Is Saskatchewan (CAN) suitable for an expension team

[ffh]

Absolutely not. Every time you go there you have to set your watch back 20 years.

 

[landy]

No

 

[Fatass]

Great hockey region but definitely not an nhl market. Greater Toronto would be a lot better, if Canada is the expansion focus.

 

[Draft]

As a born and bred Saskatchewanian: incredible hockey history and love of the game here, there’s no way we could support an NHL team.

Nobody’s driving to Saskatoon in -40 to watch the Blades play some bottom of the barrel American team on a Tuesday. Most people can drive to Regina for a Riders games when the weather is nice and the roads are clear. If you’re relying on it being a provincial team, it’s not going to happen. For many/most living in Saskatoon (or Regina), affording a couple tickets a year would be aspirational, let alone season tickets. BHP or Potash Corp aren’t buying up millions worth of corporate seats for the suits to watch on their vacations and board meetings in sunny Saskatchewan. Sasktel Centre isn’t up to league standards and the downtown rink that’s been talked about for forever is still pretty suspect. Unless they’re looking to live in rural solitude up in f***ing Osler (insert name of your favourite small town in the middle of nowhere nearish the airport), there’s no way we’d attract free agents - even the ones that may be from here. Many more reasons this won’t work.

Lovely idea, but no.

 

[Hunter368]

After Saskatchewan, watch for flin flon, Manitoba as the next destination.

Dont talk ill of Flin Flon, i used to live there as a teen.

Joking, but I did live there as a teen. Great fishing, beautiful Canadian shield country side

I agree SK can't support a NHL team, it would be very very tough.

 

[Boyon90]

@Draft douglas murray? lol

 

[Run the Jewels]

Reason 1: $650 million just to get a franchise (what the Kraken paid)
Reason 2: $375 million for an NHL arena (what T-Mobile arena cost 9 years ago)
Reason 3: $70 million per season to hit the low end of the salary cap
Reason 4: The vast majority of players would do anything and everything to work a trade or work the CBA to hit free agency as soon as possible

 

[Boyon90]

1. like no rich canadian could put saskatchewan on the map and take credit for it... as far as I know the only person canada wide to have spoken of saskatchewan and took credit for it is 3 accords

2. same thing
3. not sure whats your point there
4. you dont know that, maybe some canadians players have other values than sand beaches an miami hoes, most have family and would like a quiet life, and I believe wide space and free air are perfect settings to raise more hockey fams

 

[Coffee]

AHL? Maybe.

NHL? Not a chance.

AHL works.

@Three On Zero AHL works. Give us AHL

 

[Three On Zero]

AHL works.

@Three On Zero AHL works. Give us AHL

Thread 'AHL to Saskatchewan: Which is a better location, Regina or Saskatoon?'

May 19, 2022

With the lease for the Stockton Heat expiring and considering the pitiful attendance over the entire time in Stockton, it is rumored that the Calgary Flames are looking for a new home for the club. In my opinion there would no better place than Saskatchewan. Additionally, the AHL is looking rebalance their divisional alignment with Coachella Valley joins next season bringing the AHL to 32 clubs, since it currently look like they will have 10 clubs in the Pacific Division. Common sense has Grand Rapids moving to the North Division and then moving two clubs into the Central Division...

• Gulls Watcher
• Replies: 36
• Forum: Fugu's Business of Hockey Forum

• 

 

[Some Other Flame]

Haha no

 

[CostaRica]

Yes and it’ll be called the Saskatchewan Roughriders

 

[NVious]

If Phoenix got a team, anything is possible.

 

[Run the Jewels]

1. like no rich canadian could put saskatchewan on the map and take credit for it... as far as I know the only person canada wide to have spoken of saskatchewan and took credit for it is 3 accords

2. same thing
3. not sure whats your point there
4. you dont know that, maybe some canadians players have other values than sand beaches an miami hoes, most have family and would like a quiet life, and I believe wide space and free air are perfect settings to raise more hockey fams

3. Have to spend to be competitive and in order to spend you need a customer base with lots of disposable income or a big corporate presence to make that sustainable. Oh and you'll need to convince free agents to sign up with Sask.
4. Calgary has trouble keeping talent, I'd imagine it would be much worse in Sask.

