Comparing populations of US centers to Canadian centers, in relation to hockey fans and ability to support hockey teams is laughable. There is also this little detail about the density of fans to population that needs to be considered.
Going by memory, but Canadian cities are estimated at about 60%. Some of the southern US cities are estimated at about 5%. I don't recall what the New York area is - it is certainly well above the 5% of southern US cities, but wouldn't be anywhere near the 60% in Canadian cities.
And saying Toronto can only support one, as the metro Toronto area is only 6M is also pretty funny. Alberta easily supports 2 with about 4.5M people, and WPG is doing okay with a population of $850K. Also, the 6M number doesn't include the population of the surrounding area, outside of the metro Toronto area. including from London to Kingston is closer to 10M. (Yes, I know doing the same for the NY area pushes that number up too, but I am comparing Cdn areas because that is a more relative comparison, due to fan density).
Suggesting the Toronto area could only support one team is being willfully obtuse, IMO. The 4 western provinces, with about 12M people spread over an area about the size of Europe, supports 4 teams. Southern Ontario, with a population almost the same, can easily support 2.
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