Tychkowski: It's all gone terribly wrong

[DoyleG]

No comfort in Bettman's southern experiment
http://canoe.ca/Slam040111/col_tychkowski-sun.html

[Papa Bouba Diop]

Solution:

1) Eradicate the Pacific and South East divisions (keep Dallas) give Quebec and Winnipeg their teams back.
2) ???
3) Profit.

[Jeff]

Dude, someone else can go back to Quebec. The Avs haven't had a non-sellout since 1995. That being said, Quebec is a wonderful city, and if it could work economically, I wouldn't be opposed to having a team there. But it has to be another struggler.

[Papa Bouba Diop]

No, I didn't say move the Avs, that would be silly. Just give Quebec and Winnipeg teams, while we're at it, give one to Halifax and Hamilton. Now before someone gets their panties in a bunch, I am only kidding about all this.

[JMU Soccer!]

Originally posted by Papa Bouba Diop
No, I didn't say move the Avs, that would be silly. Just give Quebec and Winnipeg teams, while we're at it, give one to Halifax and Hamilton. Now before someone gets their panties in a bunch, I am only kidding about all this.

Glad to hear you're only kidding.

However, enough people are serious about it. Go back and check the stats, Winnipeg didn't exactly fill up at 15,000 seat arena.

[ElJefe]

The Jets drew the sort of attendances in Winnipeg that Tychkowski was complaining about in this article, and as the Coyotes, they were drawing pretty similar attendances in Phoenix in America West Arena -- one of the worst buildings in the league, an arena where thousands of seats cannot see the entire ice surface because the place was designed for basketball. So in that respect, I can't see that the Coyotes would've been better off back in Winnipeg.

However, now that the Coyotes have moved into their own building in Glendale, they're drawing 18,000 and 19,000 fans a game. To be sure, that has a lot to do with the "new arena" effect, but they've got a playoff contender, so they can keep fans coming back.

[DoyleG]

Originally posted by ElJefe
The Jets drew the sort of attendances in Winnipeg that Tychkowski was complaining about in this article, and as the Coyotes, they were drawing pretty similar attendances in Phoenix in America West Arena -- one of the worst buildings in the league, an arena where thousands of seats cannot see the entire ice surface because the place was designed for basketball. So in that respect, I can't see that the Coyotes would've been better off back in Winnipeg.

However, now that the Coyotes have moved into their own building in Glendale, they're drawing 18,000 and 19,000 fans a game. To be sure, that has a lot to do with the "new arena" effect, but they've got a playoff contender, so they can keep fans coming back.

The Winnipeg Arena is an old facility dating back to the 1950's and yet the team supported them year in and year out. They had a local owner in a position to take over the team.

The reason that the locals didn't take over and why the original American owner moved was simple: The governments weren't willing to fork over the cash for a new arena. Since the new owner couldn't blackmail the governments to pay up, he left. Same reasoning behind the move of the Nordiques to Colorado.

What was reported was that the owner ended up losing so much money in Phoenix that it would've been more affordable to keep the team in Winnipeg.

The problem is that they have to keep up good performance in and out in order to keep the fans, which seems unlikely.

[Jeff]

Originally posted by DoyleG
The Winnipeg Arena is an old facility dating back to the 1950's and yet the team supported them year in and year out. They had a local owner in a position to take over the team.



Do the AHL Moose play there? I remember someone describing that arena as a big bunker.

[DoyleG]

Originally posted by Jeff
Do the AHL Moose play there? I remember someone describing that arena as a big bunker.

The Moose do play there but are moving to a new arena in downtown Winnipeg. The new arena is the True North Centre which holds 14,700.

[JMU Soccer!]

Originally posted by DoyleG
The Winnipeg Arena is an old facility dating back to the 1950's and yet the team supported them year in and year out.


Yep, Winnipeg sure had great support. Just look at these numbers. In an arena that seats about 15,500 I might add.

79-80: 13284
80-81: 13265
81-82: 13382
82-83: 12889
83-84: 12400
84-85: 12994
85-86: 13620
86-87: 13594
87-88: 12681
88-89: 12816
89-90: 13106
90-91: 12931
91-92: 12931
92-93: 13550
93-94: 13297
94-95: 13013
95-96: 11316

Source: http://www.hockeyresearch.com/mfost...s/nhl_attn.html

[DevilDave]

Originally posted by Papa Bouba Diop
Solution:
1) Eradicate the Pacific and South East divisions (keep Dallas) give Quebec and Winnipeg their teams back.

Keep Dallas, eliminate L.A. (one of the "Expansion Six"), San Jose, Anaheim and Phoenix?

The Sharks had a brief lull late last season and early this season, but I think it would be unthinkable to Bay Area hockey fans to eliminate the franchise altogether.

Now the Southeast, on the other hand, has further to go in order to prove itself.