And they won't and haven't been the first. Other markets have so called failed because the NHL system is just broken. Teams have been and continue to be in trouble all over the map. And it's not the fault of the people that go to the games.
This. Totally this. It's the fault of the short-sightedness among the owners. The most powerful among them always vote for what nets themselves the most $$ RIGHT NOW.
As has been said here many many times, the biggest problem this league has is the revenue disparity between the TOR/NYR/MTL crowd and the ARZ/CAR/FLO crowd. There are other markets also, but these serve to illustrate the point. Since there is such a disparity, and NHL has decided on a more-or-less hard cap system, which in turn requires a salary floor/cap arrangement, the have-nots simply can't keep up.
Solving this requires one of 2 things to happen:
1- National shared revenues (like a US-wide broadcast contract) increase so much that local differences are not as great (this is the NFL/NBA model).
2- The owners of the richer teams bite the bullet and pay huge amounts in revenue redistribution to keep the others afloat.
Neither of these is likely any time soon. Thus, you have the constant talk of failing franchises that we are getting.
NHL has made the matter worse by selfishly continuing to expand over the last years from 21 to 31 teams. All that has really done is allowed the existing owners to put the expansion fees in their pockets.
What should have been happening is that the existing owners should have shielded the new markets from failure by allowing better run-ups before teams started play. Or, no new teams at all.
Instead, expansion has been sold on the premise that a US-wide broadcast contract was just around the corner, and it has never come, so the problem has just become worse.
And the new markets get behind before they have a chance.
It's just a pity. I am sorry to all the AZ fans. None of your experience should have had to be this way. NONE OF IT.
I am sorry.