2009 NHL Playoff Thread

I can. I get the feeling hockey-wise it would be on the level of the Cubs/White Sox, Yankees/Mets, Dodgers/Angels.

 

Are you kidding me?

There's a twenty year waiting list for Leafs tickets which are some of the most expensive in the league.

Games have been virtually sold out for probably fifty years.

Toronto and SW Ontario (all the way out to Kingston in the East and London in the West) could support two more teams.

 

Greater Toronto area: 5.5 million people
Greater Chicago area: 10 million
Greater New York area: at least 18 million, depending on how you define it (NY should have like 4 teams in every sport)
Greater LA/Anaheim area: 17 million

 

The two new teams wouldn't be the Leafs.

 

Wouldn't matter. The appetite for hockey is huge.

 

As evidenced by Hamilton, often cited as the site for a new team, not even matching the AHL average in attendance this year.

http://stats.theahl.com/stats/schedule.php?view=attendance&season_id=16

 

OHL's London Knights outdraw the top attended team in the AHL. Kitchener Rangers would be in the top 10 in attendence.

 

Well, we'll see, because there's no way to prove it but to try it.

But supporting two major pro teams on a population of 5.5 million, especially when one of them is already deeply established, is going to be incredibly hard.

 

A quick question for our Canadian/Canadien fans -- why would families who have been die-hard Maple Leafs fans for generations suddenly jump ship and support the second franchise?

I know some might be bitter about the team's lack of success, and for good reason, but it's not like those fans don't already have a team to support. It would be like MLB moving a second team (if the White Sox didn't exist) to Chicago to take on the Cubs, who never win championships but will always draw.

 

Who cares about the population of LA or Chicago? We're talking about hockey in Canada. A large population figure doesn't necessarily translate into a market for your product.

LA is a non hockey market and in Chicago it's a niche sport. Four hockey teams in NY? The Devils are mostly ignored and the Islanders may as well not exist.

Even in the middle of the off-season, hockey will often lead up here on the three all sports TV stations, the FAN all sports radio and on the front page of the sports sections of the FOUR dailies.

And I wasn't just talking about the GTA--which is a fairly small geographic area. I was talking SW Ontario down to London and Eastern Ontario. They're not part of the GTA.

Yes, the Marlies don't draw but personally I think AHL hockey is fucking horrible. It's like watching an NHL game but only the third and fourth lines play. I'll take junior hockey any time.

A second team in SW Ontario is an absolute no-brainer from any point of view, except maybe MLSE's

 

Because not everyone in Toronto is a Leafs fan and people who live in say, Kitchener or London are just as easily Wings fans. Hell, in the Goose there are dozens of Habs fans.

It's not about the team. It's about the sport. You cannot get Leafs tickets unless you're willing to pay through the nose.

I bet you could sell 10,000 season tickets to an NHL franchise up here in less than 48 hours.

 

Didn't Balsillie do that, ticking off the NHL and ending his chance to possibility relocate the Penguins or Predators? As long as the next guy waits until the move is actually official ...