Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr.Coffee
Why?
People don’t drive multiple hours to go watch a NHL game (well, I bet 99.9999% don’t anyway). People in Houston aren’t driving to Dallas, Salt Lake City driving to Denver, or Portland driving to Seattle. There’s a ton of markets to go exploit and make money from. I don’t really get the reticence to avoid expansion or growth personally (from an ownership perspective) other than the point that every market you expand into is one less market you can threaten taxpayers with relocation to fund new arenas.
Further, I think watering down the talent actually makes the product better (more mistakes leads to more exciting hockey).
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Quote:
Originally Posted by _Q_
28 in the US, 8 in Canada? It doesn't seem too far fetched.
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currently there are 25 functional NHL cities in the US (24 minus Arizona which will very likely be on the move). To get to 36 teams, you need 5 more cities.
Not sure what cities can actually support/want NHL? Atlanta is out, unless the NHL wants to got there a third time and strike out. So you have Houston, Sacramento? Milwaukee? Not sure who else?
Demand drives supply - there's a reason that Networks aren't having bidding wars for the NHL: the market isn't there.
the expansion fee is definitely enticing, but I don't think the market in the US has much more capacity then what its currently at.