Rumor Owners meeting today to approve expansion to 34 teams

[musth]

Originally Posted by memphusk

Watered down product gets more Water.

[Hockey-and_stuff]

Originally Posted by dissentowner

It's called google. Take your pick. Feel free to show me all the articles of what a great job he has done. Are you going to post something substantial to back your point or are you going to basically say nothing?

You're the one making the claim, you can provide your own proof, that isn't my responsibility.

Sent from my Pixel 7 Pro using Tapatalk

[dissentowner]

Originally Posted by Hockey-and_stuff

You're the one making the claim, you can provide your own proof, that isn't my responsibility.

Sent from my Pixel 7 Pro using Tapatalk

I have given multiple examples, I have stated an opinion why I think he has not done.a very good job, I have asked for those who disagree to give their opinions why or provide some articles. Some people have given opinions and that is great, people can have differing opinions. What drives me nuts is posts like yours where you don't really have a counter argument so you post the above which has nothing. You are just arguing for the sake of arguing.

[Hockey-and_stuff]

Originally Posted by dissentowner

I have given multiple examples, I have stated an opinion why I think he has not done.a very good job, I have asked for those who disagree to give their opinions why or provide some articles. Some people have given opinions and that is great, people can have differing opinions. What drives me nuts is posts like yours where you don't really have a counter argument so you post the above which has nothing. You are just arguing for the sake of arguing.

Isn't that the pot calling the kettle black. All I did was point out that your arguments were mostly anecdotal or did not really provide enough evidence to claim that "most media and financial people" think Bettman did a bad job.

I didn't offer my own opinion on the matter, I just tried to challenge your claim as I believed it to be untrue.

We can leave it as a difference of opinion here, but if you keep responding to everyone the issue never goes away. I suggest you learn to let things lie if you think they've run their course.

[D as in David]

Originally Posted by dissentowner

https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/...canadian-teams

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/...-in-pro-sports

https://sports.yahoo.com/gary-bettma...231720784.html

Thank you for these but your claim was "The majority of media and finance people are not in agreement" not that there are at least data points supporting your opinion. I'm pretty sure we could dig up three scathing opinion pieces on the head of every major sport organization but those wouldn't mean the majority of opinions about them were negative either.

Many? Probably. The majority?

[Mattman]

Originally Posted by Sidney Crosby's Hat

I wonder with Bell now divested in MLSE if Toronto is an enticing expansion opportunity for them?

A second Toronto team that wins the Cup before the Leafs do? Ha! Count me in!

[transplant99]

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

By what measure? Expansion has been wildly successful for the league and franchise values are at an all time high.
How is he failing?

Quit making sense...there is no argument against it.

Being best friends and all.

Signed, Todd

[dino7c]

Its not fair to compare hockey to football, baseball, or basketball for obvious reasons. No commissioner is going to compete with those leagues, in fact if they try to hard to they will only alienate the fans they have currently

[Freeway]

Bettman's job is to grow revenues for the league's owners. You can make arguments about the relative growth of the NHL compared to other major sports brands, but you can't argue that revenue hasn't grown substantially and franchise values haven't sky-rocketed as a consequence.

[memphusk]

Marketing. Sell it as what you want but this is the world now. Make it an experience also. So many people don't know what and how good the game is without marketing. We met a nice couple in Las Vegas that basically knew nothing about hockey when Vegas started their team and they now love the game. Season ticket holders. They really enjoyed learning from other teams fans on the outlook of the game. We had the chance to see it through their eyes talking to them. Pretty good.

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by Eric Vail

I hope this isn't true. There are already too many teams.

From the owner’s POV, there will never be too many teams. If it were viable today, we’d have 48 teams in the NHL.

Would that suck for fans of existing teams? Absolutely. Make it that much harder to win a championship. But the interests of existing fans don’t factor into these decisions.

[Reggie Dunlop]

A second Toronto-area team would be a big financial success and hardly put a dent into the Maple Leafs coffers. That's a huge market.

[Nufy]

The Quebec option will be fine...

Once they figure out how to get the Feds to cover most of the cost...

"Bring back Le Nordiques...or we separate....!!!"

[CliffFletcher]

With the ongoing expansion of teams, and the worsening disadvantage small-market Canadian teams find themselves in, the Flames (and Jets, Senators, et) will have to find another driver of fan engagement besides building a championship calibre team. The odds are getting really, really long at this point.

English football teams who have little hope of winning a championship manage to sustain support through deep, multi-generational roots in the community, and a culture where winning a single game against a top team sparks delirious celebrations. Neither are applicable to the fanbases of small-market NHL teams.

But maybe broad-based fan engagement doesn’t much matter in an NHL where revenues are driven by corporate support. If 80 per cent of Calgarians don’t give a toss about the Flames, but corporate boxes continue selling out, are ownership and the board of governors really bothered?

[Funkhouser]

No more Atlanta, Phoenix. No to Houston, yes to Texas.

One in GTA
One in Austin TX

This is what I would like to see.

Austin, FYI, is the 11th largest city in the US, and are the second fastest growing in the US.. They presently have no big 4 franchise. Much like Vegas, Nashville, Columbus & San Jose before them, they are an underserved market that is booming. The NHL seems to do well in these markets.

[The Fisher Account]

Every new team added makes the chances of us living long enough to see another Flames Cup that much smaller

[TrentCrimmIndependent]

Originally Posted by The Fisher Account

Every new team added makes the chances of us living long enough to see another Flames Cup that much smaller

Especially with how these expansion drafts work and how high of a floor that ensures these new rosters.

Vegas a perennial contender right off the bat and while Seattle went "off the board" a number of times and could've easily done better, they've also seen a playoff run in their short existence.

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by Freeway

Bettman's job is to grow revenues for the league's owners. You can make arguments about the relative growth of the NHL compared to other major sports brands, but you can't argue that revenue hasn't grown substantially and franchise values haven't sky-rocketed as a consequence.

Not just revenue really. At this point, you have to believe franchise value is starting to take priority over revenue.

Many businesses are valued based on their revenues and profitability but sports franchises are quite different. Look at the Coyotes.

While I suppose Bettman deserves some credit for the rise in franchise value, the truth is that this is a phenomenon happening across the pro sports landscape. The proliferation of billionaires and the rules of scarcity are main factors but give Bettman credit for managing the situation and not making dumb decisions that would dilute the value of NHL franchises.

[troutman]

Originally Posted by Funkhouser

No more Atlanta, Phoenix. No to Houston, yes to Texas.

One in GTA
One in Austin TX

This is what I would like to see.

Austin, FYI, is the 11th largest city in the US, and are the second fastest growing in the US.. They presently have no big 4 franchise. Much like Vegas, Nashville, Columbus & San Jose before them, they are an underserved market that is booming. The NHL seems to do well in these markets.

Austin is 26th by Metro Area.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrop...atistical_area

[D as in David]

Originally Posted by memphusk

Marketing. Sell it as what you want but this is the world now. Make it an experience also. So many people don't know what and how good the game is without marketing. We met a nice couple in Las Vegas that basically knew nothing about hockey when Vegas started their team and they now love the game. Season ticket holders. They really enjoyed learning from other teams fans on the outlook of the game. We had the chance to see it through their eyes talking to them. Pretty good.

If it is true that the NHL is a gate-driven league, more gates = more fans = more revenue. As shown in your example, people often need to see the game live to become fans of the game.