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Portland and Seattle as hockey markets.


Kamero89

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These two cities are clearly the best kept secret in the hockey world. The Portland Winterhawks have even led the entire CHL in attendance a few times. Seattle has led the WHL in attendance themselves.

To call them a "non traditional hockey market", is flat out wrong. Their first hockey teams, pre date team in Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, and most of central Canada. Their first pro teams pre date all american teams expect 2 (New York, and Chicago).

The Rose Garden in Portland, was built the same time as GM Place, and has roughly the same attendance. 50 Canucks games are televised in Portland every year, on their local sports network (pretty much there Sportsnet).

Seattle does not have a team for good reason, no arena. They are in the process of getting a new arena, and hopefully will get a team.

Teams in these markets, will be a HUGE benefit for the Canucks. We'd have team's where our fans could actually make a trip to watch them, and be back in the same day. 1500 Whitecaps fans go to Portland and Seattle for a game. Imagine how many Canucks fans would go. Not to mention the instant rivalry with these teams.

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When did seattle lead the dub in attendance? I've been to several games at Showare and lets just say seats are available, for good reason though the team is horribly managed

On topic: I agree both would be good markets for an NHL team to relocate to, with Seattle probably having the stronger hockey market with rinks ranging from Tacoma to Everett, while Portland has an arena and less teams to compete against with no NFL or major NCAA program in the city

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These two cities are clearly the best kept secret in the hockey world. The Portland Winterhawks have even led the entire CHL in attendance a few times. Seattle has led the WHL in attendance themselves.

To call them a "non traditional hockey market", is flat out wrong. Their first hockey teams, pre date team in Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, and most of central Canada. Their first pro teams pre date all american teams expect 2 (New York, and Chicago).

The Rose Garden in Portland, was built the same time as GM Place, and has roughly the same attendance. 50 Canucks games are televised in Portland every year, on their local sports network (pretty much there Sportsnet).

Seattle does not have a team for good reason, no arena. They are in the process of getting a new arena, and hopefully will get a team.

Teams in these markets, will be a HUGE benefit for the Canucks. We'd have team's where our fans could actually make a trip to watch them, and be back in the same day. 1500 Whitecaps fans go to Portland and Seattle for a game. Imagine how many Canucks fans would go. Not to mention the instant rivalry with these teams.

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Seattle is the place. New arena combined with NBA makes it a certainty. I still expect PHX to end up there if another team doesn't beat them. With Seattle in the Pacific Div can be Van-Seattle-SJ-LA-Anaheim! No more Calgary/Edmonton but the Oilers will be killer in a couple of years anyway. It would put Van into a single time zone for all divisional play.

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I swear all this feet dragging in Phoenix is damage control, and the team will move to Seattle or Quebec.

Despite everything showing Glendale is throwing money at the team, the potential buyer can't even confirm he has enough money or investors to buy the team.

Seattle would be a great city. It's a pity that Paul Allen is so pro-NBA and anti-NHL because the Rose Garden is already there and is ready to go.

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Kansas City and St Louis are 4 hours apart, not 2 and a half hours like Portland and Seattle.There would be more seat sales in any Canadian city than Portland or Seattle or Kansas City, regalrdless of size. Canadians live for hockey, Americans do not.

Try again sport.

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Kansas City has no hockey, how are you going to sell tickets to a sport no one cares about there?

Yes canadians like hockey more, but the arena is Saskatoon only holds 15,000 which would require a sellout like when Winnipeg moved, but would also require tremendous corporate support and an owner wanting to move the team there. Plus the city has only 200k people, if the NHL is looking at markets that small, then its a joke. you can't just throw an NHL team into any Canadian city and have automatic success, it depends on a lot more than passion for the game, it depends on money.

Try again sport

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260,000 in the metro saskatoon area, plus all the people that would be drawn in from cities within a 2.5 hour drive (regina, prince albert, humbolt, the battlefords, moose jaw, melfort, and even potentially lloydminster and swift current, both closer to 3 hours). as a saskatchewan native, i know first hand that they will travel longer distances than that on the regular to watch hockey (we would go to countless raiders away games when i was growing up, and not just on the weekend). adding in those cities you'd add 338k+ (200k, 35k, 6k, 16k, 33k, 6k, 27k, 15k) bringing the potential draw population to over 598k, comparable to winnipeg. and there are a large number of rich corporations in saskatchewan that would line up to support a team in sask.

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Kansas City has no hockey, how are you going to sell tickets to a sport no one cares about there?

Yes canadians like hockey more, but the arena is Saskatoon only holds 15,000 which would require a sellout like when Winnipeg moved, but would also require tremendous corporate support and an owner wanting to move the team there. Plus the city has only 200k people, if the NHL is looking at markets that small, then its a joke. you can't just throw an NHL team into any Canadian city and have automatic success, it depends on a lot more than passion for the game, it depends on money.

Try again sport

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You don't have a clue what you are talking about.

You don't hear about mulit-millionaire Toronto businessman John Graham talking about putting a team in Seattle or Portland, do you?

Why wouldn't he if these locales are supposedly going to be successful right off the hop?

Raliegh has only 400,000 and sells well, its in North Carolina, where half the population doesn't even know there is a team there.

Credit Union Cente can be expanded anytime, it was built with that in mind.

You talk abut throwing a team into any Canadian city not having success, do you have any studies to back this claim up?

Didn't think so.

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These two cities are clearly the best kept secret in the hockey world. The Portland Winterhawks have even led the entire CHL in attendance a few times. Seattle has led the WHL in attendance themselves.

To call them a "non traditional hockey market", is flat out wrong. Their first hockey teams, pre date team in Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, and most of central Canada. Their first pro teams pre date all american teams expect 2 (New York, and Chicago).

The Rose Garden in Portland, was built the same time as GM Place, and has roughly the same attendance. 50 Canucks games are televised in Portland every year, on their local sports network (pretty much there Sportsnet).

Seattle does not have a team for good reason, no arena. They are in the process of getting a new arena, and hopefully will get a team.

Teams in these markets, will be a HUGE benefit for the Canucks. We'd have team's where our fans could actually make a trip to watch them, and be back in the same day. 1500 Whitecaps fans go to Portland and Seattle for a game. Imagine how many Canucks fans would go. Not to mention the instant rivalry with these teams.

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