Jim Balsillie believes Canada should have another NHL franchise.

For the record, as a Clevelander (or at least from outside Cleveland), I never said Cleveland would make a good hockey market.

 

Didn't take long for your irrationality to kick in, did it? If you've been paying attention, there have been at least two posts saying Cleveland would <b>not</b> work for the NHL.

Sorry, but the vague "the Rangers won the Cup and the NHL was going to explode" argument doesn't match up against getting a hard salary cap and (read carefully) <b>an unprecedented 24 percent rollback in existing contracts.</b>

Why would the NHL suddenly be more successful in Nashville because the Rangers won the Cup?

You want evidence that the NHL doesn't care about Canada? How many franchises did the league put in Canada in the great 1967 expansion? It's already abandoned Winnipeg and Quebec and came thisclose to dumping Edmonton, too.

I'd love to be there when the NHL is trying to sell Marriott on being a partner and proudly boasts, "You know we're in Kitchener/Waterloo now and we're looking strongly at Halifax."

 

Two seasons removed from the Stanley Cup, Carolina is 20th in the league in attendance (total and percentage).

Another FAIL.

Cleveland or Milwaukee, incidentally, would be much better hockey markets than ANY of Tampa, Miami, Nashville, Atlanta, Carolina or Phoenix (Although as in any market where an NBA team controls the arena, no way they would allow an NHL franchise in the door).

And the Los Angeles area doesn't need two teams. That makes about 8 NHL franchises that need to move, so hell yes, move somebody to Winnipeg (the prodigal Coyotes/Jets), somebody to Quebec (hello Tampa), somebody to Hartford (welcome back, Whalers), Houston (Ducks), Kansas City (Nashville) and Seattle (bring in the Panthers).

 

Perhaps the realization that the NHL business model has been a dismal failure and it might be a good idea to put your hockey franchises in places where the people actually give a shit about hockey.

 

You do and there goes my last reason for not dumping you for Fenian.

 

I've always maintained the Leafs wouldn't give a shit about another team in southern Ontario (yeah, they'll collect the territorial rights fee but it won't impact their ticket sales or corporate sponsors), it's the Sabres that would scream fucking murder.

 

Exactamundo. Milwaukee isn't even close to a big enough market for NBA and the NHL. Nor is there much interest in Milwaukee to have the NHL.

 

Tampa. Worst team in the league, owner of the No.1 draft pick.

No.8 in the league in average attendence, 18,692, ahead of Vancouver (9), Minnesota (10) and the New York Rangers (11).

But Tampa's been a disaster.

 

You're either confusing the 1994-95 lockout with the 2004-05 lockout, or you're being extremely disingenuous. Which one is it?

 

Great catch. Looking at the numbers, lowest percent of seats filled for this past season belongs to ...

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/attendance?sort=home_avg&year=2008

30. Florida (80.2 percent), 15,436
29. Columbus (81.7 percent), 14,823
28. Chicago (82.0 percent), 16,814
27. Boston (82.6 percent), 15,384
26. Washington (82.9 percent), 15,472

... So only one warm-weather city there, two Original Six franchises, one of which made the playoffs (Boston) and pushed the No. 1 seed to seven games. And Washington down there with Ovechkin? That surprised me, too.

 

It may be better to look at percentage of tickets sold. Tampa's building I believe sits over 20,000 while places like Vancouver, Minnesota and New York are sold out every night. Tampa Bay had been long suffering and only in the past few years have they finally got a hold of their market. It only took a decade of ineptitude though.

Also Problems with some of the aforementioned cities:
Winnipeg - brand new building but far too small, and I don't think city is willing to jump ahead and build another.
Seattle - building too old and too small and if they weren't going to cough up for the Sonics, they're not going to cough up for an NHL team.
Quebec City - building is too old and too small. As far as I know, no new plans to build.
Halifax - no NHL calibre building.
K/W - no building
Hartford - no building
Saskatoon/Regina - never happen, don't have the population or money for a building.
Vegas - no building and all of the PR implications Also I don't know how much the city base would be drawn to pro sports, too touristy with too much competition.

I would welcome a team to most of these places, but with no building in place and for many of them no plans, you are looking at at least 3-5 years before a move takes place to one of them, unless like Balsile you are willing to use Hamilton, or even Winnipeg, as a temporary home while another is built.

 

But isn't Washington is a turrible sports town. Anything that isn't Redskins, gets a lukewarm reception. And hasn't Tampa been at the top of attendence since winning the cup a few years back?