NHL appears to be considering Atlanta and Houston for expansion

[brownky]

24 minutes ago, AlwaysACanuckFan said:

If it didn't work in Atlanta before why would it work now

They don't care.

 

The owners get the expansion $$$. They got a taste with Vegas and Seattle and now they want more.

[BarnBurner]

20 minutes ago, DeNiro said:

Because he has two more teams that will help pay for these poverty franchises now?

Exactly. It's all about money. This league is saturated enough. Buttman continually

waters down the product.

[brownky]

8 minutes ago, DeNiro said:

No I mean Vegas and Seattle can help pay for Atlanta and Houston when the ultimately start bleeding money from the rest of the league.

Houston won't - IF they have good ownership and management.

 

It's an absolutely enormous metro area (6.6 million) with big $$$ and an instant rivalry target in Dallas.

[DeNiro]

3 minutes ago, brownky said:

Houston won't - IF they have good ownership and management.

 

It's an absolutely enormous metro area (6.6 million) with big $$$ and an instant rivalry target in Dallas.

Not so sure about that.

 

All they’re doing is taking money away from the Stars who already have a tough time filling the building when the team is good.

 

Its not always just about population size.

[Dazzle]

28 minutes ago, AlwaysACanuckFan said:

Not sure how Atlanta will help with that if they can't attract fans themselves 

This is a pretty false narrative. Atlanta did have fans. However, their mismanagement with their teams understandably drove those fans away when you have a poor product. It's the same thing with Arizona. You put together a successful team and you'll have fans that want to watch the game. You put a poor product out, is it really a surprise that people don't want to pay for stuff?

[Odd.]

They should just relocate Arizona and Calgary if they can’t get a deal done for an arena.

 

Why expand to 34 

[Rubik]

[NewbieCanuckFan]

42 minutes ago, AlwaysACanuckFan said:

One reason 

And we'll never get a Canadian expansion as long as he's in charge 

He just answers the call of the owners.  He was smart enough to restructure his contract to state it will require a supermajority of them (team board governors) to vote him out (I *think*, not 100% sure).  And Jacobs is the 'capo di tutti capi".

[AlwaysACanuckFan]

57 minutes ago, 24K PureCool said:

Uhh, NHL is going downhill fast. We don't have the talent for more teams. Like is there even 32 top 4 RHD in the whole league?

And Quebec got the short end of the stick again! Throw Canada a bone at least!

What was the reason or reasons why Nordiques left Quebec?

[Odd.]

Quebec City deserves a team over Atlanta. Like  why are they going to a market that’s failed 2 times already.

 

And who’s paying for Houston? Rockets owner said they’re not paying for it, their arena is already funded by government, who’s buying Houston lol

Edited March 5, 2023 by Odd.

[-AJ-]

34 minutes ago, AngryElf said:

If they do up it to 34 teams, look at the NHL drastically changing the playoff format. There are some good teams that won't make the playoffs this year and I doubt Bettman likes that for league revenue. I think a play-in round with an extra training camp for the top teams is most likely coming. 

Outside of the NHL, there is a lot of traction gaining for double elimination formats, especially in eSports. I wonder if the same could gain traction at the NHL level.

[Fanuck]

The old white boys club that controls this league is so transparent it's embarrassing for them.  They don't care about diversity,  they don't care about growing the sport, they don't care about inclusion, they don't care about the integrity of the game...literally the only thing they care about is

 

[NewbieCanuckFan]

1 minute ago, AlwaysACanuckFan said:

What was the reason or reasons why Nordiques left Quebec?

Unlike in much of the US, there was very little support for a tax payer funded new arena (when you have billionaire owners).  That was the case for the Nordiques imho.  Strangely enough, in the province where the then Conservative party wasn't conserative enough (so they created the Wildrose party), I *think* the new Edmonton arena was at least partially funded by taxpayers (though they don't call it "Redmonton" for nothing).

[Coconuts]

Hahaha, I was posting about them considering Atlanta again yesterday. Maybe someday Quebec will get another team too, it's a shame it's taken this long. Wouldn't be surprised to see the NHL up to 36 teams before the decade is done.

[DrJockitch]

2 minutes ago, Fanuck said:

The old white boys club that controls this league is so transparent it's embarrassing for them.  They don't care about diversity,  they don't care about growing the sport, they don't care about inclusion, they don't care about the integrity of the game...literally the only thing they care about is

 

I am as liberal as they come but this is rediculous. How much responsibility does a hockey team really have to fix these issues in society?

What do you really expect billionaires to care about other than money?  Most of the time you are a billionaire because you were born into it or an aggressive strategy of strategic greed at the cost of as many people as possible. 

[Coconuts]

 

 

[PetterssonOrPeterson]

Atlanta.....? srsly?

 

for the third time? 

 

smh

[DeNiro]

3 minutes ago, PetterssonOrPeterson said:

Atlanta.....? srsly?

 

for the third time? 

 

smh

Just shows that Bettmans ego is more important than what’s good for the league.

 

[Caboose]

How many new fans does a team in Quebec City bring? I bet everyone who lives there that was going to follow the NHL already does. It makes way more sense to go into untapped markets.

[Bell]

2 hours ago, AlwaysACanuckFan said:

If it didn't work in Atlanta before why would it work now

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