say that they won’t sell the Kings, but privately say that they would sell for $500 million. [USA Today/Sam Amick]

Unless something major happens, this is the last post of the year. See you on the other side. Until then, have a safe and happy New Year.

=====

News is fairly light, we’ll have to muddle through somehow.

• After the summer defeat of multiple bills attempting to revive redevelopment in some form, another has surfaced in SB 33, introduced by State Senator Lois Wolk (D-Davis). The bill’s purpose is to create infrastructure financing districts, in which projects could get infrastructure such as roads, sewers, and other public facilities built. There is no stipulation about building stadia. Regardless, creation of an IFD could be an important piece of the puzzle as some stadium projects require utilities to be moved or other unsexy work.
• The Dodgers are working with Fox Sports and Time Warner Cable on their ultra-rich upcoming TV deal. The sticking point is the structure of the deal, which has to work within the confines of a federal bankruptcy court’s decision to cap the Dodgers’ TV money subject to revenue sharing at $84 million. To work within the rules, the network may “force” the team to acquire an equity stake in the network, which would allow the network to pay an annual TV rights fee and a dividend. This is a similar arrangement to what the Giants and Yankees currently have with their respective networks. The Angels and Lakers are each paid a flat fee annually, which to date has been the normal arrangement. [LA Times/Bill Shaikin]
• The cost of the mostly unseen renovations at Dodger Stadium will be $100 million. Key to this is expansion of clubhouse facilities, including the visiting clubhouse. [LA Times/Steve Dilbeck]
• Robert Bobb may return to Oakland again, this time as the compliance director for the city’s negotiated settlement to prevent Oakland Police Department from falling into receivership. Bobb could potentially oversee all of OPD and report to federal judge Thelton Henderson on reforms being implemented throughout the department. Bobb was last hired by Oakland to fix its budget a few years ago. The position is meant to be temporary. [SF Chronicle/Matier & Ross]
• Somehow the Oakland City Council had an hours-long discussion over whether to approve a dog park at Astro Park, and adjourned without making a decision. Think about it. A dog park created gridlock and indecision. [Oakland Tribune/Matthew Artz]
• I don’t normally keep track of international soccer economics, but this was an eye-opener: Premier League champions Manchester City incurred a $158 million loss during the 2011-12 season. $113 million of that was transfer fees to buy players from other teams. That loss was actually half of the $307 million loss in 2012-13. Remarkably, the club is debt free because the owner, oil tycoon Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, has funded all expenditures out of pocket since he bought the team in 2008.
• CSN Bay Area/California’s Brodie Brazil took a tour of the under construction 49ers stadium, which is a third complete.
• Unable to come to an agreement in the Nats-O’s struggle over MASN, MLB may be bringing in buyers for the TV rights for the two clubs. Remember that the whole point of creating MASN was to placate Peter Angelos when the Expos were moved to DC. Commissioner Selig probably has this mess in mind while considering what to do with the Giants and A’s. [Washington Post/James Wagner]
• The Rays ballpark plan at Carillon is for all intents and purposes, dead. At least that’s what the developer who pitched the plan says. There currently is no plan in the works for a new ballpark within St. Petersburg, where the Rays are locked into a lease at Tropicana Field. [Tampa Bay Times/Stephen Nohlgren]
• The Sacramento Kings have to commit to Virginia Beach by January if a deal to move there is to commence. [KTXL-40/Dennis Shanahan]
• The Edmonton Oilers have a deadline of six weeks from now to reach a deal on a new arena to replace aging Rexall Centre. Like Virginia Beach, Edmonton’s arena plan has a nine-figure funding gap.
• The Yankees are going with Ticketmaster instead of MLB subsidiary StubHub as its official ticket scalper reseller. They’re also instituting a price floor on resold tickets, because otherwise their normal first-sale gouging looks worse by comparison. [Deadspin/Tom Ley]

More as it comes.

On to the news.

