Its interesting seeing people throw London around as a potential or good place for this. London WOULD NOT WORK.
The leagues in the UK (yes we are talking far different levels of business here but still) have tried and tried to make a London team work - It won't. London isn't a big happy joined together city. London is many cities/towns in one big place, so people are quite territorial. This is why there is no London Soccer Club. You have Chelsea, Arsenal etc. London also has ZERO hockey culture or history.
If it was in London it would fail. The NFL if they decide to move to London full time will fail too. London is an event place. Put an NFL game on once a year and it'll fill out as people will travel all over to see it (same as the NHL London games). Put a constant show on, with X number of games per year and the attendance will die, fast.
If the UK were to be an option you'd need to either, have a travelling team playing at different venues (UK is small Island so easy to do) or put them in Manchester/Sheffield/Nottingham/Scotland where there is hockey history and some culture. Problem is only Manchester has the arena big enough for the NHL.
The leagues in the UK (yes we are talking far different levels of business here but still) have tried and tried to make a London team work - It won't. London isn't a big happy joined together city. London is many cities/towns in one big place, so people are quite territorial. This is why there is no London Soccer Club. You have Chelsea, Arsenal etc. London also has ZERO hockey culture or history.
If it was in London it would fail. The NFL if they decide to move to London full time will fail too. London is an event place. Put an NFL game on once a year and it'll fill out as people will travel all over to see it (same as the NHL London games). Put a constant show on, with X number of games per year and the attendance will die, fast.
If the UK were to be an option you'd need to either, have a travelling team playing at different venues (UK is small Island so easy to do) or put them in Manchester/Sheffield/Nottingham/Scotland where there is hockey history and some culture. Problem is only Manchester has the arena big enough for the NHL.
