Globe and Mail reports that NHL may be loaning money to Phoenix Coyotes

We've touched on the expansion fee issue in the past on this thread.

Why the NHL would leave expansion fees on the table to move a team I don't understand, but I'm deep in my IPAs tonight.

Find new ownership for Ontario and Quebec or include a fee if a team like the Yotes relocate.

Many moving parts here.

Announcing plans for an arena is all well and good, but without some kind of nod from the NHL seems potential folly.

 

I think expansion is borderline suicidal for the NHL.

The problem isn't just getting fans to show up in places like Phoenix, Columbus or Nashville. You also have to get fans in stronger hockey markets to show up for games against teams like Phoenix, Columbus or Nashville.

I was an NHL season ticket holder at one point. It really put into perspective how few NHL teams I actually wanted to see.

 

I was at the Wild game last night. They played Chicago. A season ticket holder mentioned to me how much more room there was in the arena when Columbus was in town.

 

Exactly. Columbus could sell out every home game, but fans in every other city will still look at the schedule and think "shit, Columbus tonight?"

 

And if anyone here goes to a Wild game, I hope by then the just-completed brown and tan section of premium seating has been painted Wild colors or sold for in-arena signage by then. My lord, it looks horrible.

 

Even though the GTA and Quebec make the most sense I can't see the league putting two expansion teams in Canada. One of the two will get a team and a US city that won't support a team but has a nice arena (Houston, Kansas City, Seattle) will get the other team.

My guess is the Yotes wind up in Seattle, Quebec gets the Canadian expansion team and we get the second coming of:

 

Henry Boucha:

 

My sense is that Rogers and Bell Media who are the majority share holders in MLSE (Leafs, Raptors, Toronto FC, the Marlies, ACC, and numerous condos) would like nothing more than to see another team in the GTA.

When the two media competitors joined forces to buy MLSE from the Ontario Teachers Fund, they didn't talk about the teams, they talked about "media, content and platforms"

Another team in hockey's biggest market would only add to the coffers.

This is pretty much a given. It's only a question of when.

 

Yes. Glendale is a small suburb of Phoenix, albeit with big dreams. So you don't have the veteran reporters in Phoenix tracking this as much as you have the relatively inexperienced community reporter. Glendale got taken to the cleaners in the deal to build a spring training home for the Dodgers and White Sox. The LA Times wrote about it, but I'm not sure if the local papers ever did.

 

I think that's been the hold up for two decades. It's not the market that can't support a second team, but the people at MLSE are very powerful in NHL circles and they don't want to split the potential loot. It would force them to actually have to invest to make the Leafs contenders if fans had another option. Heck, I think MLSE was what basically killed the possibility of Hamilton getting a team.

 

Expanding the NHL at this point would be a disaster. They need to take care of the teams and fans they already have first.

Heck, less than a month ago, we were facing the real possibility of a cancelled season.

 

No they weren't. It was never going to happen