• MLB’s big three national television contracts were approved this week during the owners meetings. Apparently this was so anticlimactic that only a single tweet about the news emerged, from Eric Fisher of Sports Business Journal.
• As mentioned yesterday, all ballots in Alameda County have been counted. With that, Measure B1 appears to have been narrowly defeated by less than 700 votes. Perhaps the backers had a false sense of security due to the lack of fervent opposition. Back to the drawing board, I guess. [Contra Costa Times/Denis Cuff]
• Fox is fixin’ to buy a big piece of the YES Network. Not the Yankees’ piece, the part owned by Goldman Sachs and Providence Equity. The network is worth as much as $3 billion, making the two-thirds share up for grabs worth $2 billion. [NY Times/Amy Chosick, Michael Cieply]
• The Rangers have announced that they will play two exhibition games at San Antonio’s Alamodome in March. The stadium’s only full-time tenants are the UTSA college football team and the AFL’s San Antonio Talons. The seating bowl layout (see pic below) makes it even less baseball friendly than previous square/rectilinear multipurpose domes like the Metrodome and Kingdome because it has a very limited number of corner seats. It’s also a bit narrower along the football sidelines than the Metrodome and not all of the rows retract, making the right field line dimension perhaps as small as 280 feet. Backers of MLB to San Antonio see this as a good sign, but the arrangement is a double-edged sword. Just as the Cowboys staged training camp in the same Alamodome multiple times, the Ryans are doing this to reaffirm the brand throughout the state, not to promote MLB there. After all, the Rangers have some solid TV money to protect.  [San Antonio Express News/Josh Baugh]

Picture of one side of the Alamodome stands retracted for a 2010 Dallas Cowboys training camp session. Picture from Sports Nickel.

• The ballpark for the Midland Rockhounds (A’s AA affiliate) will soon be losing its naming rights partner. Citibank has been the sponsor since shortly after the ballpark opened. The ballpark sits as part of the nicely designed and manicured Scharbauer Sports Complex, alongside one of the best high school football stadia I’ve ever seen. It is the land of Friday Night Lights. [Midland Reporter-Telegram/Sara Higgins | Bud Swanson]
• The Mariners are going a different route to make a splash in the offseason, unveiling plans for what will be the largest video/scoreboard in MLB. The display will measure 57 feet tall by 201.5 feet wide, with a resolution of 3840 x 1080. Effectively that’s two Full HD screens side-by-side. At 11,425 square feet, the display will be 70% larger than the display the Astros had installed at Minute Maid Park last year, and 30% larger than baseball’s largest current screen at Kauffman Stadium. Panasonic will be the manufacturer, displacing Daktronics. The display is part of a $15 million capital improvements fund, negotiated by Seattle/King County and the Mariners prior to the opening of Safeco Field. [MLB.com/Greg Johns]
• Chris Hansen released renderings for his dream arena in the SoDo neighborhood of Seattle. The concept, penned by 360 Architecture, is reminiscent of 360′s Sprint Center project in Kansas City. It’s meant to house both basketball and hockey teams. Unlike Sprint Center, Hansen’s arena won’t be built without commitments from existing NBA and/or NHL franchises. Ironically, the opposite is what occurred in Kansas City, as the city chose to plow forward with an arena with no permanent tenants. That would put KC and Seattle in direct competition for any future franchise moves. [KING 5/Chris Daniels, Travis Pittman | 360 Architecture]
• Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton (DFL) played to populist roots earlier this week by decrying the Vikings’ plans to sell PSLs at their $1 billion stadium. Most everyone throughout the Twin Cities expressed confusion at this sentiment, since it was pretty clear from the beginning that PSLs were a crucial piece of the financing plan. [MN Gov. Dayton | Minneapolis Star-Tribune Editorial Board]
• Perhaps just in time for the start of the Mike D’Antoni era in LA, DirecTV and Time Warner Sportsnet agreed to a carriage deal of the fledgling regional sports network. (Laker fans weren’t missing much the last two weeks anyway.) Terms were undisclosed, but TWCSN has been seeking $3.95 per subscriber per month, making the channel among the most expensive RSNs in the nation. [LA Times/Joe Flint]
• The City of Reno swore in a new City Council this week, and with that came swift action. They nixed the narrowly approved debt restructuring/refinancing plan completed just before the election. That puts both the team and the city in a bind. The team is threatening to leave without a tax subsidy. The Council clearly wants nothing to do with the debt liability. This snag gives the two sides about a year to figure out some sort of solution before Aces ownership figures out a move. If the Aces leave, Reno would be stuck with the debt anyway. Already the city has stopped making debt payments, pushing its credit rating into junk status. [Reno Gazette Journal/Brian Duggan]
• Did you know about the Sacramento Sports Commission? If you didn’t , then it matters little as it’s about to be dissolved. The commission’s job was to attract different types of sporting events and maintain relationships with governing bodies like the NCAA, so that Sacramento venues could remain in constant rotation for major events such as NCAA championships. The task will probably end up with Sacramento’s Convention and Visitor’s Bureau. One of the reasons for the dissolution is that SSC failed to repay a $400,000 loan taken out for the 2011 World Masters Athletics Championships. [Sacramento Bee/Ryan Lillis]

