Around the NHL

[Lug]

If the NHL adds 2 teams can we get them in the west so the Preds can move to the East. Less 9:00 and 9:30pm CDT games would be a plus and get us back playing against rivals CBJ and DRW more.

 

[hockey diva]

It also means more 6 pm starts which is no go with the traffic here.

 

[NoNecksCurse]

If the NHL adds 2 teams can we get them in the west so the Preds can move to the East. Less 9:00 and 9:30pm CDT games would be a plus and get us back playing against rivals CBJ and DRW more.

We don’t have any natural geographical rivals. Atlanta if they get another team. DRW were a rival in our mind only.

I think I would prefer to stay central due to growing traffic in Nashville, but I understand that’s controversial similar to daylight savings time. Both sides have great arguments.

 

[AtlantaWhaler]

If the NHL adds 2 teams can we get them in the west so the Preds can move to the East. Less 9:00 and 9:30pm CDT games would be a plus and get us back playing against rivals CBJ and DRW more.

No.

 

[weeze]

I would consider CBJ, StLB, CBH as our natural geographical rivals as they are closest and also currently most hated. At least the last two since I live in IL.

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

It's Atlanta and Houston this time, right?

Obviously Houston will go into the West.

Then I'm afraid they'll put Atlanta in the East, just because of the Carolina-Tampa-Miami southern group. Which will suck for us because Atlanta would be a really natural neighbor/rival.

Maybe they'll eventually be able to fix things up with the next round. They'll get to 36 teams within the next 6 years, I suspect. Any of Kansas City, Portland, a return to Phoenix... those will be in the West. So there is still eventual hope that we could get shifted into a division with all the southern teams in the East. But that's probably the next Expansion down the road.

 

[Kat Predator]

All this expansion is starting to feel like MLS.

Does the NHLPA have any say in it? The expansion increases the divisor of the cap calculation, eh?

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

All this expansion is starting to feel like MLS.

Does the NHLPA have any say in it? The expansion increases the divisor of the cap calculation, eh?

What expansion does is put the $1.5B expansion fee (/32) into every owner's pockets. $46.875M. It might not seem like a lot, but it's about half of a team payroll in a given season.

I don't think it really affects Cap? Brand spankin' new teams will be onboarded with sellouts guaranteed, lots of merchandising, so they'll generate revenue at the upper end of HRR, while probably having crappier lineups that don't push to the Cap ceiling (unless you're Vegas) and so it's probably an overall net plus on that Cap side of things as well?

For the NHLPA, more teams = more players have NHL jobs, and more mediocre players can get higher salaries to be 1st/2nd line players? I don't think the NHLPA would object either?

 

[Viqsi]

I would consider CBJ, StLB, CBH as our natural geographical rivals as they are closest and also currently most hated. At least the last two since I live in IL.

I've always thought of our chief rivals as the Blues, Blackhawks, and Stars. CBJ has always been fuzzy for me, and not just for the most obvious reasons. Up here the geographical rivals are Pittsburgh, Buffalo, and Detroit, plus a special extracurricular disdain for the Rangers; concern about the Preds largely vanished along with the old Central Division, and it always felt like it had more to do with lopsided game results rather than geography or travel or whatnot.

 

[Kat Predator]

What expansion does is put the $1.5B expansion fee (/32) into every owner's pockets. $46.875M. It might not seem like a lot, but it's about half of a team payroll in a given season.

I don't think it really affects Cap? Brand spankin' new teams will be onboarded with sellouts guaranteed, lots of merchandising, so they'll generate revenue at the upper end of HRR, while probably having crappier lineups that don't push to the Cap ceiling (unless you're Vegas) and so it's probably an overall net plus on that Cap side of things as well?

For the NHLPA, more teams = more players have NHL jobs, and more mediocre players can get higher salaries to be 1st/2nd line players? I don't think the NHLPA would object either?

I've heard in other leagues the PAs tend to vote against expansion. If the size of the pie is $90 billion in revenue and the players get 50% and there are a total of 30 teams, that comes to a cap of $1.5 billion per team. So if you got, say 60 players on a roster, that's $25M average if everyone got paid the same. Obviously, if you double the teams, the pie per player is cut in half as well. $12.5M average per player.

The one time franchise fee is a shot in the arm for the existing owners that, I would assume, they don't have to share with the players at all. So good for the owners but perhaps not necessarily money that goes to "improve the game".

Anyway, they'll do what they'll do.

 

[wmupreds]

Main hated team for me has always been Detroit, but admittedly that mostly stems from the early days. And also living in Michigan for a while- that is one annoying fanbase. Idk that I’d call them a rival though- it was basically a one way rivalry anyway and they barely play each other now obviously.

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

I've heard in other leagues the PAs tend to vote against expansion. If the size of the pie is $90 billion in revenue and the players get 50% and there are a total of 30 teams, that comes to a cap of $1.5 billion per team. So if you got, say 60 players on a roster, that's $25M average if everyone got paid the same. Obviously, if you double the teams, the pie per player is cut in half as well. $12.5M average per player.

