A Few Economic Notes on the Thrashers Apocalypse

- Back when it still existed, before it vanished into cyber-oblivion, I believe yesterday's post said something about how we're living through an era of desperate consolidation. The economy is in a strange/sad state where even popular companies are merging into other companies, or being sold off to some other company, or disappearing entirely if they have the misfortune to be a small operation. This is the scenario in just about every industry, from teevee to sports to energy to the Internet. Think NBC-Comcast, AOL-Huffington Post, etc.

Given this environment, the NHL might find a Thrashers relocation to be reasonably tempting. At the very least, it makes more (grim) economic sense than, say, expansion.

- A few people have raised the question of how the Atlanta Spirit are going to fill their pockets on those nights when the Thrashers used to play. Your TBC editor reckons they'll try to wrangle more concerts, which wouldn't be that hard, as the touring revenue (and its accompanying merchandising revenue) is now the main way artists and record labels make their money.

- A curious news item: the merchant bank that the Spirit have been using to find a buyer for the Thrashers, the Raine Group LLC, is currently helping News Corp in its bid to take over Formula One racing. What does this mean? Clearly, that the Thrashers aren't moving to Winnipeg. They're actually going to become a Formula One team.