That’s it for now. Feature on media coming over the weekend.

It’s 14,500 because they have to cut into the seating bowl the same way US Airways/America West Arena was set up for hockey. This is not going to be acceptable long-term for either the NHL or the Islanders, no matter how much asbestos they find in Nassau.

Turns out that Barclays Center is perfectly acceptable to both the NHL and Islanders owner Charles Wang, because he signed a 25-year, “ironclad” lease at the new arena starting with the 2015-16 season. Wang, who grew up in Queens and went to high school at Brooklyn Tech, has owned the Isles since 2000. He lives on Long Island’s Gold Coast.

The Islanders play at the four decades-old Nassau Coliseum and have lobbied for a replacement facility for years. Seven months ago, complaints by arena employees led to an investigation that found asbestos in the building. While airborne asbestos was not detected in public areas, a cleanup effort started during the summer to ensure that employees wouldn’t face additional exposure. OSHA then wrote up 16 citations against the arena related to the asbestos problem.

Wang and Nets co-owner/developer Bruce Ratner had talked for years about a joint arena effort, but that appeared to go dormant when Wang campaigned for his own arena and master planned development on the site of the Coliseum. That project, which would’ve required $400 million in public funding, lost by a landslide in 2011. During today’s press conference at Barclays Center, Wang indicated that talks with Ratner started up again about seven months ago, making it appear as if the asbestos problem triggered Wang’s decision to give up entirely on Nassau County.

Already stuck in a smallish arena (16,250 for hockey) with incredibly poor attendance (11-13,000 per game on average over the past few years), Wang probably figured that even with Barclays’ hockey-compromised seating bowl and low seat yield (14,500 for NHL games), it’s better than staying at Nassau. Ratner and Wang will continue to figure out ways to add another 500-1,000 seats, according to NHL commissioner Gary Bettman. If no new seats can be added, Barclays would have the lowest capacity of any active NHL venue, with 500 fewer seats than Winnipeg’s MTS Centre.

To illustrate how bad this is for hockey, take a look at the following seating chart from Barclays Center/Ticketmaster. Like Oracle Arena, the Barclays Center seating bowl is tight around the basketball court. Only one end has retractable seats, with the other three sides having poured concrete down to near the floor. Seats at the compromised end would be high above the ice, making the only good seats the first row. If you’re wondering, hockey at Oracle Arena would look much like this. If the Warriors build a basketball-first arena as has been the recent trend in the NBA, they’d have the same problem staging hockey games.

This chart indicates that most available seats will be used.

Now looking at this seating chart, released by the arena and the Islanders for an exhibition game that was supposed to be played there a few weeks ago. Looking at this in hindsight, it’s possible that the event was scheduled to help Wang and Islanders figure out how best to stage hockey games there. With the lockout wiping out all exhibition games and at least the first month of the 2012-13 NHL season, the parties may have felt that it was simply best to move forward with the announcement, knowing that the lockout could continue for some time to come.

Seats made available for sale for Islanders exhibition game.

