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I'm a Minnesota boy - - - BRING BACK THE NORDS, YEAH!
Yeah, and no offense to the few dedicated Southern hockey fans, but there's plenty of teams down south that should be ideal candidates for relocation. I say move one of them to Quebec and the other one to Seattle once they build the newly proposed arena downtown. The Florida Panthers could be one such team, and out in Arizona, although it looks like the Coyotes are staying in Phoenix, I'd say they're another team.
Hell, Dallas even has bad attendance figures this year, too bad we couldn't move 'em back to Minnesota and bring back the North Stars.
Hamilton and/or Saskatoon would not be good for NBC or whatever network bids in 10 years or so. Does anybody really think a steady diet of Ottawa, Calgary and Edmonton in the Finals, like we experienced not long ago, would have netted the NHL the nice contract they now have? No, it was the big U.S. markets that have recently been featured which boosted the bid.
NHL needs a good Florida team. Hey, the attendance was pretty good this year. Just think what a consistent palyoff team down there would generate: near sellout crowds, just like Nashvilke now that they're winning.
Glad to see CNBC is televising playoff games. Do they reach more households than NBCSN? I believe so. Ironic that the featured game would be on the latter while the backup game on CNBC would reach more potential homes?
Yeah, and no offense to the few dedicated Southern hockey fans, but there's plenty of teams down south that should be ideal candidates for relocation. I say move one of them to Quebec and the other one to Seattle once they build the newly proposed arena downtown. The Florida Panthers could be one such team, and out in Arizona, although it looks like the Coyotes are staying in Phoenix, I'd say they're another team.
Hell, Dallas even has bad attendance figures this year, too bad we couldn't move 'em back to Minnesota and bring back the North Stars.
Weak ownership (leading to a change in ownership), back to back to back to back bad seasons.
Besides, even when they're doing good, they still don't hold a candle to the Cowboys as far as attention goes.... but that's all DFW sports teams.
Minnesota has their team, Dallas keeps theirs. End of discussion.
Toss up between Kansas City and Quebec City with the edge going to KC as it already has an NHL size arena, Quebec City? the passion is there but the powers that be have to convince the Quebec tax payers to foot the bill for a new arena, its not going well at the moment...
Update;; Quebec seems to have been given the OK to build the arena...A local publisher is picking up about $70 million, the rest of the $330 Million price tag will most likely be picked up by the tax payers of Quebec. Quebec City to build NHL-ready arena in September
Update;; Quebec seems to have been given the OK to build the arena...A local publisher is picking up about $70 million, the rest of the $330 Million price tag will most likely be picked up by the tax payers of Quebec. Quebec City to build NHL-ready arena in September
great news.
Perhaps the better question would be what will be the next city to lose an NHL franchise?
top contenders:
phoenix - poor ratings performer and consistently terrible attendance, has ranked dead last in two of the last three years and the bottom two for 4 of the past 5. and there have been quite a few winning seasons sprinkled in there over that time.
florida - despite winning division this year they still had attendance trouble as they've had for most of their existance. also tv ratings are consistently the worst in the league. and not just a little worse... we're talking 3,000 households tuning into games. that's not just bad that's beyond pathetic. pittsburgh... a smaller market has nearly 100,000 MORE households tuning in.
new york islanders - terrible ratings, terrible attendance and an arena that is crumbling apart. on the surface this team is the most likely to move but you can't discount the history and the large fanbase. sure the fans may not be watching now, but the product is terrible, consistently losing team, worst arena in the league, it's hard to blame the fans for not tuning in and showing up. if actually faced with the team moving away, I can't help but feel action will take place to finally get this team the new arena it so desperately needs. on the other hand I can't say I would be shocked if this team is quebec in a couple of years.
dark horse candidates:
columbus - another team with terrible attendance and ratings but ownership apparently is against moving and honestly i have a hard time faulting fans in columbus... this team has NEVER been good. If ownership ever puts a winning product on the ice and the fans STILL aren't there then perhaps it's time to talk about moving. not yet though.
carolina - even when a winning product is on the ice, ratings aren't great, and neither is attendance. but when they won at least attendance wasn't terrible and the team is in the middle of a booming metro though, i don't see a move coming.
dallas - ratings and attendance have not been good over the past few years. in fact they've been terrible. but in the past attendance and to a lesser extent, the ratings have been decent when the team was actually good. plus texas is a HUGE market and hockey is just beginning to catch on there, highly doubt the NHL wants to get out of texas.
The choice to move a team doesnt seem to be dependent on the teams economics as last year a Canadian businessman offered 200Million cash for Phoenix and Gary Bettman refused to let the sale go through either because he didnt like the buyer Jim Ballsillie or he didnt like having the team move to Hamilton..
I'll be glad to see the end of this Bettman era of hockey..
The choice to move a team doesnt seem to be dependent on the teams economics as last year a Canadian businessman offered 200Million cash for Phoenix and Gary Bettman refused to let the sale go through either because he didnt like the buyer Jim Ballsillie or he didnt like having the team move to Hamilton..
I'll be glad to see the end of this Bettman era of hockey..
Quebec City and Hamilton are similar in size but it's hardly the same thing. Hamilton is less than an hour from Toronto. Regardless of how rich the owner is, regardless of the fact that it's a market that loves hockey, it's hard to see a city of half a million people supporting an NHL team when that city is so close to Toronto.
Would Hamilton do better Phoenix? Without a doubt in my mind... but that's an admittedly low bar to hurdle. I don't think it would thrive.
I think an NHL team would do very well in Quebec City though.
dallas - ratings and attendance have not been good over the past few years. in fact they've been terrible. but in the past attendance and to a lesser extent, the ratings have been decent when the team was actually good. plus texas is a HUGE market and hockey is just beginning to catch on there, highly doubt the NHL wants to get out of texas.
Again, WEAK ownership and losing seasons the past few years...
Also, the Stars have been down here since '93, so I would say it's just beginning to catch on.
Quebec City and Hamilton are similar in size but it's hardly the same thing. Hamilton is less than an hour from Toronto. Regardless of how rich the owner is, regardless of the fact that it's a market that loves hockey, it's hard to see a city of half a million people supporting an NHL team when that city is so close to Toronto.
Would Hamilton do better Phoenix? Without a doubt in my mind... but that's an admittedly low bar to hurdle. I don't think it would thrive.
I think an NHL team would do very well in Quebec City though.
I was just pointing out that its not easy to get a franchise when its up to the whims of Bettman, team proximity may be a factor but there are teams very close to each other around the league.
Quebec would be a good choice as the passion is there but hopefully the reason they lost their first team has resolved itself..
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