[7 Wishes]

Originally Posted by Mike 75

The NYC area supports three teams, so I think it's pretty safe to say its a hockey town. I would also put Pittsburgh and Philly in the top tier. But I agree with the rest.

As for CT, for most people over 30, the Whalers were their team and still are. I still enjoy the NHL, but haven't picked a new team.

Somehow, I forgot about Pittsburgh, which should've been a 7th team on my list. Thanks for the reminder.

As for NYC (and this will be my last post on it as I realize I may be going off-topic, but I mostly noted it in response to Cambium's bit about the Rangers), there's certainly a fan base and having 3 teams shows it, but I'm thinking beyond simply attendance at pro games. In Massachusetts and northern New England, some parts of upstate NY, and most of the other places I mentioned, youth hockey is almost if not as big a deal as Little League baseball or Pop Warner football; in places like Maine or Minnesota, it perhaps even somewhat approaches the level it exists in Canada.

Whereas in NYC, most of this action is north of the City, especially in CT and in places like northern Westchester and Putnam counties. I based this somewhat on being from and living very close to NYC but being pretty familiar with both schools there vs. schools in CT. Though when the Islanders had their big run in the late 70s/early 80s, Long Island seemed to be developing a "hockey culture" for awhile that I think has since faded a bit. I went to a college in upstate NY that was unusually big on hockey a few years after that that had a lot of Long Islanders and many of them were into it. Certainly compared to anything south of a line from say DC to St. Louis to maybe Portland or Seattle NY is a "hockey town", but I'm also looking northward.

I'll put it another way to finish this. Even with 2 pro teams that have a strong fan base, I don't consider NYC to really be a "football town" in the sense that places in TX and some other parts of the South and Midwest are. On the other hand, I think it's very much a "baseball town" compared to most parts of the US, and to a good extent "basketball country".

[groar]

Originally Posted by Mike 75

The NYC area supports three teams, so I think it's pretty safe to say its a hockey town. I would also put Pittsburgh and Philly in the top tier. But I agree with the rest.

As for CT, for most people over 30, the Whalers were their team and still are. I still enjoy the NHL, but haven't picked a new team.

over 30 but under.... 45? the whalers weren't really around as an nhl team for that long and a lot of people stuck with the new york and boston teams they liked before there was a whalers.

best logo in hockey ever, though.

[Mike 75]

Originally Posted by groar

over 30 but under.... 45? the whalers weren't really around as an nhl team for that long and a lot of people stuck with the new york and boston teams they liked before there was a whalers.

That's a fair point. Like the NY Giants fans in Mass who remained fans even after the arrival of the Pats.

[western mass and love it]

I get kick out of all this Whalers sentimentality, Where were all of you when they actually were here. The Whalers were not supported at all. The only time the fans could see them on tv was when the Rangers or Bruins or Canadiens came to town and all their fans packed the civic center. Harmonies was smart to leave , he just do didn't pick the right landing spot.

[CTbrooktrout]

The important thing is that it's there now. It's important to show that there is big league hockey interest in having our own team again if we do want to land a NHL team some day. With teams like Pheonix on the brink, it still seems possible as long as people openly show their support. If we don't, nobody will believe or take us seriously. So I wouldn't knock it, it's important that the demand and interest is here now and keeps growing.

I think we had an unbelievable hockey year in the state with Yale and Quinnipiac both renewing interest. Hopefully it keeps going.

[groar]

Originally Posted by western mass and love it

I get kick out of all this Whalers sentimentality, Where were all of you when they actually were here. The Whalers were not supported at all. The only time the fans could see them on tv was when the Rangers or Bruins or Canadiens came to town and all their fans packed the civic center. Harmonies was smart to leave , he just do didn't pick the right landing spot.

i actually went to whalers games pretty regularly. but my dad worked for the hartford courant so it was free. like i said, i'm not some hardcore whalers fan, they're just the team i supported when i was a kid. i was 18 when they left hartford so uh, sorry for not using my allowance and babysitting money to support them more?

[An actual fan of Hartford]

I think in all honestly there is truth to Hartford being a semi-good potential hockey market and also few people really caring about the Whalers when they were here outside of 86-90 when they were fairly competitive. Central CT is a fair-weather, bandwagon sports area outside of the NFL and their beloved UConn. Also take into account that most CT suburbanites have a fanatical hatred of Hartford and city-life in general. I do not think I am exaggerating when I say that. Read most of these threads and there seems to be a pretty basic theme regarding the capital city. I'm originally from Mass and Boston is supposedly to be this racist city, but the Hartford area is the first place where people come out and say blatantly racist and/or wildly ignorant things and they are accepted as basic fact.

[Lincolnian]

I am a New England native and a fan of both the Bruins and Patriots. I don't care for the NBA so I don't follow the Celtics. Following and supporting regional teams is a fun way to participate in community spirit. People certainly came together and enjoyed the excitement in Boston with the Bruins. Similar gatherings were found throughout New England. That's the beauty of a local having a local team. I miss that excitement that we had in Hartford with the Whalers. It was especially exciting when we played the Bruins.

[7 Wishes]

ARGH, I was typing something and when I posted it then said C-D was down 15 minutes for maintenance.....

Anyway a couple of thoughts:

Regarding CT suburbanites, I think FFC COULD support the Whalers and even go to their games over the Rangers (maybe not Greenwich/Stamford, but further in like Danbury or the towns around Bridgeport).

That said, I doubt you'll ever see an NHL team in Hartford again. While I think the NHL has over-concentrated on the Sunbelt thinking there'd be enough "northern transplants" to support teams (can we say Phoenix? Or better yet, Atlanta, which lost teams TWICE? I personally think that L.A. just due to it's sheer size is the only Sunbelt city that can truly support a hockey team (so I'm surprised they have 2 of them now)), I think their thinking would be that Hartford is a "small market" 100 miles from 2 very big ones (one of which is probably the biggest "hockeytown" in the Northeast, the other of which has 3 teams, one of which formed just a couple of years before the WHA Whalers came to Hartford, the other of which moved here long after). Remember, the Phoenix Coyotes were going to move to Hamilton, ON, Canada a couple of years ago and the league nixed it because it was too close to both Toronto (though it would've essentially been their "2nd team") and Buffalo (who had some financially difficulties but the NHL is desperate to keep there as it's one of the most rabid US "hockey cities".....they purposely did the first Winter Classic there).

The Hartford Whalers were an "experiment", a good "accident of fate" stemming from the WHA trying to be (and was in a way through it's failure and eventual merge with the NHL) the hockey equivalent of the AFL or ABA. They started out with the league in 1972 as the "New England" Whalers in Boston, but couldn't really share the market with the Bruins (who were Stanley Cup caliber then too), so they moved to Hartford to stay in "New England" 2 years later. They were successful enough then that they were one of the teams that joined the NHL in the 1979 absorption of the WHA (changing the "New England" to "Hartford" so as not to confuse them with the Boston Bruins).

I doubt they would've ever considered an expansion team in Hartford then otherwise, and right now they would probably first consider Seattle (which is where the Phoenix Coyotes are rumored to be going and a surprising "hockeytown" with very active youth hockey leagues, they actually had a team in the original NHL in the 1920s before it collapsed to the "Original Six" which by far the first team in any of the 4 major sports on the West Coast) or even a Canadian city that once had a team like Quebec City (even if it's smaller than the Hartford area....kind of a reversal of the league's 'anti-Canada' attitude toward new teams that began with moving the Atlanta Thrashers to Winnipeg).

Just my thoughts......