Bettman played down the drop in capacity, noting Winnipeg’s success and the 1,000+ seat disparity between the new and old venues as being “little material difference”. Wang affirmed that the team would continue to be called the “New York Islanders” instead of the “Brooklyn Islanders”. Though, as Deadspin’s Barry Petchesky pointed out, the current Isles’ logo doesn’t have either Queens or Brooklyn on it.

Barclays Center sits on top of Atlantic Yards, a long-used yard for the Long Island Rail Road. It’s across the street from Atlantic Terminal, Brooklyn’s rail/subway hub. By virtue of that transit accessibility, Barclays will be more accessible to fans by transit than Nassau Coliseum, though many who are used to driving (most of the fanbase) may be inconvenienced.

On Friday, September 14 the Oracle Arena is holding a dual event beginning at 8:00 p.m. The A’s recommend traveling to the Coliseum by BART. If arriving by vehicle, the A’s recommend early arrival. Parking availability is expected to be limited by game time. Parking gates open at 4:00 p.m. and stadium gates open at 5:35 p.m. Parking is $17 until 7:00 p.m. After 7:00 p.m. parking will cost $35.

The A’s are expecting at least 30,000 for tonight’s game. A really good walkup crowd could make it a sell out. Get there early, folks. Or take BART and avoid the hassle.

And now the news.

• The Santa Cruz City Council approved the now-$5.4 million arena plan on Pacific Avenue near Laurel, thanks in part to the City applying concessions revenue to the $4.1 million loan. If the Surf-Dubs leave before their seven-year term is up, the team will be considered in default of the loan. The City may try to bring UCSC sports teams downtown to play at the arena, though historically the athletics program at Division III UCSC hasn’t been much for bringing out crowds. [Santa Cruz Sentinel/J.M. Brown]  Note: The “South Hall” tent at the San Jose Convention Center is seven years old this year and is scheduled to be demolished soon as it has reached end-of-life.

View of Santa Cruz tent arena site from east bank of San Lorenzo River.

• Seattle approved its arena deal with SF hedge fund guy Chris Hansen, holding out until Hansen guaranteed loan repayment, set aside $40 million for infrastructure improvements around the SODO arena site, and threw in $7 million for improvements for what would likely be the tentative venue, KeyArena. No word so far on a NHL team to partner up with the NBA franchise. KFBK-Sacramento’s Rob McAllister thinks that Hansen could buy the Kings from Maloof family for $450 million. The NBA’s relocation fee to Seattle is expected to be around $30 million, far less than the fee for the Kings moving to Anaheim, where the SoCal market already has the Lakers and Clippers. [Seattle Times/Jerry Brewer]
• Speaking of hockey, we’re less than 36 hours from the beginning of the NHL lockout. Players currently get up to 57% of revenue, owners want 47%, players have countered with 54%. Arena operators have already been told that if the lockout happens, the first month (October) of game dates can be cleared for other events. As for businesses around HP Pavilion, it’s not looking good. [AP/Ronald Blum; SJ Mercury News/Mark Purdy]
• The 49ers announced that they’ve sold $670 million worth of club suites and suites at the new stadium. 72% of the suites, which cost $100-500k per year to lease in long contracts, have been accounted for. That’s important because I estimate nearly half of the pledges are coming from suites. Three years ago I wrote about the tough task the Niners would be faced with in financing the stadium. They’ve been up to the task, mostly because the premium accommodations are priced as much as double the price of other new stadia. For the Niners that’s a distinct first mover advantage in a largely untapped market, Silicon Valley. It would make sense for the Niners to wait to extend an offer to the Raiders to share the stadium until after certain sales targets are met. The Raiders could benefit from a less onerous lease package, but they’d also be somewhat shut out of Silicon Valley. [Merc/Mike Rosenberg]
• Save Oakland Sports’ fundraiser was held at Ricky’s in San Leandro last night. Proceeds will go towards either the construction of venue(s) or “community projects associated with” the venue(s). [KRON/Brian Shields]
• Long term lease talks between the Buffalo Bills and New York State/Erie County broke down, resulting in a one-year lease at Ralph Wilson Stadium. The Bills aren’t seeking a brand new stadium, but they are trying to get around $200 million in improvements to the 39-year-old stadium. The team will miss a deadline to apply for the NFL’s G-4 stadium loan program, forcing the negotiations to move in the short-term direction. NY Senator Chuck Schumer wants the NFL to modify G-4 so that teams won’t have to complete loan payments when a team is sold, a touchy situation considering Bills owner how Ralph Wilson’s advanced age and sensitive health may affect the team’s ownership situation in the near future. [AP/Michael Virtanen; Buffalo News/Tim Graham; The Score/Devang Desai]
• The independent St. Paul Saints, last at the trough, received $25 million in economic development grants for a new ballpark to replace Midway Stadium. Renderings of the ballpark are unlike other ballparks.

