This still isn't happening (at least without Saudi money), but here are some nuances.
Major league hockey has targeted franchises in 16 cities in the United States and Canada.
Targeted means nothing.
'New England' is represented by Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Manchester, NH actually has an arena. SNHU Arena. It seats less than 10k.
two 24-minute games per night with short intermission. Games with fan-friendly admission prices will be played exclusively on Friday and Saturday nights.
48 minutes is an NBA game. Not an unreasonable amount of hockey.
Good luck finding enough Friday and Saturday dates in legit arenas.
14 player roster
12 skaters
2 goalies
3 marquis players
Did Dangle not notice that marquee is misspelled? A marquis is like a European noble. (could explain where the money is coming from)
The 3 'marquis' players can have top level pro experience. Why you would throw $30 mil at every team and not allow them better players is a question. They could also turn the two 'games' into one game and save millions over the course of a season by only needing to hand out one 100k prize each game day.
They do have an image of a few logos on example merch. The name of 'West Valley Pumas' stands out. Like the MLH name, it's not on the US trademark website. I figure if I look hard enough, it's just a generic temp image.
The MLH scouting staff has already completed the 2024 player draft which will be released shortly.
Lol. I remember when the 2004 WHA did a draft. The WHA concept actually lived on for a little longer. There's no way doing that now wouldn't result in immediate, irreversible clowning by the entire internet. It'd be a bloodbath.
The WHA draft was also, as I recall, done as sort of an absent minded exercise by the prospective team reps as they were talking about more important issues. Like how people will sometimes toss a ball around as they're having a discussion. It was then rushed off to the webmaster as being the real thing. Max Chambers was involved with that proposed league at some point (he wanted to own the Orlando team).
Markets Almost Full
MLH has retained prominent professional-level coaches and management personnel in many markets.