The $21 Million Avalanche Decision That Changed Everything
Imagine the Avalanche's 2001 Stanley Cup without Joe Sakic. No Hart Trophy from their captain. No Sakic leading Colorado through the playoffs. And perhaps most famously, no moment when Sakic took the Stanley Cup from commissioner Gary Bettman and immediately handed it to Ray Bourque. It almost happened.
In August 1997, the Rangers signed the restricted free-agent Sakic to a three-year, $21 million offer sheet. The Avalanche had a choice: match it or watch their captain leave for The Big Apple. Back in 1997, $7 million annually was an exorbitant amount of money for a player in the National Hockey League. In today's current environment, there are second and third-line centers making almost as much as what the Rangers offered Sakic 29 years ago.
To create a stickier web for the Avalanche to navigate, the Rangers also structured the deal that included $15 million up front as a signing bonus accoring to Stan Fischler of NHL.com. The Avalanche looked absolutely dead in the water because as detailed by Peter Sblendorio of the New York Daily News, the Avalanche, the Denver Nuggets and the small film studio Beacon Pictures were each owned by cash-strapped Ascent Entertainment.
Only a year removed from winning the 1996 Stanley Cup, the Avalanche had lost $8 million during the 1996-97 season, in large part because of their home venue, the antiquated McNichols Sports Arena.
The Avalanche had one week to match the offer and if they didn't, they would receive five first-round picks from the Rangers as compensation since Sakic was a Group II free agent.
No one could have predicted at the time that a Harrison Ford movie would be the Avalanche's ace in the hole.
As Peter Sblendorio reported, Ford's Air Force One came out in late July and immediately became a smash hit, grossing $37.1 million domestically in its opening weekend. Air Force One went on to make $315.1 million worldwide against an $85 million budget, making it Ascent’s first-ever blockbuster.
While those dollars didn’t directly fund Sakic’s contract, they did legitimize Ascent on the entertainment circuit and instill confidence about the state of the company. Suddenly, an ownership group whose financial vulnerability the Rangers hoped to exploit had considerably more flexibility to fight back.
The day before the deadline, Colorado Mayor Wellington Webb made a Patrick Roy-esque type save for the city and the Avalanche. According to Peter Sblendorio, Webb finally came to terms with Ascent on a $165 million deal for a new Avalanche and Nuggets arena on August 13, 1997, the day before Colorado’s deadline to match Sakic’s offer sheet.
Charlie Lyons, then the president of the Avalanche and CEO of Ascent Entertainment, turned to Liberty Media for a modest investment in the new arena, which opened in 1999 as the Pepsi Center, and the Avalanche and Nuggets, and hammered out a contract extension with the Avalanche’s TV broadcaster, Fox Sports Rocky Mountain, to help come up with the money for Sakic.
The Avalanche matched the offer on August 14, 1997. The Rangers constructed their offer hoping to make it too expensive for the Avalanche to keep their captain. Instead, a Hollywood blockbuster provided an unlikely assist, the Avalanche found a way to match the offer, and Sakic never wore another NHL sweater other than that of the Avalanche.
Four years later, he was handing the Stanley Cup off to Bourque.
Air Force One may have starred Harrison Ford, but for Avalanche fans, its most important supporting role might have been helping keep Joe Sakic in Colorado.
Jason Fink is an NHL writer and lifelong hockey fan who fell in love with the game when he watched Wayne Gretzky’s Edmonton Oilers defeat the Philadelphia Flyers in the 1987 Stanley Cup Final. When he’s not writing, Jason enjoys spending time with his wife Michelle and their son Theo and daughter Stella. Whether he’s following the latest NHL news or cheering from the rink, his passion for the sport has been a constant throughout his life.