The one time franchise fee is a shot in the arm for the existing owners that, I would assume, they don't have to share with the players at all. So good for the owners but perhaps not necessarily money that goes to "improve the game".

Anyway, they'll do what they'll do.

I think in other sports the portion of the revenue pot that is TV or other media deals or whatever, i.e. independent from number of franchises, is waaaaay bigger than the NHL, though, right? So in the NHL, where the revenue is largely gate-driven, new teams do actually make a significant addition to revenue, and therefore even if it's not 100% proportional to the number of teams, it's at least close enough that it's not the same problem for the players as in other sports? On top of which, I would bet that the modern well-marketed expansion teams (e.g. Seattle and Vegas) actually have higher revenues out of the starting block than many established teams do, so they're more than pulling their weight in adding to the overall league revenue.

 

[PredsV82]

It's Atlanta and Houston this time, right?

Obviously Houston will go into the West.

Then I'm afraid they'll put Atlanta in the East, just because of the Carolina-Tampa-Miami southern group. Which will suck for us because Atlanta would be a really natural neighbor/rival.

Maybe they'll eventually be able to fix things up with the next round. They'll get to 36 teams within the next 6 years, I suspect. Any of Kansas City, Portland, a return to Phoenix... those will be in the West. So there is still eventual hope that we could get shifted into a division with all the southern teams in the East. But that's probably the next Expansion down the road.

This is just so f***ed up. 36 teams is far too many. But at over a billion a pop I understand why they will do it

 

[Armourboy]

Part of the reason they are doing it isn't just about the money, although obviously its a big factor, but they are spreading while they can, while there are cities and owners willing to do it. In some cases you are filling in gaps in the West, looking at cities that create natural rivalries where none currently exist.

Atlanta will roll in right in the middle of the Florida teams and Carolina. In a perfect world Nashville is probably in that mix too, but before you can shift a team east you gotta have enough teams in the West. Houston creates a natural rival for Dallas, who is kind of in no mans land when you look at the map. Maybe you use a couple of other slots to take gambles on cities that are growing but smaller, kind of like they did with Nashville and Columbus that may eventually not be all that small.

I suspect though 36 is where it settles out. Maybe the ultimate goal is 40, but I think you are going to be hard pressed to find enough viable cities for that.

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

Part of the reason they are doing it isn't just about the money, although obviously its a big factor, but they are spreading while they can, while there are cities and owners willing to do it. In some cases you are filling in gaps in the West, looking at cities that create natural rivalries where none currently exist.

Atlanta will roll in right in the middle of the Florida teams and Carolina. In a perfect world Nashville is probably in that mix too, but before you can shift a team east you gotta have enough teams in the West. Houston creates a natural rival for Dallas, who is kind of in no mans land when you look at the map. Maybe you use a couple of other slots to take gambles on cities that are growing but smaller, kind of like they did with Nashville and Columbus that may eventually not be all that small.

I suspect though 36 is where it settles out. Maybe the ultimate goal is 40, but I think you are going to be hard pressed to find enough viable cities for that.

Yeah, NHL teams are like any other business in a capitalist world. You need to keep growing revenue, you need to keep projecting increases. It's not going to be easy for the NHL to do that if there's a recession or the Canadian dollar tanks. So in the meantime, they need to grab whatever fat checks can be written, and that's Expansion. As much as possible, as soon as possible.

Plus I think with the entrance fee these days at $1.5B, you're really getting owners with deep pockets and a well-oiled machine in place, we've seen that with Vegas and Seattle, how they are a license to print money right out of the gate, this isn't the fledgling-sink-or-swim-gamble Expansion teams of past eras. New teams now are coming in loaded and ready to go.

 

[Predsanddead24]

It's not like there's any real reason 30 or 32 is the ideal number to have though right? It just seems kind of funny as a fan of a relatively recent expansion team to be strongly against further expansion. There are less teams per capita now than there were when we were an expansion team.

 

[NoNecksCurse]

It's not like there's any real reason 30 or 32 is the ideal number to have though right? It just seems kind of funny as a fan of a relatively recent expansion team to be strongly against further expansion. There are less teams per capita now than there were when we were an expansion team.

I think the real reason is we haven't won a cup, and we are entering a period where we could be bad for who knows how long. It isn't out of the question at this point that a lot of life long preds fans since that 98 expansion never see us win a cup.

 

[Bye Bye Blueston]

I think the real reason is we haven't won a cup, and we are entering a period where we could be bad for who knows how long. It isn't out of the question at this point that a lot of life long preds fans since that 98 expansion never see us win a cup.

Look what expansion in '67 did to Toronto. A lot of lifelong Leafs fans born since then have never seen them win a Cup!

 

[Bringer of Jollity]

Look what expansion in '67 did to Toronto. A lot of lifelong Leafs fans born since then have never seen them win a Cup!

Hah, yeah, a lot of Red Sox and Cubs fans never saw their teams win world Series rings either. It happens in sports...a lot.