Quote:
Originally Posted by Locke
The concept of expansion is more than likely always on the table.
As someone alluded to before me, More Teams = More Money.
However, the NHL has to be really careful here. This is a niche sport in its biggest market, you're going to dilute talent without significantly growing revenues to actually grow the game to a point where it can sustain that growth.
Look at it right now, your average team's bottom 2 lines, 3rd D pairing and backup goaltenders are almost all muckers, grinders or otherwise generally interchangeable, so you can see the dilution.
And that dilution is a mix between availability of talent and ability to pay that talent within the confines of the salary cap.
Expansion brings in big money, but how many teams can hockey realistically sustain?
And 'Hard No' to Atlanta. Dont be daft.
|
One of the reasons why soccer is huge is because there are a plethora of competitive leagues.
Watering down the talent isn't always a bad thing. Stars will be real stars and stick out more than ever. More players will have jobs and more fans will have access to high level hockey. This will also help grow the game in other markets thus increasing it's longevity.
I can see the argument both ways but I have always thought that expansion is a good thing. The more teams you have, the more reach you have. The league could easily go.to.40 teams and we would still be getting great hockey night in and night out.