NHL Board of Governors to approve opening of expansion process; Atlanta and Houston believed to be leading candidates

[PanniniClaus]

Being stubborn is one of the reasons the owners love Gary so much and it has brought them all great success. He hates to be wrong and so much so he's going back in for a 3rd time and you know damn well he's going back to Arizona when he gets his chance.

 

[Fatass]

Too bad the owners want this free money regardless of how it impacts the on ice product. The league already has too many AHL level players.

 

[MetalheadPenguinsFan]

STOP

At this point when Sid retires I’m done with the league

Pretty much my thoughts exactly.

This league has become so over-bloated, money-hungry, and greedy, that it’s f***ing disgusting. Meanwhile the on-ice product nowadays is a game-managed joke and 95% of regular season games night-in-night-out are about as exciting as watching f***ing paint dry.

f*** this garbage league honestly. Hopefully the next lockout is the death blow for it. It deserves to fold quite frankly.

Maybe then a new league can be started by people who actually still truly care about the sport of hockey and it’s fans who support it.

Not these egomaniacal, greed-fuled twats who just want to bleed fans dry for moar $$$$

 

[hangman005]

Yeah, it worked really good in Phoenix, a huge media market with a huge population of people who don't give crap about hockey.

Really nothing about the yotes did anything remotely close to caring about management, to inept owner after inept owner to arena drama to being complete dog shit on the ice for much of their time there. I believed and still believe hockey can work in Phoenix but the relocation to the market with out any kind of semblance of plan was plain idiotic.

 

[RabbleMasterBlaster]

Mexico is ripe for an NHL team. Right in the heart of Tijuana.

 

[Chet Manley]

At least one team is a done deal for them to be opening expansion.

 

[Kshahdoo]

They should bring an NHL team to Saint-Petersburg and name it SKA...

 

[MoneyManny]

Believe me, you are not smarter than the people willing to drop a billion dollar check to put a team back in Atlanta.

Many business ventures fail every damn day. These people aren't half as smart as you believe they are.

 

[Bjornar Moxnes]

Looks like the sens will lose another first round pick!

 

[byrath]

This isn’t true at all. There has never been more skilled NHL players than there is today. The NHL will have no problem filling 36 teams with talent.

I mostly agree, except that it will leave more teams without a superstar level talent. That kinda sucks for fans.

 

[Salsero1]

Many business ventures fail every damn day. These people aren't half as smart as you believe they are.

I'll trust them over a jingoistic jackhole any day.

 

[LiveLongandProspal]

That's not the point. The point is about putting your money where your mouth is. If you're going to push for relocation as a general good, do so in a manner such that you would take the impact, rather than lazily and callously expecting others to take the hit for you.

I'm sorry, but that's a stupid reason. And it has nothing to do with the fact that my team is the last or second-to-last team that would ever relocate. Expansion affects my team and my quality of viewing a sport which I love. I don't want to lose a player in the expansion draft and I don't want to watch a watered-down product when other teams play.

 

[Salsero1]

I'm sorry, but that's a stupid reason. And it has nothing to do with the fact that my team is the last or second-to-last team that would ever relocate. Expansion affects my team and my quality of viewing a sport which I love. I don't want to lose a player in the expansion draft and I don't want to watch a watered-down product when other teams play.

Well thankfully the world doesn't revolve around you and some people actually have empathy.

 

[LiveLongandProspal]

Well thankfully the world doesn't revolve around you and some people actually have empathy.

Empathy? It's a business. Maybe we should give all 50 states and every Canadian province a team

 

[Salsero1]

Empathy? It's a business. Maybe we should give all 50 states and every Canadian province a team

And it makes business sense to add more NHL teams in large cities where many people live.

 

[dj4aces]

Many business ventures fail every damn day. These people aren't half as smart as you believe they are.

I mean... yeah, many business ventures do fail every day. There's no amount of vetting anyone can do that will account for every possible scenario that could happen that would cause a business to fail.

With regards to Atlanta, don't think for a second that the league hasn't examined the market, the proposed location of the arena, market research about local fans, and accounting for why previous attempts didn't pan out.

So, will it fail again? I mean... honestly, anything is possible. The next Atlanta franchise might also repeatedly break the hearts of every person with the same dumb joke about Atlanta 3.0 moving to become QC 3.0.

