NHL wants to expand to 36 teams
- Thread starter Killakirillthethrill
- Start date
-
We sincerely apologize for the extended downtime. Our hosting provider, XenForo Cloud, encountered a major issue with their backup system, which unfortunately resulted in the loss of some critical data from the past year.
What This Means for You:
- If you created an account after March 2024, it no longer exists. You will need to sign up again to access the forum.
- If you registered before March 2024 but changed your email, username, or password in the past year, those changes were lost. You’ll need to update your account details manually once you're logged in.
- Threads and posts created within the last year have been restored.
Our team is working with Xenforo Cloud to recover data using backups, sitemaps, and other available resources. We know this is frustrating, and we deeply regret the impact on our community. We are taking steps with Xenforo Cloud to ensure this never happens again. This is work in progress. Thank you for your patience and support as we work through this.
In the meantime, feel free to join our Discord Server
Anchorage is probably more viable as a market if the NHL were to go to Alaska for some reason.
Zegs2sendhelp
Registered User
- Jul 25, 2012
- 38,928
- 33,393
Houston and Atlanta seem like locks
Portland just seems like a hockey city
After that …. I’d rather see them go go San Diego rather than Arizona again.
Portland just seems like a hockey city
After that …. I’d rather see them go go San Diego rather than Arizona again.
ManofSteel55
Registered User
By barely, I think you mean isn't, ha ha. Especially starters. I think there are really only 20 ish legitimate, full time starting goalies in the NHL right now. The line between NHL backup and AHL starter is pretty blurry, but the more expansion teams we add, the more teams we will find who just don't have a good starter.
cbcwpg
Registered User
Quebec City would be a mistake. Another team in the Toronto area is the play. In 1991, when Hamilton was rejected by the NHL, the population of Metro Toronto was 3.9M. Now it is 6.5M. That's a hell of a lot more hockey fans.
QC certainly doesn't have the corporate cash necessary to buy suites and support the team like they would in Toronto. Romantics, might like the idea, and talk about Beliveau playing there with the Aces, and the Nordiques,but that was ages ago, when hockey was a completely different proposition financially. The Nordiques moved for a reason - QC couldn't support them financially.
ATL, again?
Right now, I have the pleasure of watching my team ice Gaunce, Devin Shore, Hinnestroza, Ben Jones, and the like. Can't wait till they expand and the "talent" gets thinned out.
QC certainly doesn't have the corporate cash necessary to buy suites and support the team like they would in Toronto. Romantics, might like the idea, and talk about Beliveau playing there with the Aces, and the Nordiques,but that was ages ago, when hockey was a completely different proposition financially. The Nordiques moved for a reason - QC couldn't support them financially.
ATL, again?
Right now, I have the pleasure of watching my team ice Gaunce, Devin Shore, Hinnestroza, Ben Jones, and the like. Can't wait till they expand and the "talent" gets thinned out.
ManofSteel55
Registered User
Atlanta and Phoenix are two of the same thing I think. Both have failed as a hockey market, but were run by clowns who didn't know how to build the game in their communities. Twice in Atlanta. I'm not saying those cities deserve teams over some of the others listed, just that I can understand why Gary "The Money Monger" Bettman would want to try again in those two areas, with more competent ownership situations.
KrisLetAngry
MrJukeBoy
Yea there's no way Saskatchewan can have a NHL team and this is as a sad Saskatchewanian.
I don't even think Winnipeg can handle the team in 15 or 20 years.
1 team in Toronto area - it makes too much sense.
Houston-Will not be surprised.
Arizona - we will be back
Atlanta - we will be back
Those are my 4 places I think the NHL will go to.
Yeah, it's about money, and the power of the USD. It bothers me as a hockey fan who grew up watching the Original Six. It also puzzles me how some don't see the difference between a market like Toronto, where 50% of the population are hockey fans, and ATL or Phoenix, where 5% are.
ManofSteel55
Registered User
This I agree with. I also think they'll move to New Orleans eventually, but that might be after these 4. Or if Gary really doesn't want to go back into Canada for that 2nd Toronto area team.
