Pens Finances

Excellent follow up to my post about the Pens and NHL's finances was done by Daniel Tolensky at HockeyBuzz.com. His main point is that overall the league has improved financially since the lockout but that it is still not in great financial shape and could be doing much better.

Of note is that the reason the Pens have become profitable since the lockout is that while they have increased their revenues (which will go up even more with the new arena), they are at the bottom in expenses, near bottom in both player expenses and non-player expenses. So while we know they have kept their payroll low, it is also clear that they are keeping other operating expenses low as well. Where this factors in is unclear. It could be many things and some of them could impact the performance of the team, similar to how not spending on scouting and development has hurt the Pirates over the last 15 years. If that is the case, let's hope the new arena allows them to spend more on those critical areas as well.