Quote:
Originally Posted by Jay Random
Would it?
I remember when the Quebec Nordiques were basically shut out of HNIC broadcasts in the regular season. Molson owned the Montreal Canadiens at that time, and was also HNIC's principal sponsor, and Molson did not want the Nordiques to compete with the Habs, full stop. And the Nordiques were not even in the same city!
The problem with a second Toronto team would be much worse, because the Leafs are 75% owned by the two largest private media companies in Canada. Neither Bell nor Rogers is going to give any airtime to a team that directly competes against the Leafs in their home market. Corporate sponsors are going to keep supporting the Leafs, not wasting their money on tickets to see a team that their business partners and clients don't care about. A second Toronto team could do very well at the box office, but it would get clobbered on ancillary revenues.
Now add in the fact that any expansion team in Toronto would have to pay a nine-figure indemnity to the Leafs before it even got started. I don't think there's a good case to be made that they would ever be profitable enough to pay that off.
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Yes, this is all of what I meant under "protectionist stuff". To me, the ironic thing is that everyone could probably make more money by allowing it to happen and be as profitable as possible. Instead of driving what would otherwise be a profitable addition to your organization into the ground with protectionist fees and media blackouts etc..split the fans, create rivalries, ticket prices for both can increase, jersey sales, more player jobs, all the rest, the NHL is a revenue share league with a capped employee budget, so the more profitable each team is, the better off it all is. The Leafs should be comfortable enough with their own organization to recognize that it will be profitable and popular regardless of another team. Millions of people will continue to be die hard Leafs fans not different than the NY Jets or Mets. It's a 100 year old team. Toronto has a huge international population that would probably jump at the chance to support a new team, even more so if it faces a bunch of stupid league adversity.