Re: NHL 2012: Off-Season Running Thread
JR said:
Why would the NHL consider ANY additional US market when there are probably three in Canada that would be way more profitable?
Quebec City, another one in the GTA and heck, even the Maritimes or Saskatchewan.
The Jets have shown that with the right ownership, even a heck hole like Winnipeg can be profitable .
A team in Saskatchewan won't happen now or anytime in the next 20 years. I guarantee it. There's about one million people in the province total. And it's a big ass province. Regina has just under 200,000 people and Saskatoon has about 220,000, and there's a lot of poverty in both cities. They are separated by about 2.5-3.5 hours, depending on the weather. Yes 30,000 people fill Taylor Field nine times a year. But that's during the summer and with tickets that max out at $60 a seat before taxes. That's not driving those godawful roads 41 times during the winter, paying an average of $100 a ticket. Not happening. There's also the issue of a stadium, and the only one close to suitable would be Sask Place or whatever it is called now in Saskatoon, and it's in the middle of nowhere and is a 24-year-old barn that seats about 15,000. With the heck they're going through to replace Taylor Field in Regina (speaking of absolute dives) at about a third of the cost of a new NHL-calibre arena, there is no way they build a new rink without the guarantee of a team coming and no way the NHL even gives the province a sniff without a new rink already built, and even then the province would be a longshot to get a team. It's not even chicken or egg, it's no henhouse.
Yes, Wild Bill Hunter nearly stole the Blues away in the mid-80s, with shovels ready to go in the ground to build Sask Place -- which eventually got built anyways, but reconfigured for junior hockey -- but that was a completley different economic reality for the NHL at the time.
Winnipeg, although I think time will be the true judge of that franchise once the initial hoopla and novelty wears off, has a fairly new building with all of the amenities in downtown Winnipeg. While the province as a whole is only about 1.25 million, the Winnipeg metro area is 762,800.
I have no idea about the Maritimes but if they can't figure out a building for the CFL, they are a long way from consideration for the NHL. Even after being shamed by JC, I would still put Seattle ahead of both Sask and the Maritimes.
The next city in NA to get a team will be Quebec City. After that it's anyone's guess, although I would like to see another in Southern Ontario.
I could still see other U.S. cities getting franchises, although none of them would bring in the revnue that either QC or the GTA would. But a move to some of those markets would be an improvement from the markets they have certain franchises in now, moving them from the biggest blackholes to potentially somewhere in the middle where there's a large chunk of teams that hope to break even and make money with the playoff gate.
