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Last week it was reported that Disney has sold the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim to Broadcom Chairman Henry Samueli for $75 million.
LAist is stunned that anyone wants to buy an NHL team now that the players are locked out and some observers are sounding the doomsday bell for the league. So while Disney sure didn't get the value of what the team was worth in say, 1997, it's surprising they even got as much as $75 million.
If/when the NHL does come back, LAist doesn't know exactly what to make of the Ducks. This was Disney's flagship sports franchise, with a Disney name in a Disney arena. Anyone besides Disney owning the Mighty Ducks seems sacrilege.
Which is why LAist suggests that the NHL contracts the Ducks, rather than approving the sale. The era of Paul Kariya and Teemu Selanne is long gone. And people have even forgotten about the heroics of Jean-Sebastian Giguere. The Kings are more than capable of handling all the fan interest in Southern California ice hockey by themselves, even if the Pond is one of the nicest arenas in sports.
The Ducks were a fun novelty in the mid-1990s, but the shine has worn off and the quack has been quieted. Michael Eisner lost interest in promoting the team after NHL traditionalists balked at his ideas. And as soon as he stopped caring, it really showed.
It's hard to imagine what Henry Samueli can do to change the team. So we recommend killing the Ducks. The NHL needs to contract anyways.
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I don't know... a name change is probably in order, but remember that LA is full of ex-Chicagoans, ex-Canadians, ex-Long Islanders, etc. etc. Plus the Pond did pretty well sales-wise. I think contraction would be better in a city which doesn't have a huge expatriot population, such as Carolina.