Considering the top 8 teams in the NHL right now are from the West, I doubt that will be a problem.
Yea, I was looking at that post he made, seriously didn't know what to say to it. MOD
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Considering the top 8 teams in the NHL right now are from the West, I doubt that will be a problem.
Who cares... the one team and their fanbase in the east who doesn't make the playoffs in place of the undeserving team in the west who does
Thanks for all the responses, I learned stuff.
If you had to guess, what year might we see NHL expansion or relocation? 2015?
Maybe what they should have done was a hybrid of the two ideas;
just have 4 divisions and no conferences (or 4 conferences and no divisions), top 3 in each conference make it with 4 wild card. So if it worked out that way that one or two divisions were stacked, they could take all the playoff spots.
As people are pointing out, the NHL did it this way to have all the teams playing in the eastern time zone in the eastern conference.
Yup, and if Quebec City gets a team or Toronto gets a 2nd team (haven't followed this lately, so if this idea is completely dead then excuse the example) it will either be relocated eastern teams or someone in the east will relocate west to coincide with the expansion to those cities. All comes down to the fees. I believe expansion fees are significantly higher than relocation fees? Well, in that case, a potential owner is more likely to cough up the expansion fee for a city like Quebec or Toronto than Seattle or another Western city.
As a side, does Saskatchewan or the Maritimes have a city big enough to support a team?
With great success in California why wouldn't the NHL look to out another team in the bay area? San Francisco would be cool
Where it could support it and probably do good the league is better off moving into the northwest vs a second team in the bay. Either Portland or Seattle are much better choices just because it would increase the footprint for further TV negotiations.
But you also have the current issues in the bay with the A's and Giants which would very much sour another team going into the same market as San Jose.
Yup, and if Quebec City gets a team or Toronto gets a 2nd team (haven't followed this lately, so if this idea is completely dead then excuse the example) it will either be relocated eastern teams or someone in the east will relocate west to coincide with the expansion to those cities. All comes down to the fees. I believe expansion fees are significantly higher than relocation fees? Well, in that case, a potential owner is more likely to cough up the expansion fee for a city like Quebec or Toronto than Seattle or another Western city.
As a side, does Saskatchewan or the Maritimes have a city big enough to support a team?
With great success in California why wouldn't the NHL look to out another team in the bay area? San Francisco would be cool
San Jose doesn't mind having another team on the west coast but I think SF might be a little too close. I think they would be fine with Sacramento getting a franchise even though it infringes slightly on their territory. However, they don't draw a whole hell of a lot from the Sacramento area to where they would deny a team going there but it would be beneficial for them in terms of having a local rival and less travel.
Oh, there will be a team in Seattle. What I meant, sorry if it wasnt clear, is a situation where Toronto and Quebec get expansion franchises and Seattle and another west city, i.e. Portland, KC get relocations all at the same time.No way NHL expands and leave out seattle.
Toronto doesn't need a second team, the Leafs are enough for anyone. The province of Ontario already has Ottawa if you want another team to cheer for.
Oh, there will be a team in Seattle. What I meant, sorry if it wasnt clear, is a situation where Toronto and Quebec get expansion franchises and Seattle and another west city, i.e. Portland, KC get relocations all at the same time.
The Markham arena is effectively dead. Discussion is still open for another 6 months to find enough private money to pay 100% of the arena's construction costs. But chances look non-existant.Ottawa and Toronto are what, 4 hours apart? Is there a larger hockey market than the Toronto metropolitan area? They could easily and very successfully support a 2nd franchise. Yes, there would be hurdles to leap to keep the Leafs happy and end their monopoly of the area. I remember talk of a new NHL arena in Markham. I have no idea if that is in discussion, or if it is dead. Was just throwing it out there.
Just adding in this link from yesterday, December 10th:
Gary Bettman says no formal NHL expansion plans
http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/nhl/gary-bettman-says-no-formal-nhl-expansion-plans-1.2459022
The fact that Bettman talked extensively about it at all is Bettmanese for "Yeah, it's most likely happening."
The NHL just can't confirm it because if they were to do that and then plans fell through they'd look amateur.
The conferences were made unequal to satisfy the teams in the Eastern timezone. There is no plan to add Western Conference teams. Seattle and Portland are not locks at all like some are making them out to be. In fact I can't see Portland with an NHL team. The other candidates are likely in the Eastern timezone. So, conferences may never be balanced but that's not a priority.