Hockey Fans Deserve the Blame

According to this morning's City Paper:

[C]ouncilwoman Megan Barry ... asked what the effect would be if Metro Council voted to not approve the lease amendment resolution.

[Metro lawyer] Thrailkill said the new owners would then be able to terminate the lease, because the last two seasons the Predators’ have not reached the 14,000 average paid attendance number called for by the current agreement. The owners would have to pay a termination fee between $15 million and $18 million, he said.

Why should Metro have to pay for the failure of the Predators to turn out their required average attendance? At what point do the fans (who are probably largely from other counties) have to accept some responsibility for their failures?

This looks like a corporate bailout to me. I don't buy the prestige angle for keeping the Preds here, either. It would be one thing to bail them out if they had a long and storied history in Nashville which included a strong record of consistently meeting the attendance goals. But this club does not seem to have the fan base to compete with other hockey towns. Nashvillians shouldn't be paying for their failures.