I was wondering if anybody had any idea on the specifics on how Ballsillie can move the Preds. I keep hearing about a broken lease or whatever, I am wondering how this will be accomplished!? 
In it’s most basic form:
The arena lease between the Nashvile Predators and the City of Nashvile contains clause that would allow the team to opt out of the lease if average attendance for the season drops below a certain threshold.
However, there are a bunch of conditions that go along with this clause that include, timelines and deadline for filing the nescesary paperwork, as well as the ability for the City of Nashvile to pay to top up the attendace figures.
It won’t be too hard to get out of his lease, all he has to do is increase the ticket prices. The Preds apparently are the lowest in the league and still can’t get above 14000 a game, so considering he just paid or is about to pay 240 mil for the team, just double the ticket prices. Attendance plummets, lease is broken.
Bigger problem will be the Leafs and Sabres who won’t like Hamilton in the club, though I suspect that the fact the gov’t competition folks have taken an interest may be a warning shot to the almight Maple leaf mob…
Or he can build his rink one mile out of the exclusion zone in Kitchener and thumb his nose at everyone, providing the NHL let him have the team…
Though if the Nashville guy is denied his 240 mil, then God help Gary Bettman and his lawyers…
The Pred’s paid attendance currently sits at 14,000. Their actual in the seats attendance is much lower, (below the 12,000 mark). The difference lies in the fact that City buys seats to top up the attendance to the 14,000 mark, which is the number in the lease. If the City wants to spend the money, they could continue to top up the attendance figures, regardless of where ticket prices end up.
As for where the team moves (if and when it does move), the 70 mile exclussion zone is not the only hurdle to jump. The 70 mile exclussion zone allows existing teams automatic vetto power. The move would also have to approved by the Board of Govenors, which means that if enough teams don’t want a team in Hamilton, or Kitchener, there won’t be a team there.