snowy_owl's proposal to make the NHL more viable

By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics and access other forums reserved for members. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today by clicking here.

Posted: Thu Oct 14, 2010 3:16 am

Total NHL teams in the states of Georgia, Florida, Texas, Arizona, and California: Eight

Total NHL teams in Canada: Six

The San Jose Sharks actually have a lot of fan support, despite playing in a nontraditional hockey market. They are the only professional (MLB/NFL/NHL/NBA) team in San Jose, and they have had a winning record in 9 of their last 10 seasons, which are certainly contributing factors.

The Los Angeles Kings play in the second largest metropolitan area in the United States, with approx. 12,894,797 people living in the Los Angeles/Long Beach/Santa Ana metropolitan statistical area as of 2009. Considering that they are the only hockey team in Los Angeles, there are bound to be enough hockey fans to sell an adequate amount of tickets. The fact that the tri-state region has three teams (Rangers, Islanders, Devils), with the Rangers being one of the original six, hurts the Devils and Islanders in the way of fan support.

Baiting Guru Joined: 31 Jan 2007 Posts: 12237

dwatina wrote:

Hockey sucks.

(I may be showing my age, but fuck Norm Green for moving the North Stars to Texas). I watched it live as they blew up the Met Center to make way for a parking lot.

And any real hockey fan will know who this is.

Edit: I remember the day Herb Brooks died, it was only about 25 miles from where live, sad day. Wear your damn seatbelt.

Posted: Thu Oct 14, 2010 5:42 am

A couple other things people may be failing to take into consideration...

This whole shakeup would generate a ton of excitement for the league. It'd be like a fresh start for everybody. While the excitement would wane over time, most (or all) of these cities support their teams through thick and thin.

Although many of the Canadian cities are very small markets, hockey is what Canadians are all about. Saskatchewan has a CFL team. Halifax doesn't have anything. Canadians love hockey, and they would adamantly support their team. The reason why the Nordiques and Jets went to Denver and Phoenix, respectively, had a lot to do with the strength of the American dollar versus the Canadian dollar at that time, as well as lack of funding for new arenas. The Nordiques' other problem (which would still exist if a team were to locate to Quebec City) is that they are a mainly monolingual francophone city. There are no privately owned English radio stations, and only one privately owned English television station. Nearly all PA announcements were in French. This severely hampered their ability to market the team to English speakers. They did, however, have plenty of fan support (and I'm sure that not too many fans started cheering for the rival Canadiens after the Nordiques left town). As long as the Canadian dollar stays close to the American dollar, there's no reason why Canadian teams cannot be extremely viable.

Posted: Thu Oct 14, 2010 5:45 am

Pastor Frank wrote:

any real hockey fan will know who this is.

Mike Eruzione....I know that and I wasn't even alive then.

EDIT: As far as Norm Green moving the North Stars to Texas...North Stars booster club president Julie Hammond summed it up: "When [Norm Green] came here, he said, 'Only an idiot could lose money on hockey in Minnesota.' Well, I guess he proved that point."

Baiting Guru Joined: 31 Jan 2007 Posts: 12237

^^^ +1 for knowing!

@Snowy_owl I can't even describe how exciting that day was.

Posted: Thu Oct 14, 2010 6:21 am

I wish I was around for it...I wish I was around to watch the NHL in the 1960's/1970's in general too

Posted: Thu Oct 14, 2010 10:50 pm

Help is on the way!!

http://www.wired.com/playbook/2010/10/stan-lee-hockey-superheroes/

Posted: Fri Oct 15, 2010 9:10 am

Snowy_owl wrote:

mr.scissorkick wrote:

Not bad for a football town.

What is a hockey town these days? By hockey town, I mean "the sports media of that city focuses on hockey more than any other sport".

Detroit has self-titled themselves The Motor City, Rock City, and drum roll..... Hockey Town. (I call them America's Fallujah)

You referenced the possibility of a plurality of hockey towns, so I'll say the puck is on your stick now. Name another.

Edit: Fun with pronouns

Posted: Fri Oct 15, 2010 12:04 pm

Yeah, I knew Detroit was a hockey town, but besides that...I'd be reaching if I said Chicago. Then again, Columbus and San Jose don't have a MLB/NFL/NBA team, so their sports media probably covers hockey more than anything else...so, with that said, San Jose, despite being in California, is about as close as you're going to get.

Posted: Fri Oct 15, 2010 5:14 pm

Chicago is (for no good reason) a Cubs town.

Columbus has Ohio State football.

The Sharks have the nearby Golden State Warriors, but I think you're right: San Jose is the only other viable hockey town

Oh, and reading back, I realize it looks like I am totally opposed to your idea. I'm not though; I strongly believe Winnipeg deserves NHL teams. Jets sweaters are still hot sellers in Winnipeg.
Quebec is another logical location. So I'll allow them to have one of the tropical teams, but they can't have my Avs back.

Posted: Fri Oct 15, 2010 6:35 pm

To be perfectly honest, if I could choose one Canadian city to get a team, it would be Hamilton, ON

Posted: Fri Oct 15, 2010 9:08 pm

What a bold assertion. Why is it that a town I've just now found out exists should have an NHL team?

Posted: Fri Oct 15, 2010 10:14 pm

mr.scissorkick wrote:

Chicago is (for no good reason) a Cubs town.