KrisLetAngry
MrJukeBoy
A lot of smoke around New Orleans so my 4 may be wrong. But it makes too much sense for the Toronto area.
Heck I bet that expansion fee would be far as hell. Some of it going directly to Rogers..
NewtJorden
Unitas est Invicta
ManofSteel55
Registered User
Yes, but there's never too much money, and we all know that the NHL Board of Governors (ie, owners) covets money above all else.
Like any other franchise operation, the NHL gets its franchise fees up-front so that if a franchisee fails then they can re-sell the location to somebody else. Oh sure, there is a reputation hit whenever a franchise fails, but that is made less painful by the fact that the League will have collected $1+ billion up-front.
Where do you draw the line? What if we end up with 50 teams in the league? The more teams there are the more fan bases there will be who will end up going a very long time in between their team being a legit contender. On top of that it waters down the talent and waters down the rivalries. We need less teams not more
Granted, the quality of play has seriously deteriorated but the *average fan* who applauds when puck goes in and boos when somebody goes to the box, and whose credit cards finance the NHL, is generally not sophisticated enough to even realize that talent dilution is going on and might even not care if they did. Their primary interest is in getting a beer and a hot dog and have fun yelling for a couple of hours.
The NHL is a franchise operation, not too different than McDonalds or Burger King, and the fans are no more than the paying consumers, nothing more, nothing less. Only if a very large percentage of them quit attending the games and quit watching at home will the NHL start to take notice, but that's not likely to happen anytime soon.
The hardcore fans who belabor statistics and agonize over draft picks, such as on HFBoards, and thus who care about talent dilution, are probably less than 1% of all fans and thus practically financially irrelevant to anything.
- Jun 13, 2010
- 40,044
- 18,133
I want this because the little devil on my shoulder told me it would be funny if they did an ED for a second Toronto team and they made the Cup finals (ala VGK) their first year.
The most ironic part is Saskatoon will have their new 18K t-mobile-ish arena before any of the other places lol. By 2030 it should middle of contruction/or finished. I'm guessing they start in 2027 with a 3 year build time.
Funding has generally been allocated/arranged, and all the lots have been bought and are clear
"but who willl builddd the aarreeennaaa!???"
Funding has generally been allocated/arranged, and all the lots have been bought and are clear
"but who willl builddd the aarreeennaaa!???"
Toronto 2/Hamilton makes the most sense/safest. Instant cash printing machine.
Will be interesting to see Hamilton after the Reno that OVG is doing.
That or build another arena in the north Markham/Yorkdale type of area, top of the subway line.
Will be interesting to see Hamilton after the Reno that OVG is doing.
That or build another arena in the north Markham/Yorkdale type of area, top of the subway line.
I have no doubt in my mind that a second team in the greater Toronto area would be financially successful once established. What I’m not so certain about is if they get established considering that they’d have to pay an indemnity to the Leafs (and I think the Sabres too but don’t quote me on that) on top of the skyrocketing expansion fee.
FerrisRox
"Wanna go, Prettyboy?"
Saskatoon would never sign a single free agent, they would be on every single No Trade List and the minute any of their players had any value they would be holding out or demanding trades. A Saskatoon NHL franchise would essentially be like a feeder team for the rest of the league.
Winnipeg is three times larger than Saskatoon. Think about that.
For the record, the Saskatchewan Roughriders play in Regina, not Saskatoon, but the team draws from all over the province, something is *much* easier to do when you have eight home dates on the schedule, not 42.
T REX
Registered User
- Feb 28, 2013
- 10,887
- 8,226
BUWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA - this is the funniest thing I've heard in forever. There isn't enough talent to supply 31 teams let alone 36. What a horrible idea. Time for some serious change at the top of the NHL.
There's zero chance this happens. None. Nada. Zilch. If anyone thinks public funds will be used here in the US for any new arenas...I have some ocean property in AZ to sell you. How bout a new bridge perhaps?
There's zero chance this happens. None. Nada. Zilch. If anyone thinks public funds will be used here in the US for any new arenas...I have some ocean property in AZ to sell you. How bout a new bridge perhaps?
