Tell me again why the NHL needs to stay in Nashville

They did. Which led a Devils fan holding up one of the greatest banners I've ever seen at a sporting event.

"Tennessee's already got enough people with no teeth"

 

I know two guys who played in Nashville and they absolutely loved it. I've been there twice and it's one of the best places I've ever been. But as Elliotte pointed out, there's way more than that to having a successfdul franchise.

I've always believed that MLSE wouldn't give a shit about a team in Hamilton (I know it has a rink but Copps is a dump) or K/W. They are as firmly entrenched in this city - with fans and corporate supporters - as any North American sports team. The Sabres would scream bloody fucking murder, territorial rights or not. They sell a pile of tickets in the Golden Horseshoe and it's not too far from there to K/W without border hassles, US exchange etc. to worry about.

Buffalonians are already worried about losing the Bills to Toronto, another NHL team in southern Ontario (which could easily support one) would KO the Sabres.

 

I've never had a problem with Nashville. I think that it's a neat city with things to do. However, I do go by the notion that any city that ends in ville isn't where I want to live.
As for the NHL, Nashville just hasn't warmed up hockey and never will. Just like Atlanta and the people in Miami and Tampa only gave a crap when the team won.

 

And this is different from Edmonton and Calgary.... how? Or how about the Bruins or Blues? What about the old North Stars?

Heck, how is this different than any professional team anywhere except the truly storied franchises? Do the Texas Rangers draw like crap because the city hasn't warmed up to baseball, or because the team is always a joke?

Most teams don't sell out when the team is consistently mediocre or worse, but I don't see anyone crying out for the Blues to be moved.

Nashville's problems have never been with the regular fans. It's always been with the corporations in the city, and that can be traced back to some pretty poor front-office personnel in the first several years of the team's run. It has to be addressed at some point, but people trying to sell Nashville as not having "warmed up to hockey" don't know anything about hockey in Nashville.

 

Edmonton, Calgary can draw with winners. The Bruins and Blues are mainstays with a hard core base. The Rangers don't draw because the dummies that built the Ball Park in Arlington didn't put a dome on it. No one wants to sit in 100 degrees watching a baseball game.
You have a point about Nashville but I still insist a major reason is that people just don't care. And when the people don't care, corporations, which are the life blood of sports today, don't care.

 

Another under-reported story about The Predators: The A-Rad fiasco. Team's top draft pick from a couple of years back plays great last season and quickly becomes a fan favorite, but in the offseason returns home to Russia, signs a huge contract, and he and the Russian league tells the NHL to go fuck itself.

Not sure why this hasn't become a bigger issue as the ramifications are huge for Nashville and pretty damn big for the league if other players follow suit.

 

That's how every Thrashers game is.
The season-ticket holder section usually is half-full as well.
I once walked up and paid $25 to sit seven rows from the glass.

As far as the one Preds game I went to (back in 2001), the atmosphere was a million times better than most Thrashers games I've been to.
The Preds just play in a bad arena that (if I remember correctly) doesn't have quite the capacity of most NHL arenas.

True, but it was the first playoff games in team history.
I was at Game 1, and that was the first time in the 9+ years I had been going there that every single seat was full.

 

I grew up watching the Charlotte Checkers, many years ago. They were great fun. But I was amazed to discover, after moving to an NHL city in the '80s, that the game wasn't really about prolonged periods of digging the puck out of the corners, punctuated by fights. Who knew there was skating involved?

 

Elliotte, in reference to your letter to JR, too bad for the American teams.

In other words, hockey is healthier than any of the owners, who continue to scream "Woe is me" will admit, and moving the Predators to Hamilton would improve the health of the league.

Yet Gary Bettman is against it because it would, in some small way, acknowledge that hockey isn't a smash hit in all the non-traditional markets. Amazing.

 

Is Nashville's AHL affiliate (Milwaukee, no?) losing money?

 

Elliotte,

I understand the antipathy towards the Leafs. They make more money than most of the other teams can only dream of.

I read that that Tannenbaum and MLSE were exerting as much pressure as possible on Bettman not to give Balsillie any chance to move the Preds to move to SW Ontario. And of course he didn't help his cause with his idiotic season ticket promotion for Hamilton.

I guess my point is, despite Bettman's feelings about Sabres ownership the league needs the Leafs more then they need Buffalo.

But you're absolutely right. Given the relative strength of the Canadian dollar, another team in Canada would prove to be a problem for low revenue stream teams like Atlanta or Phoenix.

The NHL is such an odd business model. If you used it as an MBA thesis, you'd get tossed out of the school.