With this season possibly being the nail in the coffin for a lot of fans in Flyerdom, fingers are being pointed by everyone but this time the majority of them are being directed at ownership and upper management. The consensus is that with all the changes behind the bench and the on-ice personnel turnover over the last decade, especially the last 5 years, everything has stagnated and we don’t know why. After Ed Snider’s passing, Comcast took over completely and things have changed for the worse. From having an owner that was a real hockey fan to a cable conglomerate running the ship, the real hockey feel around Philadelphia is slowly dissipating.
Going back to 2016, when Comcast bought out Ed Snider’s remaining shares in Comcast Spectacor to become the sole owner of the NHL franchise, the press conference was done to satiate the fan base and keep them in check. What we didn’t know was that 5 years later, with the ship sinking quicker than the Titanic, there were a lot of juicy tidbits that foretold the future.
Ed Snider’s remaining shares belonged to Comcast Spectator, which is the subsidiary of Comcast that owns the Philadelphia Flyers, the Wells Fargo Center, several Flyers practice facilities, and several other businesses all over the United States, including Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey. Comcast buying out the remaining shares symbolized their 100% ownership of everything Comcast Spectacor, and therefore everything Philadelphia Flyers.
Their press conference in 2016 was meant to signal that everything regarding the Flyers was still in tip-top form, business would be running as usual, and that there would no changes with how things were being run on and off the ice. To let us know everything was going to be okay they mentioned that:
“Dave Scott was hand-picked three years ago by Ed to lead Comcast Spectacor and has done a terrific job as its President and CEO. He will continue in that capacity, overseeing all of the company’s various businesses. Paul Holmgren and Ron Hextall have also been great leaders of the Flyers and will remain President and General Manager respectively as the team enters its 50th season. John Page has done a terrific job as President of the Wells Fargo Center, one of the premier venues in the country that’s celebrating its 20th year, and will continue in that role.”
With Comcast taking over an exuberant, passionate, and real-hockey-fan type owner like Ed Snider there were several concerns in regards to how the team would be run but most importantly, as is the case with all business, budget was of the utmost importance and it was seemingly wrapped up in a pretty bow:
“I think it’ll be handled the same way,” Paul Holmgren said in 2016 when speaking about ownership. “We have a budget that we agreed on with Mr. Snider or Brian Roberts, whoever. I mean, obviously we dealt with Mr. Snider in the past but I’m sure Brian was aware of what was going on. Dave Scott, who’s been part of the organization for the past two years, he’s been involved a lot this year in what we’re doing. So where we talk about budgets, we have our budget that we move forward with and [Hextall] knows the parameters. If there’s something that maybe doesn’t fit in what we have budgeted for, then we’ll probably have another meeting.”
“If the money’s in the budget, then we’re fine. If it’s not in the budget, then we talk about what we’re gonna do with Dave and with Brian.“
In other words, the Flyers were extremely comfortable with how things were being handled with and without Ed Snider in large part because they felt that Brian Roberts and Dave Scott understood the nuances of the NHL, its game, the team, the fans, and what was needed to win a Stanley Cup. On the other side, everyone was okay with everything that Paul Holmgren and general manger Ron Hextall were doing. This was just a formality for business and the fans.
Fast forward 5 years later and the wheels have completely fallen off. The NHL team has no identity, no culture, nothing that makes them stand out, and all things considered that’s pretty sad for a franchise as revered and reputable as the Philadelphia Flyers. They have been playing a game of cat and mouse with the playoffs, flip-flopping every year between making and missing and are now on the verge of missing the playoffs in back to back years for the first time since the early 1990s.
The Flyers lost their marbles with Paul Holmgren as general manager, so they tried to shove everything under the rug and brought in Ron Hextall to clean up his predecessor’s mess and take a whack at a rebuild; one that never truly came to fruition. Hextall clashed with CEO Dave Scott and it was a big reason as to why he was given the axe. It was known that Hextall didn’t respect the hockey mind of Scott and was very forthright about it.
Scott and his right-hand man Holmgren then took it upon themselves to find a new GM, one they thought would bring the Flyers back to relevance. They chose gun-slinger Chuck Fletcher after his many years in Minnesota, and so far he has valiantly tried to re-tool the roster and coaching staff twice in three years but to no avail. Now the 2021-22 Flyers are looking worse for wear, maybe even worse than the 2006-07 rendition that finished dead last in the NHL.
Botching the Hall of Fame ceremonies for Rick Tocchet and Paul Holmgren left a really bad taste in many people’s mouths, none more than some of the Flyers alumni. The ceremony was staged an hour before the game, when most fans weren’t in their seats. There was barely any advertising or promotion of the ceremony beforehand, a few tweets throughout the off-season and season, no TV access or internet access of any kind for the fans at home, and when they both stood up and recited their speeches, it was in front of a largely empty arena with maybe a few thousands in the stands. It’s not necessarily the way you want to commemorate your Hall of Fame inductees.
On top of that, the Flyers Alumni game for their Hall of Fame inductees didn’t pan out so well either. Once again there was a lack of promotion and advertisement, and no internet access or on-air TV time for the game. The Alumni games, especially in Philadelphia where they cherish the former players more than anyone, were always exciting because the fans showed up in numbers but with the lack of promotion, it turned out to be a dud largely due to incompetence.
There was a messy brouhaha on Ed Snider’s birthday shortly after because the Flyers never made mention of it, not even through a tweet from their twitter account. Facing a lot of backlash after a family member had brought it to light, the Flyers came back saying that they haven’t made mention of any of his previous birthdays since his passing, so this year was just following status-quo. It’s not a great look for the team against the late founder of the organization.
Comcast has done a great job at renovating the Wells Fargo Center recently, finding other ways to bring in fans outside of the “entertainment” on the ice. It was a $300 million, multi-year renovation and it covered all aspects from entertainment to seating to concession stands. According to Forbes, the Flyers’ value has increased in recent years and they are now the 6th most valuable franchise, worth $1.2 billion and have joined the elite billion-dollar-club that was once populated only by the New York Rangers, Toronto Maple Leafs, and Montreal Canadiens. It also represented a one-year value change of 50%.
The upper management is in shambles as it now has a country club vibe, where every member is there for an indefinite period of time and everyone is super tight with each other. The same faces and voices have been in charge for years, whether in the background or in the limelight and has become a very alarming issue as to why they’re regressing and can’t move forward.
In terms of business, Comcast has done a wonderful job in making the Flyers more profitable but on their way to the top they lost touch with the hockey team they own, and everyone from players, coaches, and fans are feeling the effects of neglect as the Flyers continue their descent in the standings and in our hearts.