Hey, even though they suck, I've been (for no good reason) a fan, and I've always hated it.

GO HAWKS!!!

Posted: Fri Oct 15, 2010 10:14 pm

dwatina wrote:

Hockey sucks. Go Jets in the NFL

Fuck the NFL.

Posted: Sat Oct 16, 2010 1:36 am

mr.scissorkick wrote:

What a bold assertion. Why is it that a town I've just now found out exists should have an NHL team?

You must not have been paying too much attention to the drama involving the Phoenix Coyotes' sale...they almost ended up there, and they still might end up there.

EDIT: However, at this point, it's looking more and more likely that the Phoenix Coyotes will be moving back to Winnipeg for the 2011-12 season.

Posted: Tue Oct 19, 2010 4:07 pm

Without a doubt, the ratio of teams located in Canada and the US is unacceptable. Canada needs more teams. The US less teams.

I think that there too many teams and too many teams making the playoffs.

My family is from Minnesota. When they wanted to skate/play hockey they just went out to the frozen lakes and ponds. Where do you do that in the southern US?

By the by, if you are going to dump/relocate Dallas can Minnesota have the North Stars name back?

Posted: Tue Oct 19, 2010 7:25 pm

Sure!

Posted: Tue Oct 19, 2010 7:58 pm

Who gets the Disney team?

419Eater is my life Joined: 29 Sep 2010 Posts: 407

I am a hockey fan. A fanactical, fight loving, board crashing, die-hard hockey-loving Canadian. I grew up with HNIC. I got stepped on at the Toronto airport by Phil Esposito when I was 8, and got the rub on the head/you ok kid? (been a Bruins fan ever since)

So why hasn't anyone here slammed that ass clown Gary Bettman. Your idea is good (a couple city choices are questionable) But as long as Buttman has any say...it'll never happen. When Gary Buttman took the reigns as the commissioner, the NHL starting heading south (both literally and figuratively)

A good start would be to move some of the teams you mention to a city like Hamilton, Ontario, where people already purchased 12,000 season tickets for a non-existent team when Jim Balsille attempted to buy the Predators (and Coyotes) with the intention of moving the franchise to Canada. Of course, this isn't in Gary Bettman's agenda, instead he'll allow the team to relocate to Kansas City or Atlanta or Miami Beach or some other non existent or previously failed hockey market.

Why, in a league that struggles with attendance, TV ratings, and overall popularity, would the powers that be not allow a guaranteed business endeavour like another Canadian franchise?

Posted: Tue Oct 19, 2010 9:29 pm

Moreso than just the city choices, the IDEA of 12 American teams and 12 Canadian teams would be beneficial. It would become a thing of national pride. "Canadian teams have won the cup 5 years in a row, you American teams suck, eh?" The idea would be to get the mainstream media more interested in hockey, which would, in turn, spur more interest in the league by the general public. Although, finding 12 cities in Canada which could field a team would be difficult, considering that 61.9% of Canadians live in either Quebec or Ontario.

419Eater is my life Joined: 29 Sep 2010 Posts: 407

The population of Southern Ontario alone is over 7 million alone. How many NHL teams? 1

Quote:

finding 12 cities in Canada which could field a team would be difficult, considering that 61.9% of Canadians live in either Quebec or Ontario.

I'd have to disagree... Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, 1 or 2 in the GTA (Toronto area) Hamilton, Kitchener/Waterloo, Winnipeg, Montreal, Quebec City, Halifax, Ottawa and London are all large cities and could quite easily sustain a profitable franchise.

Posted: Tue Oct 19, 2010 10:16 pm

Toronto, Hamilton, Kitchener/Waterloo and London are all within 150 or so miles of each other...The Tri-state area has the Rangers, Islanders, and Devils, and the Islanders and Devils...well, I won't say they struggle with attendance, but their attendance numbers don't light the world on fire. I'd imagine many of the people in those cities already have their allegiances, and they may be hesitant to switch, even if there was a team in their backyard. It just might spread everything too thin to have four teams in such close proximity, even though a larger portion of people in southern Ontario are hockey fans than many other places. Three would probably be sufficient, but four might be pushing it.

EDIT: What about Saskatchewan? They already have the Credit Union Centre in Saskatoon, which seats over 14,000 tenants and was built in 1988, and they only have one professional franchise (the Saskatchewan Roughriders in the CFL) and I'm sure they could support a hockey team. Maybe not two, as I originally said, but one.

419Eater is my life Joined: 29 Sep 2010 Posts: 407

3 easily, but I would tend to agree...the K/W London proximity may not fly. As for Saskatchewan...I dunno...there seems to be nothing but bad luck when it comes to pro hockey there. I believe in the early 80's their was a bid to buy and relocate the St.Louis Blues there. It was vetoed by the NHL. I think the closest they've gotten to pro lately is a WCHL team.

I like the idea of Minnesota reclaiming the North Stars name.

419Eater is my life Joined: 29 Sep 2010 Posts: 407

Badgerbait wrote:

Who gets the Disney team?

Maybe they could turn them into a travelling roadshow' like the Globetrotters. They could open for the Disney on Ice shows.

Posted: Wed Oct 20, 2010 1:59 am

^^^
Are you old enough to remember the WHA?

snowy_owl's proposal to make the NHL more viable	View next topic View previous topic