A new Canadian Hockey team?
 

Hopefully. Or at the very least move them to a city that can appreciate hockey. If there is one US ciy Id really like to see get an NHL team it would be Seattle. God damn how awesome would it be to watch Seattle/Vancouver games! Why the hell is there a hockey team in Miami and Atlanta anyway!

BYE BYE Nashville (hopefully anyway)

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We're still sore over the Nordiques but this is good news...too bad they aren't the Nordiques though.:bawl:

Colorado we wan't our team back and a time machine.

I don't watch much hockey, but I think more Canadian cities need NHL teams.

And the Winnipeg Jets.

The problem begins and ends with Gary Bettman.

You can thank him for hockey in Miami (instead of Quebec/Winnipeg/Hartford should I go on?), I mean th Northstars play in freakin' Texas now!!! The glowing puck (remember that?) The lockouts. Less fighting. Shootouts. People inside creases. The trap. I could keep going.

Honestly the only good thing Ive ever seen is 4v4 OT. Thats pretty awesome. Other than that, he is ruining this once great sport. Id almost rather watch American Rules Football... Almost.

Lol, i remember the glowing pucks, terrible, terrible.

It sure would be nice to see a new Canadian team in the NHL, i mean we pretty much started the sport.

There needs to be a new team in Canada, thats for sure. While I should probably wish for a return of the Nordiques, because I'm a Quebecer, I'm a hardcore Canadiens fan and I'm moving to Quebec city next autumn. I don't want to get beaten up because I wear Canadiens T-shirts =p

In my opinion, the most important reason for having a new team or two in Canada is that even tho we have a population 10x smaller than the USA, there are still more hockey fans in Canada. I guess Bettman and his lackeys hoped to make more money by making hockey teams in richer and populous areas, forgetting that making an hockey team popular in Miami is like trying to sell refrigerators to eskimos, and fur anoraks to africans.

Maybe Balsillie will make them the first European NHL team.

Since I live in Winnipeg and miss the Jets, my first choice would be to bring them here. But Winnipeg can't afford the NHL. The reality of it sucks.

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Exactly. While I hate Ottawa with a passion never known by most of us, yet, There is a small part of me that wants that cup back in Canada, at least if it's not in Philly.:cya:

Now that is one HELL of an idea. Way too much travel though, but how cool would it be to put together 2 teams for say 1 season from Europe. Let them play here, maybe 1 in Canada and the other here??? 1 for east the other for west... That would be 1 of "Gary's Gimmicks" I might support.

Unfortunately, there's too much money in the States. A 5% piece of the sporting market in Miami worth more than a 50% piece in Quebec. (Probably. I'm no economist :))

The NHL is slowly 'falling off the sporting radar', if I can borrow a sportscaster cliche, here in Manitoba. The closest team is Calgary, I guess, maybe Minneapolis. Most people (like me) will root for the last Canadian team in the playoffs, but that's it. If the Leafs ever win another Cup, there will be no fan riots in Winnipeg.

Being a long distance fan in the playoffs is a lousy way to root for a sports team. You don't get to go to the games or hang out in the bars with the thousands of other supporters. It's bittersweet being a hockey fan here.

But we're making the most of other opportunities. With a fair bit of pride I think we get to claim to be the best host for international hockey tournaments. And I don't really care if anyone outside of IIHF accountants gives a damn. The IIHF should permanently give us the World Juniors and Womens Championships. And now that they're finally going to be playing the Men's world championship in North America we'll get to set attendance records for that tournament, too.

The IIHF is our hockey league now, and I'm happy with that.

Absolutely wrong. The Montreal Canadiens, for example, are much richer than the Florida Panthers. As with everything, sports work with the rules of offer and demand. The demand for hockey in Quebec is such that every single game in the season is sold off (even tho the Bell Center is the largest arena in North America), which leads to tickets being abominately costly, especially in the playoffs. And what about tv and radio broadcast? Last I heard there is no public sports channel broadcasting hockey games in the US, while in Quebec it is possible to watch the Canadiens both on RDS and sometimes on CBC. Canadiens marchandise obviously sells like hot pies, while I doubt the Florida Panthers sell a lot of T-Shirts or watever.

While the population of Florida is, overall, richer than Quebec's, hockey is so ignored there that the vast majority of people are never going to spent a single cent on hockey, and those who care probably will spend less than an "average" hockey fan in Quebec, which would probably get labelled "hardcore" in Florida.

Same can be said with most other southern hockey cities. Sports are in competitions with each others. In certain areas of the USA, hockey is the 4th or 5th sport, so it is clear that, on average, less money will be spent on it. On the other hand, it is the 1st sport in importance pretty much everywere in Canada.

The Flyers are a top 3 team in the NHL in terms of money. NYR, DET, TOR...
They have a huge loyal fan base and yet are the 4th team in terms of poularity out of the 4 teams we have hear in philly. take another team like NJD. A stones throw from the NYR and Isles, 2 hours to Boston/Philly. Consistanly playoff bound, yet cant sell out. Now they have moved from an isolated swamp to frickin Newark and have doubled the ticket prices. So not only will the fans be mugged going in, they'll be mugged coming out!!! The NHL is in bad times. THATS why I want to see some of these teams go home to Canada. get the fights back and get back to what made the game so great. The war like feel. The rumble if you know what I mean. Stop trying to make it into something it's not gonna be!