 

[ItWasJustified]

It remains to be seen if Wpg is going to be able to support a team when they go into a non-competitive cycle.

Their owner is one of the richest persons on this blue ball that is floating around around the sun. I think he can handle a few seasons with lesser revenue from the Jets if he has to.

Not even then, sorry. Not enough TV sets in Sask either.

TV deals is why the American handegg league teams survive.

 

[Chet Manley]

At Saskatchewan's current growth rate, we will have enough people with NHL season tickets money within a 1hr drive of a rink in about 120 years. Give or take depending on expansion fees.

 

[McShogun99]

Probably my because the 2 big cities in Saskatchewan make Edmonton look like Manhattan.

 

[Mortimer Snerd]

Their owner is one of the richest persons on this blue ball that is floating around around the sun. I think he can handle a few seasons with lesser revenue from the Jets if he has to.

TV deals is why the American handegg league teams survive.

Yeah, the minority owner has a lot of money. I don't think his family got that way by throwing money away. But I didn't say they wouldn't survive. I said it remains to be seen. Ownership has indicated they don't intend to find out.

 

[BigDaddyLurch]

...Halifax, Nova Scotia has larger population than Regina (significantly) or Saskatoon, is much more "corporate friendly", and is one of the largest growing Metropolitan areas in Canada; and there's not a snowball's chance in Hades that it could support a team, much less anywhere in Saskatchewan...Quebec City could support one, but Uncle Buttman wants NOTHING to do with Quebec (if it was ever possible to move the Habs, he would have already, imo) and MLSE/Rogers would do everything in their power to keep another team out of Ontario...Canadian expansion is a pipe dream, imo...

 

[Daximus]

As someone from Sask it's just not feasible for the NHL to consider it at this moment. Unlike Manitoba, Sask has its population spread out amongst two major population areas. Saskatoon and Regina with a sizable rural population spread out all over. Give it another couple of decades and maybe one of them will emerge as a viable city on a level similar to Winnipeg but currently it's just not doable. Rider games are an entirely different animal so comparing the two is a pointless endeavor.

The AHL could potentially thrive here and I have suggested it as a relocation option for the Manitoba Moose if things ever go sideways for them in Winnipeg.

 

[HolyGhost]

nope.

 

[JKG33]

Winnipeg is far and away the smallest market, has had questions surrounding the market, and has a very centralized population.

You want to put a team in a spot that splits the distance between (an already tiny) Winnipeg and Calgary, in a province that has a very spread out population?

 

[mlse2kk]

Agreed, Saskatoon or Regina should have had a team decades ago! Canada needs to split off and form it's own league. Domestic ranking should have far more impact, while the Stanley Cup should be a showdown between the best Canadian and American team from each league... this way Canada has a 50/50 shot of winning the Cup every year.

Money/politics/arena/ownership reasons be damned! Let me play Pollyanna and dream for but a moment.

 

[Panthers Propaganda]

If you managed to merge Regina and Saskatoon together maybe.

On the other hand, my buddy had a Franchise mode on NHL24 the Saskatchewan Tractors, John Deere Place was electric every night.

 

[HolyGhost]

I actually read about that happening last night. Shortly after the move got blocked, the St. Louis Blues did not participate in the 1983 draft. I did not find any information on whether they withdrew from the draft voluntarily (perhaps in protest) or whether they were barred from participating, though I didn't exactly look very hard. That same draft, Montreal drafted Vladislav Tretiak in the seventh round (138th overall), who obviously never played in the NHL.

I believe the Blues had also traded away their top picks that year. As for getting an NHL team. I believe that the entire province only as about 1.4 million people with the two largest cities having under 300k inhabitants. The place is a boom or bust place like many places but they do not have the infrastructure to with stand a prolong recession, I have been to Regina and a few other places and the people are nice