[News] Executive committee recommends to proceed with expansion to Seattle pending BOG vote

[transplant99]

Originally Posted by Johnny Makarov

You mean the 2-3 "good" teams who buy their way into the playoffs every year? No one should ever follow the model of baseball. It's barely a sport.

7 different teams have won the World Series in the last 10 years.

5 different teams have won the Stanley Cup in the last 10 years.

Just sayin.

[Johnny Makarov]

Originally Posted by transplant99

7 different teams have won the World Series in the last 10 years.

5 different teams have won the Stanley Cup in the last 10 years.

Just sayin.

10 different people in Canada watched baseball playoffs the past 10 years... Just sayin

Can't wait to see the Roger Exec's faces when you tell them that they are cutting the potential of 105 playoff games down to 41....

How many people would attend games at the Dome if the Flames are out by January like last year?

[transplant99]

I have no idea what you are going on about now, so i will let you continue unfettered.

[Deegee]

Originally Posted by Johnny Makarov

You mean the 2-3 "good" teams who buy their way into the playoffs every year? No one should ever follow the model of baseball. It's barely a sport.

Yup. Congratulations to the Boston Red Sox for purchasing another championship.

Yawn.

[Johnny Makarov]

Originally Posted by transplant99

I have no idea what you are going on about now, so i will let you continue unfettered.

Baseball playoffs is no good.

[Peanut]

Originally Posted by Johnny Makarov

10 different people in Canada watched baseball playoffs the past 10 years... Just sayin

Can't wait to see the Roger Exec's faces when you tell them that they are cutting the potential of 105 playoff games down to 41....

How many people would attend games at the Dome if the Flames are out by January like last year?

It’s pretty well established that if you’re not in a playoff position by American thanksgiving (so, November), then odds are against making up ground and getting into the playoffs.

So. Keeping hope until January isn’t too bad actually.

[Lubicon]

Originally Posted by Strange Brew

8 divisions of 4 teams in each conference. Division winners advance to playoffs. Teams with four next best records make it. Playoff seedings based on records (division winners 1 to 4) and next best (5 to 8).

Schedule doesn't have to be balanced.

Similar to NFL format but with 4 wild cards instead of 2. Flames would play with Vancouver, Seattle and Edmonton.

My initial thoughts are for a model along this line too. 8 divisions of 4 teams. The part I don't think would fly is the the bold part. I don't think Seattle (or the NHL) would be keen on having a US team with no other US cities within their own division. Maybe replace Seattle with Winnipeg but then there is the issue of time zones.

[Hockey Fan #751]

Originally Posted by Calgary_81

Can u imagine... Being drafted in an Expansion draft twice in such a short span?!

There was a handful of these in the early 90s (and a few who were taken THREE times):

• Anatoli Semenov was drafted by the Tampa Bay Lightning then the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim
• Bob McGill was drafted by the San Jose Sharks then Tampa Bay Lightning
• Darren Puppa was drafted by the Tampa Bay Lightning then Florida Panthers
• Denis Vial was drafted by the Tampa Bay Lightning then Mighty Ducks of Anaheim
• Glenn Healy was drafted by the Tampa Bay Lightning then Mighty Ducks of Anaheim
• Jim Thomson was drafted by the Minnesota North Stars then Ottawa Senators then Mighty Ducks of Anaheim (off the LA Kings each time!)
• Lonnie Loach was drafted by the Ottawa Senators then Mighty Ducks of Anaheim
• Randy Gilhen was drafted by the Minnesota North Stars then Mighty Ducks of Anaheim
• Rob Ramage was drafted by the Minnesota North Stars then Tampa Bay Lightning

And the expansion drafts from 1998-2000:

• Chris Armstrong was drafted by the Nashville Predators and Minnesota Wild
• Jamie Pushor was drafted by the Atlanta Thrashers and Columbus Blue Jackets
• Frederic Chabot was taken by the Tampa Bay Lightning, Nashville Predators and Columbus Blue Jackets (!!)

[powderjunkie]

76 game season would be ideal and very simple (7x4games; 24x2 games). It's a 7.3% reduction in supply - I don't think it would be too detrimental to gate revenue, but probably moreso to TV contracts.

A 5v4 play-in game in each division would help offset a fair bit though.

For final four, I would determine home ice seed based on goal differential between the teams involved in their games for that season. Mitigates a team that manages to rack up a ton of points because their division sucks. It would suck for a 112 pt 1 seed from the Pacific to be the road team against a 97 pt 3 seed from the Central that makes it through their division, just because you beat them once by 1 and they beat you once by 2...but those are the breaks and it just means that every game matters. It would also reward goal-scoring.

[Enoch Root]

You don't charge a team $500M USD (or whatever it was) to join, and then cut the schedule - and thus the revenues - by 7.5%.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Originally Posted by Johnny Makarov

Baseball playoffs is no good.

lol

[powderjunkie]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

You don't charge a team $500M USD (or whatever it was) to join, and then cut the schedule - and thus the revenues - by 7.5%.

I'm not convinced $500M has or will ever change hands in either case (though I'm sure there are a few roundabout ways the league could come close to justifying this number).


I think the argument would be that you are trimming off the worst 7.3% of opportunities to generate revenue (e.g. Monday night in Feb Flames vs. Preds game), as well as ~7.3% of operating costs (but not sunk costs) which are far more consistent. Then replacing that with far fewer, but significantly better opportunities to generate more revenue per opportunity.

As many teams will really miss those gate revenues as will appreciate missing them...for the rest it would shake out pretty evenly. As for TV, maybe you only shorten the season by one week instead of two. Regional deals would suffer more than national deals, who would maintain almost as many prime supply slots as before.

Maybe it shakes out to a 5% total HRR reduction. But it might be worth it to improve the quality and sustainability the product (fewer injuries to stars, easier to accommodate the Olympics, every game matters even more, etc.).

To be clear, the players would have to agree to this, knowing that it would decrease their final take home pay. I know I'd take 7% less gross for 7% more time off...that last 7% of pay is taxed at the highest rate...

FWIW; 30 teams x 82 = 2460 reg games.
32 teams x 76 = 2432.