atlanta/tamapa bay/nashville/ on the move

NHL?

 

I assume so, since the Nashville arena football franchise moved to Atlanta.

 

Ahh... the fabulous sporting paridise that is Florida. Hah... how many teams have folded or been on the verge on no longer existing these past oh... two years?

NHL appears to be in pretty serious trouble. Those 3 teams plus Buffalo going bankrupt plus the myriad of problems facing the Canadian teams.

 

Tampa Bay is drawing better this season, and always has done fairly well at the gate when there's been a better than horrid product on the ice.

Nashville was doing okay until this season.

 

You can add Anaheim and Phoenix to the list of pathetic hockey markets as well. Anaheim was at the bottom in 2001-2 attendance, this year they are still among the bottom feeders this year.

Phoenix I think is building an arena for the Coyotes, but the thought of hockey there makes me want to puke.

The NHL is getting what's coming to it right now. They've gone mega-corporate during the brief hockey boom, and now the fad is over and many southern markets are coming back down to earth.

The league has really gone down hill since leaving some of its old Northern markets. I miss Winnipeg, Hartford, Quebec, the North Stars and the others.

 

They may be crappy but bad attendance isnt the only thing that makes a team crappy. What I mean is that the other teams rely on attendance for $$, where as Anaheim I think is owned by Disney so they can afford to have crappy attendance and go through some "bad times", even if its for 15 years.

These other teams dont have the power behind them or the will from their owners to lose large amounts of money.

There just isnt enough interest in this sport/teams in their cities to hold them off a few year until they get good. Theres no one buying any jerseys or souvenirs to offset the bad attendance. Thats what really killing them its just the lack of interest.

Tho the thing with Canadian teams is a whole other issue because it isnt just interest but the economic inbalance of having a league across 2 countries. Because if Canada was the same as the US in currency and taxes, all those teams that moved would probably still be there.

 

Ted C, is that you?

 

I wouldn't be surprised to see Nashville gone in a year or two.

Atlanta will be around for at least a few more years, unless AOLTW thinks they can make some coin off the transaction.

 

Add to this list Phoenix, Nashville, Anaheim, Florida, Washington & Carolina. ( I would also add Pittsburg to that list, we all know whats gonna happen when Mario retires).
Bring back the Nordiques & Jets, give Halifax a team, re-name the Wild back to the "north stars" and we've got an ideal NHL. (Never happen in a million years).

But seriously, hearing about 2 expansion (recently)teams folding is kinda sad.

God dawm Bettman, i hate that guy, his idea of promoting hockey: a 30 second commercial involving guys pounding the sh!t of each other.

Anyone remember a few years ago when the Sabres played the Stars in the SC final and Brett Hull scored a goal that shouldnt have counted (old stupid skate in the crease rule) to win the SC? It was so obvious that Bettman wanted the Stars to win (to boost hockey interest in Dallas ). He sucks.

On a positive note, i beleive attendances are up this year.

 

You know, someone mentioned having an open European-style club system in American sports in another forum, and it really makes sense for hockey. Then of course, there is that tricky problem of expansion fees and such...

 

In addition, Carolina has supported the Hurricanes better than Hartford ever did. Plus, they don't have close markets such as the Bruins, Rangers, Islanders and Devils padding their attendance.

And please, I feel sorry for anyone believing the original poster here.

 

Re: Re: Re: atlanta/tamapa bay/nashville/ on the move

Jesus, why are you getting all offended. i felt like bashing Bettman and thats the first thing that popped into my head.

I have nothing against Dallas. Notice how I didnt include Dallas in my list of teams i would like to see folded? And i never said the North Stars deserved to stay in Minn.

As for the goal, replays showed that Hull had his skate in Hasek's crease, while the puck was out of the crease. He then proceded to shoot and he scored. That is NOT a valid goal. It was obvious that something was going on there. Why inforce a (stupid) rule, for an entire season if your not going to on the most important game of the year?

You speak of attenances, thats great, but how are the TV ratings in Dallas? Do they even show games on local tv there?

 

Winnipeg arena holds like 15,000 seats.

Quebec city endured years of fire sales but they still loved that team to death.

 

Aren't they building an arena in Scottsdale or something? Is my geography off?

 

I believe the Coyotes new building will be ready for next season.

I have to agree with Papa about Quebec's support of the Nords. This continued through the 95 playoffs when it was pretty obvious they were gone sooner rather than later. Add this: the crowd went ballistic in a good way this October when Colorado played a preseason game there. Sakic and Foote wore the old Nords jerseys during warmups and the crowd went nuts. Marcel Abult (sp) is why the Nords left, not a lack of interest.

Bring back the Whalers: forgeddaboutit.

Minnesota: since I've been following sports anyway, their fans have supported their teams as long as they didn't feel shafted by ownership. Blind faith they don't have. They aren't turning on the Wild anytime soon if at all.

 

The thing about Quebec, is one could argue that it was a mistake to bring them into the league to begin with back in '79-'80. Yes, the fans loved them and I feel bad that they lost their team, but could this market ever truely support an NHL team in terms of inflows of raw cash?? They were offloading players since the mid '80's and even receiving that $15 million in the Lindross sweepstakes didn't deter their financial woes. Yes, perhaps a different owner other than Abult might have done better.

And Hartford was just a novelty act to get Gordie Howe and Bobby Hull back into the league for one more season. That novelty act lasted about 15 years too long.

Say what you will about Bettman, but Ziegler was far worse.

For once I'll stand by what El Jefe says.

 

Nashville and Atlanta are my local teams so I would hate to see them leave or disband. I think the NHL should increase revenue sharing and institute a hard salary cap.

That way teams that aren't in hockey obsessed cities could survive and be very competitive kind of like a small place such as Green Bay in the NFL.


-VON

 

Hockey's biggest problem is that its average ticket price is too high to sustain the novelty of it. Unless you catch lightning in a bottle in a way that Dallas (top ten population market that got a very good team from MN) or Denver (won Stanley Cup in 1st season after move from Quebec) did, the long-seated passion isn't there in these new markets to justify $100 ticket prices for more than the first 1-2 years.

These expansion franchises are going to suck for years b/c they don't have the minor league programs from which to build a good team. If the fans abandon the team before they have a chance to get good, the owner can either build through high-cost free agency (usually a very risky move in the NHL -- look at the Rangers) or go small-market with a vastly reduced payroll. Either choice can result in bankruptcy.