Another NHL Team in Ontario? BRING IT ON!
What the HELL is the matter with Bettman?
The past 10yrs or more, he's been trying to introduce professional hockey to locations that a) don't understand the game, b) don't care about the game, and c) can't generate enough interest from fans to make a team profitable.
Enter RIM CEO...who has tried before to get a second Ontario team in place, and this time, has done what some may call underhanded, tactics to almost ensure success in getting the Coyotes into Ontario. What is Bettman doing? He's FIGHTING IT!
Bettman, for god's sake, wake up. A team in Ontario only makes sense and will almost positively remain profitable. Why on earth do you want to expand in the desert? What's next? The Jamican NHL team?
Hamilton, KW, London, hell, even Owen Sound would sell out every game. Wake up and smell the money that can be made!
The past 10yrs or more, he's been trying to introduce professional hockey to locations that a) don't understand the game, b) don't care about the game, and c) can't generate enough interest from fans to make a team profitable.
Enter RIM CEO...who has tried before to get a second Ontario team in place, and this time, has done what some may call underhanded, tactics to almost ensure success in getting the Coyotes into Ontario. What is Bettman doing? He's FIGHTING IT!
Bettman, for god's sake, wake up. A team in Ontario only makes sense and will almost positively remain profitable. Why on earth do you want to expand in the desert? What's next? The Jamican NHL team?
Hamilton, KW, London, hell, even Owen Sound would sell out every game. Wake up and smell the money that can be made!
Comments
Not sure when they will realize, the more they try and stop him the bigger douchebags they become.
The man wants a team. He can cut a cheque for it today (if he doesn't have enough in his wallet
Balsille should not give up the fight...make it happen!
Opening night, give away free CrackBerries!
I thought of something earlier... Why, oh why does this forum not have a thread dedicated to the NHL playoffs? There was a thread about the Boston/Montreal series...
Bettman would rather have a team in the "cool" city rather than a cold city.
Ottawa...in that other Ontario you hardly ever hear of...don't worry someday you will be to afford maps such like the Iraq and South Africa such as...
Ottawa has a team? Wow...who knew?
Seriously, I did forget Ottawa, I was mostly referring to SOUTHERN Ontario in my OP
And I think there is a potential market here for a second team. This area is hockey crazy, and it would be good for any community to get it.
I say 2.5 minutes
Toronto Maple Leafs (Even though they don't deserve it)
Montreal Canadiens (widely regarded as the biggest "Hockey Town")
Edmonton Oilers (Sure, they were TALKING about selling them but...)
Ottawa Senators (yea, yea, sure they were gone for 70 years, but they're back now!)
The Quebec Nordiques (well, now Colorado, sure - fluke)
The Winnipeg Jets (umm... hang on)
Let's face it.... Canada does not do a great job in backing its Canadian teams... I personally don't think another Southern Ontario team would be as stupidly successful as everyone thinks.
Mark
/g2
Calgary and Vancouver are in Canada too.
California Golden Seals, Cleveland Barons, Kansas City Scouts, Minnesota North Stars, Atlanta Flames (they seemed to move to Canada fine....and how long before the Thrashers are history?) and Hartford Whalers is the list of team that couldn't make it in the glorious U S of A.
Quebec left because Marcel Aubut was a greedy bastard and there was no Bettman-esque saving of that franchise coming from the NHL head offices. Winnipeg.....well I still laugh when I hear people say they should get another NHL team. Yes their population is bigger than the Tri-cities but what they don't have is Guelph within 20 minutes, Hamilton, London and the western GTA within an hours drive. It's a no-brainer.
Quebec and Winnipeg are two completely different stories from each other. Quebec moved literally when they were on the cusp of greatness as they won the cup the next year (or the year after, can't remember). Winnipeg was always one of those middle of the road teams. They were never near the top of anything.
There was talk a while back of another team in Toronto, same with one in Hamilton. Problem is the Leafs (god I hate them) have some clause or some bullshit that no team can move to a location within 200km or something weird like that without their approval. Thus, Hamilton is screwed. I believe that the K/W team could work as the population within a 1 hour drive could easily support a team and they are a population that is used to the drive, so it will not be an issue.
Here's the real issue with the whole deal, aside from the obvious Bettman wanting to take over the US market whether it kills him and the NHL to do it: any team within driving distance that ends up being good becomes direct competition to the Leafs. With no real competition for hockey dollars nearby, they've been able to get away with lackluster teams for around 41 years now. New team shows up, plays better, maybe even wins a few more games and suddenly the Leafs revenues go down. Sorry boys and girls, it ain't gonna happen...
Unless by the Coyotes filing for Chapter 11... and JB making that offer to the bankruptcy court that was more than $80 million over the next best offer... which would make it so the NHL couldn't block the offer for the team because they can't stop a federal court ruling... then again, what do I know about US law.
/g2
Winnipeg lost their team because of the poor Canadian dollar, not the fans. The loonie was around .62c then and the team couldn't afford the expenses. Although you're right, I don't ever remember the Jets competing for the cup.
Another point about Bettman. He'd rather sell the Coyotes for $400mil then let them be bought under Chapter 11 for the low-low price of $212mil.
Don't ya mean 40mil ?
Sorry, I meant that the NHL would prefer to sell a franchise for $400mil, rather than have Jim Balsillie buy the Coyotes for $212mil.
Of course, Bettman would sell a franchise to some American tycoon, and keep the team in the USA.
Now I gotcha.
But you must admit that the NHL will take far less than what JB is offering and keep a money losing team in the US.
Fail economics 101. If the fans can't support higher prices for tickets to compensate, then ya, it's the city that couldn't support the team.
Because the coyotes are in bankruptcy, the decision about who gets to own the team is out of the NHL hands and in the US federal courts. It's up to the court to protect investors by selling the team for the most money, without regard to the politics of the NHL. Right now, for the NHL to halt the deal, they have to find a buyer who will buy them for more than 200 mill and agree to keep them in a city that lost 200million. Tough sell.
Maybe because some bums named Gretzky, Kurri and Messier kept getting in their way?
Does a second NHL team in Southern Ontario make snese? Yes.
Can Balsillie handle operating the team? Yes.
Is it in the NHL's best interests to have another team around T.O.? Yes.
But realistically the number of owners who have attempted to ambush the NHL and succeeded is zero.
NHL can't possibly make a better offer in front of the court that Balsillie has presented. They simply don't have his money.
I agree, looking at it like that, it seems low. Compare it to the other big three north american leagues... wait a sec... MLB doesn't count because no one watches it anyways and the players union fucked over the Expos the year they would have won it all causing the franchise to fall in to a death spiral... NFL has had fewer teams move but those teams keep moving every couple of damned years... NBA just keeps picking random cities out of a hat to put teams in and then, when they fail and move somewhere else, they put the next expansion team there. Charlotte sure is a basketball hotbed. Well, pro ball anyways.
I retract my arguement about the NHL moving teams around more than the other leagues... but they still move too often.
You forgot that the league didn't expand beyond 6 teams until 1967.
Modern era (1992-present): Four franchises have relocated during this time: the Minnesota North Stars became the Dallas Stars (1993), the Quebec Nordiques became the Colorado Avalanche (1995), the Winnipeg Jets became the Phoenix Coyotes (1996), and the Hartford Whalers became the Carolina Hurricanes (1997).
Source
Anyone know if this information is current?
/g2
Now I feel old