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Originally Posted by afc wimbledon
There is a huge difference between people being geed up to buy a one time cheap ticket for a game in London, no doubt every hockey fan in the country (and the UK does have a league of sorts) drove in to watch, that does not translate to a club being able to compete in a sports market that, in London has six premiership teams.
Trust me on this I have some very US sports savy friends over their who would be your target demographic, they will watch NFL or even hockey on TV but they are all season ticket holders to premiership clubs and wouldn't miss a night game at Arsenal to attend a hockey game.
Hell the league can't sell hockey to most of the US at this point.
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It's true people won't pick hockey over football, but evening matches at home are seldom, even for teams in the Champions/Europa leagues. Chelsea for instance (which has as many fixtures as any club in the country) plays at home, at night maybe once a fortnight, if that, on average.
I think it would take Brits awhile to get used to the frequency of NHL games--the English consider most American sports berserk for playing at least three times a week on average.
Aside from that, I think London could support a club. Consider the Guildford Flames for instance: small town, not even in the top ice hockey league in the UK, plays home games inside a sports centre/multiplex, devoid of talent--they average over 1500 attendence per game. And don't forget London (unlike Guildford) is full of Russians, Canadians, Eastern Europeans, Americans, Scandinavians--I talk hockey with people I meet here all the time. I think you could get 13-14000 or more in London with top talent and opposition.
The question is whether people would buy into it as the real thing, or just an ersatz NHL club. If it can compete with the likes of the top clubs currently in the NHL then I think it could succeed. The question whether you can get to that point in the first place.