Quote:
Originally Posted by Hot_Flatus
Call me naive if you want, but playing in an arena that is smaller than most junior and many college buildings is an embarrassment for the team and league. If this was even a possibility, why wasn't it explored earlier when the building might have been planned to be at least be north of 10k seats and a true shared partnership could be formed? Glendale has most recently been on the rocks for at least 2-3 years now (if not longer) so time shouldn't have been a factor here.
This is desperation at its finest and one of Bettman's continually worst maneuvers to continue to defend this sad market when it could be in many other cities and quite possibly at least getting itself out of the negative as a constant drain on league revenues.
As a player it would have already been a tough sell, but now, there's no way in hell I'm touching that franchise with a ten foot poll.
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I think the true answer is a lot of teams just don't plan ahead. Another example is Barclays Center where the Islanders were offered to be tenants early in construction (at a time where the bowl could have been built to accommodate hockey) but said no. Then they changed their minds but at that point, it was a basketball bowl and you had to shove one side of the rink under the stands at one end. Eventually they got their new arena but it was an embarrassing handful of years for the team and league before that.