Quote:
Originally Posted by Classic_Sniper
Yeah I can't see the NHL working so hard to keep a market like Arizona in the NHL while completely abandoning Calgary and poisoning the well so to speak. Even if Edwards finds a way to convince all the other shareholders to abandon ship, he's going to have to convince what is it, 17 other owners to pull out of a Canadian market with all the history and the Battle of Alberta and etc? No chance. The NHL and Edwards can talk big in order to gain some leverage, but in the end, the Flames are staying put and we'll get an arena one of these days.
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Nobody outside of Alberta cares about the BoA history, this will be a purely money and arena play. Atlanta and Houston both have urban populations of 4.5M+ and more importantly, are major economic and hubs in the US. Both are top10 for the most fortune500 headquartered companies in the US. That trumps Calgary, and most other NA cities in potential corporate and retail revenue.
Add to this Atlanta has just put forward a plan for a $2B entertainment district which includes a hockey arena that can be completed in 3years and you can easily see why it's not hard to connect the dots for relocation, whether that's Calgary or Arizona. I don't see why Edwards wouldn't be chomping at the bit to relocate to Atlanta if that deal gets approved. By all accounts he's a cheap bastard, so if someone else is taking the risk and putting up the arena money... why wouldn't he want in on that.
The Oakland A's also just agreed to relocated their team to Vegas basically because of a stadium. Both these facts have definitely provided enough ammo for Edwards and Bettman where any talks of relocation is much more than "talking big".