Penguins for sale - still and again

No, it shouldn't. Kansas City > Quebec > Southern Ontario.

 

In a perfect world:

Hamilton Tigers stolen away in 1925 = Southern Ontario moves to the head of the line.

and:

KC Scouts failed after only TWO seasons = don't call us, and we won't call you either.

In the real, cruel world:

NHL head office in NY and Gary Bettman in charge = KC gets a franchise and Canada gets screwed again.

 

If any team moves into the Western Conference, the first team that should get a crack at changing divisions is Dallas. There is no good reason for them to be in the Pacific seeing as they're in the central time zone and closer to Nashville, Denver, Chicago, Columbus and Detroit than anyone but Phoenix.

 

DoubleJ, I won't debate the Scouts because yes, they did flop. But that was with a rundown Kemper Arena and when hockey also ran head-to-head with the NBA Kings, who later moved to Sacramento.

Bottom line, with a new downtown arena, someone's going to call the Sprint Center home. It might be the Penguins or an NBA team, I don't know. But they will find someone who's looking for a ready-made home.

Just curious, does Southern Ontario have an NHL-style arena for someone to call home? Or have someone -- either a town or possible owner -- willing to finance a new arena if there isn't one up to NHL standards now?

 

Allegedly Mark Cuban contacted the NHL about buying the team on Wednesday.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/cityregion/s_485142.html

 

Copps Coliseum in Hamilton is a 19,000-seat NHL-style arena. It was built in the hopes of luring an NHL team to JR's hometown. It's not that old - built in 1985 - but I've been there for a few Hamilton Bulldogs (AHL) games and it's really showing its age. But there is no way an NHL team is going to Hamilton.

 

I will continue to say Cuban is full of shit until he actually steps up and buys the Penguins or Pirates. He could have stepped in years ago, especially on the Penguins.

 

I'm not sure there's ANYBODY who's done more TALKING about buying the Pens than Cuban.

 

There are plenty of people who could buy the team if they wanted to put their money where their mouths are.

Cuban
Marino
Chip Ganassi
one of the Mellon heirs

Money exists in Pittsburgh. But the yahoos don't care about anything but their Stillirs. And the Pirates, when PNC Park hosts a major-league team, but Hell shall freeze over first.

(P.S. Latest rumor I hear is the Nutting boys may offer Jeff Suppan $48 mil. Talk about misplaced spending...)

 

This Mellon heir?

 

If Kansas City gets a team--and if there's a God, She won't allow it to happen--then they'll move Detroit to the eastern conference, or so says Damien Cox in today's Star.

http://www.thestar.com/Sports/article/163844

But with all due respect to the fine folks in Kansas City, that just looks like another Atlanta or Florida in waiting.

The 19,500-seat Sprint Center sure is pretty, and yes, there's a chance the K.C. team in its second time around as an NHL city could be a new Colorado.

But it's likelier to be a new Phoenix, and this isn't a league that can afford to go to another maybe market

Maybe if Bettman got his head out of his ass, he'd realise that it'd be smarter to put a team where people actually CARE about hockey.

The Kitchener-Waterloo area has a population of 7,000,000 within an hour's drive.

 

I'm all for another team in Canada, but can't it be the Coyotes back to Winnipeg and the Avalanche back to Quebec?