Rendering of St. Paul Saints ballpark in Lowertown neighborhood

Enjoy the game tonight and the fireworks. That other miracle team of destiny is in town. I’d dress in my Boba Fett costume, but that would look pretty stupid as I asked Bob Melvin questions during today’s blogger event.

Not much to celebrate on the field, so we’ll focus off it.

• Sure, the A’s didn’t draw well Tuesday and Wednesday. Neither did the White Sox, Nationals and Braves. Yet league attendance is up 3% over last year. Nothing changes overnight.
• Brodie Brazil wrote a goofy column about stuff that should carry over from the Coliseum to a new A’s ballpark. [CSN Bay Area]
• Good to see that the regular media (Merc, NBC BA, KQED) picked up on the recent S4SJ lawsuit activity. I’ve heard that S4SJ is expected to respond with its own motion by Monday 9/10, followed by another response by the City by 9/14. If nothing else it keeps the case in the news.
• Forbes NFL team valuations are in right on schedule. #1 is the Cowboys at a whopping $2.1 billion, followed by the Patriots and Redskins. The 49ers are at #9 with a $1.175 billion, thanks to the team’s playoff run and the start of stadium construction. The Raiders came in at #30 with a $785 million valuation, and were one of two teams to have an operating loss (according to Forbes). [Mike Ozanian]
• We’re 9 days from the NHL’s lockout deadline, and there’s no telling what will happen. The two sides are reportedly very far apart. [SB Nation DC/Ted Starkey]
• With ESPN’s TV deal signed, MLB may be looking for $800 million per year for the combined Fox/Turner schedules. Combined with ESPN, MLB would net $1.5 billion per year, translating to $50 million per team. Add other central revenue to that (merchandise, MLB AM, XM, etc.) teams should be able to get $70 million in national revenue every season starting in 2014. That figure doesn’t include revenue sharing (local redistribution). [Sports Business Journal/John Ourand]
• So I guessed wrong on 95.7 The Game getting the Warriors and switching to NBC Sports Radio. The station stayed with Houston-based Yahoo! Sports Radio, and the W’s chose to renew their deal with KNBR, apparently feeling that the signal coverage was worth the third-tier status on the stations. That’s a bad loss for Entercom, though it highlights the biggest problems with The Game: its ratings aren’t going to get much better until they get more local pro teams and boost the station’s signal. The new deal runs through the 2015-16 season.
• The good news for The Game is that the station posted a 1.1 rating for August, the highest since the programming change. The A’s haven’t moved the needle at The Game for well over a year. Perhaps this is a sign that now they are effecting change. [BA Sports Guy/Scott Willis]
• Legislators are attempting to bring back redevelopment through various bills that have just reached Governor Brown’s desk. I won’t give the bills much attention unless Brown signs them into law. In the meantime, some groups are applying for federal tax credits to help foot the bills for projects. [ABC 7/Kendall Taggart; 10 News San Diego]
• Save Oakland Sports has a profile in the Tribune. When talking about the upcoming fundraiser, co-founder Jim Zelinski said, “A cynic might laugh … but it all adds up.” Sure it does. Fundraisers like this, which has no set fundraising goal, can help – about 1 PSL’s worth at a time. [Oakland Tribune/Matthew Artz]
• The federal government will lose up $4 billion in tax revenue ($146 million annually) thanks to tax-exempt bonds used on many stadia, including the Coliseum and the new 49ers stadium. [Bloomberg Businessweek/Aaron Kuriloff and Darrell Preston]

More as it comes.