Lightning to reduce payroll if push fails

Barring a playoff run, Ron Campbell says the team will spend about $2-million less.

By DAMIAN CRISTODERO
Published January 31, 2007

PHILADELPHIA - The salary cap is set to go down next season - for the Lightning, anyway.

Team president Ron Campbell said Tuesday a tentative budget approved by owner Bill Davidson and CEO Tom Wilson shows $40-million allocated for player salaries.

That is $4-million less than this season's cap. It also is $2-million less than this season's payroll of about $42-million, though that gap could increase if Tampa Bay makes a significant trade to augment its playoff push.

How much next season's payroll will be below the cap won't be known until the league calculates this season's revenues and sets a new bar.

"We have to find a balance," Campbell said by phone from his office at the St. Pete Times Forum. "This will allow us to keep our stars and allow us to keep growing our business."

Campbell said there is no plan this season to cut payroll.

"There is no question," he said, "we are looking at moves right now to improve our team for the playoffs."

Campbell also said the $40-million figure is not in stone: "There may be a nudge up or a nudge down."

He said it could be significantly higher if the Lightning makes a deep playoff run. If not, working around the combined $20-million salaries of Vinny Lecavalier, Brad Richards and Marty St. Louis, assuming they are with the team, will be tougher than ever.

The run to the 20004 Stanley Cup gave Palace Sports & Entertainment, the Lightning's parent company, a $3.8-million profit on its Tampa operation, Campbell said. He said it is PS&E's only profit in the city since it bought the team and the Times Forum lease in 1999.

Campbell said the company lost $54-million entering the Cup season. Subtract the '04 profit and add subsequent losses, he said, of $8.8-million in the lockout season and $8-million last season, and PS&E claims losses of about $67-million in Tampa.

Campbell estimates the company will lose $9-million in Tampa this season without a Lightning playoff run.

The company recently hired Galatioto Sports Partners, a financial advisory firm in New York, to, as team spokesman Bill Wickett said, "fix the problem."

The firm also likely will help valuate PS&E's Tampa operation for estate-planning purposes.

Campbell said the team is not for sale.

"At the end of the day, you have to run the business responsibly," he said. "We have to make choices."

He said those choices include a lower minor-league budget.

Campbell pointed out the Lightning won in 2004, the last season without a cap, with a $33-million payroll while also-rans such as the Rangers and Red Wings spent almost $80-million.

Even under the new system, Campbell said, "Not every team can afford a cap payroll. ... We competed with a $33-million payroll and won. Today, $33-million could compete a lot easier with $44-million.

"But because of our success and the value our players have garnered, we've been forced to pay the piper, and in paying the piper, we have to make some tough choices."

[Last modified January 31, 2007, 01:00:52]