NHL met with a group interested in expanding to New Orleans
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JianYang
Registered User
- Sep 29, 2017
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There's always something. People were unhappy when the league went to the 8 game divisional format too.
To me, the bottom line is this. If you want more quality games where the players are playing at their best level, you have to reduce the the number of games on the schedule by a significant amount.
Of course, that will never happen though for obvious reasons.
It doesn't make financial sense. A poor city with 1.2 million people in the metro. Static or declining population. Very few fortune 500 companies. It is already pushing above its financial capabilities in supporting to teams in the big-4 pro leagues and both those teams are bottom-5 in annual revenues. Given this, the hockey team would likely be pulling up last in league revenues year after year, even with the Canadian dollar at sub .70.
Then there is the issue of their arena apparently either needing a replacement or a serious refurb. That's another $500 million - $1 billion right there. The city doesn't really move the needle on a national tv contract and I don't see how it expands the US footprint in any noticeable way.
Of course the NHL will listen, but I'm sure the only purpose New Orleans will serve is to drive up the price for other potential expansion cities.
Then there is the issue of their arena apparently either needing a replacement or a serious refurb. That's another $500 million - $1 billion right there. The city doesn't really move the needle on a national tv contract and I don't see how it expands the US footprint in any noticeable way.
Of course the NHL will listen, but I'm sure the only purpose New Orleans will serve is to drive up the price for other potential expansion cities.
I’m not entirely sure either, but I’d assume that they meant those other four markets aren’t good markets. However, they seem to be doing just fine for themselves. Not every expansion team has to be an overwhelming success financially.
While I personally think that NOLA is simply a stalking horse to keep the price of expansion franchises up elsewhere .....
..... I do point out that because the NHL gets its money up-front for an expansion franchise, it couldn't really care less about whether the new team succeeds or flops. In fact, if the new team flops, then the NHL could either let the franchise dissolve and try to get another investor to pony up the same money for the same city or, at worst, pocket a relocation fee.
[And, yes, there is embarrassment to the League if a team fails, but is that embarrassment really worth more than the non-refundable $1.5 billion the League will get as an expansion fee?]
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Pepper
Registered User
- Aug 30, 2004
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I find this quite entertaining, for 30+ years fans in Quebec have been telling that NHL needs another team in a french speaking city and finally Bettman agrees to that. Habs - Cajuns should be a fun rivalry.
Coach Reggie Dunlop
Registered User
Please stop trying to take the NHL to southern cities. It is a northern sport. Majority of franchises that go down there are just going to be a negative long term. They just don’t support their teams enough.
Having a meeting and actually standing up a team are two very different things.
DEANYOUNGBLOOD17
Registered User
- May 10, 2011
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The Lighting and Panthers survived with rival teams filling the arena in the early years. Local fans where always a minority to rival team fans. Florida is full of northern states residence that retired here, and they supported their hometown teams when their team came to play in Florida. Does NO have the same thing?
New Orleans seems like way too small a market population-wise and is not a particularly wealthy city either to support both an NBA and NHL team. If they didn't have an NBA team they are competing against, I could see it. But, with an NBA team, I think they are likely to have significant problems.
How has Houston not gotten an NHL team yet? Natural rival in Dallas. Population base that is like 4th in the USA.
Tilman Fertitta owns the Rockets, who play in the only arena in the Houston area that could host an NHL team. He's "interested" in the NHL but only if he owns the team, and has balked at paying what it would take to own one. There's also something along the lines of a no-compete clause in the contract surrounding the arena - no competing arena is allowed to be constructed in the city of Houston. You could build one in a suburb with a team owner who isn't Fertitta, but that would probably not be a recipe for the continued success of an NHL franchise. I'd bet that Fertitta was at least contacted and possibly made an offer for the Coyotes when it came time for them to relocate last year, but then Ryan Smith ponied up the big bucks to land the team instead.
That's the gist of it, anyway. I'm sure I'm missing a lot of details as I haven't followed it too closely, but I'm at least aware of some of the league business like this since I was a Coyotes fan and they were right in the middle of the this kind of fray for pretty much their entire existence as a franchise in Arizona.
Desert Panther
Resident Lurker
New Orleans is a lousy idea for a hockey market. Houston is a far better plan IF they're talking going to 34 or 36 teams. A third try with Atlanta or a second shot in Phoenix would be a better idea than NOLA.
...Buttman left a team in Southern Florida for over 20 years until it became financially successful...in Arizona for over 25 years until they were playing in a University Stadium...in Atlanta (for a second time) until they couldn't GIVE tickets away...if it's a BIG market, he doesn't care if it's doomed to lose money...
PhysicalGraffiti
Bolts STM
I love New Orleans and would love to see a team there. Would be a fun road trip.
I also absolutely love how much rage the folks up North, especially Canada, spew when the Southern US gets a team.
I guess they didn't see the streets of Nashville during the SCF a couple years back.
Or Tampa's ongoing attendance.
Maybe Dallas having great attendance and fanship?
And it's a stretch based on recent playoff attendance, but I think South Florida can begin to be a good example with their current situation.
Phoenix and Atlanta had horrible ownership and neither can be blamed on location alone.
But please seethe more as Quebec and Hamilton don't get teams before Atlanta and Phoenix get another shot or even New Orleans or Houston.
I also absolutely love how much rage the folks up North, especially Canada, spew when the Southern US gets a team.
I guess they didn't see the streets of Nashville during the SCF a couple years back.
Or Tampa's ongoing attendance.
Maybe Dallas having great attendance and fanship?
And it's a stretch based on recent playoff attendance, but I think South Florida can begin to be a good example with their current situation.
Phoenix and Atlanta had horrible ownership and neither can be blamed on location alone.
But please seethe more as Quebec and Hamilton don't get teams before Atlanta and Phoenix get another shot or even New Orleans or Houston.
A markets viability shouldn't be judged on whether they can draw people when they win. They should be judged on how they whether times on not being successful. In a 32 team league multiple teams are going to have stretches of not being good.
LaCarriere
Registered User
Hamilton would probably be a disaster for its own reasons. You have diehard lifelong leaf fans there who probably won't be lining up to support a new team. The concerns around a new team so close to TO with a population population of 500k is very real.
I think Quebec should be given a team before atl/Pheonix if you can get an ownership group together, but the NHL may have priced themselves out of Canadian expansion with what they charged Vegas and Seattle.