You're thinking about what they get, the NHL is thinking about what they could get. There's little room for growth in the Montreal hockey market. The Canadiens are top dog and there's nowhere to go but down. The Panthers could make more money than them with a big network deal and all the crap that goes with being a popular sport in a huge city. They just have to become that popular first. Just because it'll never happen doesn't mean they won't keep trying. If the NHL can hold onto the illusion that they're a big time top-tier sports league and can con a network into another huge tv contract, well, anything that the CBC/CTV pay will be peanuts in comparison.

Shit, the FOX Network is run by a bunch of wackos, maybe they'll decide to give the NHL another shot.

All you need is some desperate network with a crappy lineup to get outbid on some NFL/NBA/MLB contract and the NHL will be back on regular tv. Remember, gate receipts mean little, the money is made in TV and merchandise.

Outdoor network last year... Versus channel this year...
Hell ABC interrupted that game last week for a 1 minute horse race and one hour of pomp prior. Had to find the "Versus" network. Meanwhile Salary caps go up, prices go up... quality goes down. Alot of "anov's" and "anen's" and "pov's" on the backs of jerseys and no one wants to fight anymore. I say let the WHL play the fluf hockey! I want that old school roller derby type stuff back!!! Hell, I think the czechs and the romanians like a good dust up!!!

Hell yeah! Now where the hell is Waterloo?

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Its a moderate sized city located 100km west of Toronto in Ontario.. I really can't see what they could gain in the Ontario market, especially since Waterloo and neighboring Kitchener are not really big towns, and the market is already shared by the Sens, Leafs and Sabres. At least it would be hilarious to see the Leafs trounced by yet another neighboring team. :rofl:

Lol, hey hey, Waterloo would not beat the Leafs.

Chiming in on the question of money and what not, i'd say every Leaf game is pretty much sold out, even if they are doing terrible. If they are doing terrible the crowds can still get raucous.

Compare that to say Anaheim, its like their team is in the play-offs and their fans are totally silent in the stands ;).

Yeh and what we were saying about Florida. The only people that go are people who are fans of the opposing team but have moved or who are on vacation. I love to do that. I got to watch the Flames stomp all over Detroit when I was in Calgary. It was glorious!

If the current Nashville Predators become the Waterloo Predators, then you'd be sure they'd beat the Leafs a lot. The franchises that move do not always have crappy teams, look at the Nordiques, they moved to Colorado then win the cup. The Preds had a very good team last year. I wouldn't really like the Preds to be in the north eastern division (altho it might stay in the central division, seeing its already there and nearby Detroit is in the central division too).

Happens a lot. When MTL plays in Florida, there are more twice more Canadiens jerseys and they sometimes sell out (!!!) because of Canadiens partisans. Theres a huge crowd of Quebecers basically living in Florida. One of my friends went to see the Canadiens during the playoff last year.. in Carolina. Tickets here were virtually impossible to get, it was easier, and almost cheaper, to go see the game in Raleigh.

Step 1 : Buy Predators

Step 2 :
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Step 3 : Profit

Gotta go to work, work all day
Search for Hockey Team, Hey!
We won't stop til we have a Hockey Team,
Yum Tum Tummy Tum Tay!

Looks like they're going to be the Kansas City Predators now, because the owner is so rich he can take the bid that's $50 million less. I'd take home a bunch of $1's and roll around in them just to get a taste what being rich is like, but Canadian $1's are coins, which would be less fulfilling and probably uncomfortable. Maybe I'll save up to roll around in $5's. Yes.

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Dammit! They were the front runner for the Pens when Mario was throwing a Tantrum. Since then Ive been watching the webcam of them building that arena.

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I lived just north of waterloo in elora. Man they get alot of snow there.

They shoulda got hockey on TV in the southern states first.. Then when they can actually say there are fans down there, then create some new teams. Moving established teams never works, ive seen it fail every time.

Well, the Avs have done well, probably to the neverending envy of old Nordique fans.

But I'm not worried when Washington, St.Louis, Carolina, Florida, Tampa, Atlanta, and Phoenix are all shaky franchises. Bettman can't keep a team from returning to Canada forever. Although, the Maple Leafs organization would have more to do with preventing the Predators from coming to southern Ontario than anyone.

Dammit! I really wanted Ballsie to get it and bring it to Hamilton. Mostly because he owns RIM and they`re awesome.

Kansas city? :rofl:

I think they should try to sell hockey in Saudi Arabia next :rolleyes:

Well we can go snowboarding in frickin Dubai while its 120 outside!!! Anyways. I still cannot for the life of me understand why Miami has a hockey team, but Seattle does not. Hmmm...

http://images.businessweek.com/ss/06...mage/dubai.jpg
http://www.thinkwelldesign.com/img/i...nowpark_04.jpg

God that would be hilarious...

Maybe the NHL doesn't want a hockey version of Mark Cuban. Understandable, really. But my conspiracy theory instincts still point strongly to the Leafs.

for the Canadians here (stylie, too, you crazy bugger :)), more insight from TSN

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