One thing is certain though, and it's that the league has absolutely been looking through everything with all the Atlanta groups -- including whatever unnamed fledgling groups that have expressed interest -- to ensure the franchise has the best go of things.

 

[Barrie22]

Exactly, no disrespect to Arizona fans but it's crazy that they still get time to find owners for another franchise after 20+ of the same problems but ATL didn't.

Arizona had a place to stay, there was no one willing to take in the thrashers even a university team like arizona was allowed.

 

[David Bruce Banner]

Time to split into two separate leagues where they only meet in the Stanley Cup Finals.

 

[Barrie22]

Name the big four leagues. Because if you’re referring to NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL, you may want to go check your math…

NFL has 32 teams, 32 in the usa (more then the NHL)
Mlb 30 teams, 29 teams in the usa (more then the NHL)
NBA 30 teams, 29 teams in the usa (more then the NHL)

Looks like good math to me.

 

[LiveLongandProspal]

And it makes business sense to add more NHL teams in large cities where many people live.

Or relocate fledgling teams from weak markets

 

[CupofOil]

Too damn teams in the league., now we can look forward to more expansion drafts poaching talent from current teams and diluting the talent pool further. Ugh

And expanding to a location that failed twice is ridiculous when there are plenty of other viable markets that can be explored. Good ole Bettman

 

[Tawnos]

Arizona had a place to stay, there was no one willing to take in the thrashers even a university team like arizona was allowed.

"No one willing" implies that there was another arena option in Atlanta that was even Mullett Arena caliber. There was not.

Ironically, at the time the whole idea of moving out to the suburbs in ATL was absurd. The Braves changed the game. Otherwise, the Thrashers might have found a home at Gwinnett Civic Center until a new owner could build a new arena in Forsyth of Gwinnett Counties. Now, whether or not there was someone interested in building an arena at the time is one roadblock. Another is whether or not the Thrashers owners at the time would've even agreed to sell to someone wanting to do that. Most likely, they would've poison-pilled any sale that would've involved a potential competitor arena just like they poison-pilled any sale to prospective owners wanting to keep the team in Phillips.

 

[Captain Mountain]

This isn’t true at all. There has never been more skilled NHL players than there is today. The NHL will have no problem filling 36 teams with talent.

We don't know if that's actually true or if it means anything in regards to expansion. There's better training and sports science, and a better understanding of what creates offense, but that doesn't equal skill.

We know that there's more offense nowadays than the last couple of decades and expansion to Vegas and Seattle correlates to jumps in offense. But dilution of talent, especially on the defensive end, is just as likely an explanation as there being more skilled NHL players than ever.

Expansion is happening because owning sports franchises is in vogue for the ultra rich, there's a changing media landscape and its very easy money for owners with very little risk to them (apart from making it harder to win a cup). It doesn't mean its a good idea long term.

 

[Skullz]

Curious why you seem to think that "growing the game" and expanding with new franchises in new markets are mutually exclusive?

I see them as being symbiotic.

Consider how much the NBA and NFL have grown in the past several decades; they have not needed to infuse cash via expansion franchises.

I think of such issues such as not going to the Olympics as unforced errors that has hindered hockey's popularity on the global stage. Bettman still maintains that the average fan isn't interested in the cap? Really? How out of touch can you be. Time for a change at the top.

 

[Tawnos]

We don't know if that's actually true or if it means anything in regards to expansion. There's better training and sports science, and a better understanding of what creates offense, but that doesn't equal skill.

We know that there's more offense nowadays than the last couple of decades and expansion to Vegas and Seattle correlates to jumps in offense. But dilution of talent, especially on the defensive end, is just as likely an explanation as there being more skilled NHL players than ever.

Expansion is happening because owning sports franchises is in vogue for the ultra rich, there's a changing media landscape and its very easy money for owners with very little risk to them (apart from making it harder to win a cup). It doesn't mean its a good idea long term.

On the talent dilution issue, I think people really overestimate how much expansion dilutes talent when the league already has 30 teams. We're not even talking about one player per team distributed around the league. In 1979, which is the end of the expansion era most associated with talent dilution, the new teams each expanded the league by 5.9%. The next expansion team will expand the league by just over half of what each of the 1979 expansion teams did... 3.1%.

Or looked at another way. The league expanded by 250% in the years from 1967-1979. It expanded by 43% in the 90s. The 2017-2030 expansion will only have expanded the league 13% or 20% depending on if we get 2 more or 4 more teams.