The $500M pricetag does include the arena and concert promotions company. Plus, Hamilton has been roundly criticized for being a rather small market.

I’d say a $400M relocation fee (whether that includes the actual purchase price and indemnity fees) seems high to me, especially considering Copps Coliseum was not going to be included. Minnesota is a far bigger market, and Southwestern Ontario is the only Canadian region comparably suffering through the current recession, so I would value a Hamilton franchise well below the team about to celebrate 100 years of glorious history.

You are correct that the Wild do not own their own arena. I would point out, however, that the price of the Molson Centre itself in 2001 was reportedly worth less than 1/6th of the total purchase price.

I don’t know where you get the idea that the Wild purchase was this huge high water mark for franchise value

I’m sorry if I gave that impression. My assertion was simply that it was the high water mark, and in fact, by drawing the parallel to Maris and Ruth, I thought I had implied that this new high water mark made the previous record only a slightly higher mark. As you point out, the $260M in 2008 was only a little higher than the $232M seven years earlier.

I’m not sure what you are tying to say. I was simply reporting the facts.

Even Gillett was in a partnership with Coors-Molson, which is a different entity than the Molson brothers who he sold his 81% stake to.

Nothing has changed now, other than the fact that the Jonas Brothers, as an act, is comprised more persons than, say, Miley Cyrus Incorporated. It’s not as if Geoff owns 27% and Andy owns another 27% and Justin owns 27%. I assume that they will soon hire Serge Savard as President and that he will weild the same power as Boivin enjoys under Gillett. I don’t foresee Justin wanting to acquire Lecavalier, but getting out-voted by the other minority partners. Hockey operations will remain the domain of Gainey, with Boivin or Savard retaining full control of the business side.

As a side note, maybe now girls will each pick their fav (“I like Andrew, cuz he has straight hair”), but I hope their holding company would operate as a single entity, the way Gillett and his son teamed with Rick Parry, as Tom Hicks’ single partner in Liverpool.

Yeah, I already mentioned that a couple of times, though the value of the promotion company can’t be much if the value of the arena itself represents less than 1/6th of the total pricetag.