Hockey team in Seattle?

Word is that Wayne Gretzky has joined a group of investors that want to bring an NHL team to Seattle. Do you think that this will help make it happen?

http://on.ksdk.com/1q5Xm7b

 

Until they get a NBA team it doesn't matter who joins the group.

 

I dunno. We've heard these rumors before. Seattle still needs a new arena in order to make it happen.

I really hope they don't expand again. 30 teams is enough. Not sure what other teams, if any, are actively looking to relocate.

 

Las Vegas, Kansas City, and Quebec City are looking to land a team. Quebec is the smallest TV market of the bunch, but probably could get the best local TV deal.

 

Been rumored for years. I'll believe it when it happens.

KC has an arena; I think Quebec is building one. Las Vegas isn't going to happen, probably not with any major pro league. We hear the usual rumors of Phoenix, Nashville and Florida being possible relocation teams, but that's be kicked around for most of the last decade. Islanders are probably off the market with their move to the Barclay's Center.

 

A new arena for hockey/basketball has been proposed near the Seahawks/Mariners stadium complex south of downtown, but I'll believe it when it happens.

Seattle's WHL team, the Thunderbirds, plays in the 6,000-seat capacity ShoWare Center.

The T-birds averaged 4,427 fans/game for the 2013-14 WHL season, putting them 11th in a 22-team league.

 

You can't judge the potential success of a major-league team by using minor-league attendance. Case in point is attendance for the Manitoba Moose. Never averaged more than 9,000 fans in a 15,000-seat arena that is packed to the rafters for the Winnipeg Jets.

http://www.hockeydb.com/nhl-attendance/att_graph.php?tmi=6735

 

..

 

Phoenix? They think they could get Tempe, Mesa, Scottsdale or Chandler to shell out $500-$700M for a new playpen? How long will they stay this time before they want another one, 5 years?

Maybe they can have formerly-used NHL arenas in every city in the metro area?

 

Last thing they need is a publicly-funded new arena. Let them fill the one they have first, then come asking for a handout.

That has all the potential in the world to be an enormous white elephant, half full if the team isn't contending at any given point in time. Just seems like an awfully risky venture to build there.

 

Same here. If there was ever a time to build an arena it was 2006 or so before the SuperSonics moved.

It's a catch-22. No one wants to build an arena without guarantee of a franchise and wind up with a situation like in Kansas City. On the other hand, no league is going to commit to the city without a firm guarantee of a new arena. So we're sort of stuck in the mud, with neither side willing to budge.

 

I'm starting to become curious if Ottawa may be on the block eventually with a potential move to Quebec City. No evidence or story to back it up, but just watching the slow decline of their payroll, not that they were ever a cap team, an 18 year old arena in the middle of nowhere and no chance of a replacement for likely another 20 years, a slowly slumping loonie, and the snapple baron's seemingly growing frustration with the league, I wonder if he just says screw it and cashes out. Shy of putting a stanley cup contender on the ice, I'm not sure the team's value will shoot up much higher -- though there doesn't really ever seem to be a ceiling for such things. Easy move to QC, they stay in the same division -- no realignment -- and the league doesn't lose in it's number of Canadian markets. Plus he gets big bucks, likely from another Canadian billlionare.

Again no real evidence, but just a feeling, as far fetched as it could be.