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Hmm. Even though nobody's posted here for over a year, I think that pro sports in states like Nebraska or Kansas is kind of ridiculous (my apologies to Omaha). Virginia's population (8,001,024) is almost as large as the populations of Kansas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma COMBINED (8,266,110). I also agree with a poster who said many moons ago that Williamsburg would be a decent place to put a team, but ot's a bit too far from Norfolk's and Richmond's downtowns. However, major work would have to be done on (a) a stadium and (b) I-64, considering that people going to Busch Gardens completely clog it up on a busy day.
I don't think Southerners really understand how badly having these poor excuses for hockey franchises down South really bugs us. Seriously, most people down there really don't give a crap about hockey. Think if suddenly LSU, Bama, Texas, Florida, and UGA football were taken from you and placed in Montreal or Toronto because it's a "bigger market". That would be ridiculous because football is your sport and fans in Canada, outside of a select few, wouldn't really give two ****s about the team.
Cities in Canada and the Northern US (like St Paul, Buffalo, and Detroit) have that kind of loyalty to NHL teams. Taking teams away from Minnesota, Hartford, Winnipeg, and Quebec has been devestating to millions of fans and most people who grow loving hockey are very skeptical and distrustful of the NHL. Gary Bettman has ruined the NHL. Hockey is still a great sport with millions of fans, but the NHL has fallen off the radar because the teams are not located where the fans are.
Hockey will always be about as successful in the south as football will be in Canada. The NFL, unlike the NHL, is smart enough to realize this. And people wonder why the NHL has gone down the crapper. There are too many Southern teams and the season shouldn't last past March.
So full of passion and opinion, so lacking in factual information and perspective.
You realize that many of the northern US markets were once considered "non-traditional markets," right?
You realize fanbases and support don't grow overnight, right? It takes years, even decades to build that kind of support. And why would the NHL expand in the north, where there is already a saturated fanbase? You want the NHL to be competitive with the other big sports leagues? Well it will have to have a nationwide presence. You grow the sport by expanding the base.
You talk about teams moving away from places like Hartford, Winnipeg, and Quebec...as if it was evil Gary Bettman who marched into those cities and stole their hockey franchises. You don't think economics played a role in that equation? In Winnipeg and Quebec, they moved because it was no longer financially viable to be there, because the Canadian dollar was in the toilet. Now that the looney is stronger, *poof* Winnipeg gets their team back. Oh, and his evilness Mr. Bettman stated that he would like to see the NHL go BACK to the places it has been before (i.e. Quebec) BEFORE considering other markets. So goes that theory....
Kansas City,MO can have the Charlotte Bobcats and Charlotte can get the Royals. Me personally I would rather get the Rays from the Tampa area. It does not look like they are getting a new stadium anytime soon. The reason I think Charlotte can support a MLB team is the Bobcats NBA season starts an ends in Nov and when the actual season ends in early May or late April there is nothing to do here during the summer time. I would rather see the Charlotte Rays play the Yankees or the Red Sox instead of the Charlotte Knights which is the AAA team of the White Sox play the Columbus Clippers or the Toledo Mud Hens. How can anyone be excited about playing the Mudhens?
Kansas City,MO can have the Charlotte Bobcats and Charlotte can get the Royals. Me personally I would rather get the Rays from the Tampa area. It does not look like they are getting a new stadium anytime soon. The reason I think Charlotte can support a MLB team is the Bobcats NBA season starts an ends in Nov and when the actual season ends in early May or late April there is nothing to do here during the summer time. I would rather see the Charlotte Rays play the Yankees or the Red Sox instead of the Charlotte Knights which is the AAA team of the White Sox play the Columbus Clippers or the Toledo Mud Hens. How can anyone be excited about playing the Mudhens?
They can't even get enough funding to move the Knights out of Fort Mill to uptown Charlotte for a minor league park, how are they going to get approval to build a MLB stadium that costs hundreds of millions more than that??
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