What about Cleveland for the NHL?

[uhlaw97]

Their AHL team gets over 11K per game in attendance, routinely leads that league in attendance.

Seems like they'd be considered for a franchise at some point.

 

[sawchuk1971]

no...

i'm from cleveland...

cleveland is too much of a small market to compete.

 

[AtlantaWhaler]

Cleveland's population has (mostly) been declining for over 20 years.

The 11K attendance is nice, but that doesn't automatically get you an NHL team. If that were the case, we'd have a third team in Pennsylvania.

Unless some billionaire really wanted to make it work, I just don't see it.

 

[uhlaw97]

no...

i'm from cleveland...

cleveland is too much of a small market to compete.

Well, I graduated from college (CWRU) in Cleveland back in 1994.

I realize Cleveland's city limits aren't huge; but the entire Cleveland-Akron-Canton market is well over 2 million.

I figure they'd be in contention, based on that.

 

[GindyDraws]

Fort Wayne gets over 8K in the ECHL and their fans will tell you that the city would gladly get rid of the team if they could squeeze a few more concerts instead.

Hockey is a hard sell even in places with that kind of attendance. Plus, you know... The Barons?

 

[No Fun Shogun]

If the NHL was willing to name drop Cincinnati and Omaha in the past, I’d put nothing by them in terms of any major market.

That being said, Cleveland already feels like a congested sports market and I don't think that there’s an interested party there. The NHL seems like they were pretty strategic in their expansion to Columbus in trying to have it be the team of Ohio, but then it ran into the misfortune of having a pretty poorly run quarter century to start out.

But hey, if some crazy rich person writes a big enough check to the NHL, that changes the equation overnight.

 

[sneakytitz]

I have nothing to add to this conversation other than I am hopefully going to my first Monsters game later this year when I go up to see the Falcons play the Clowns. Y'all cross your fingers they're in town that weekend.

 

[Big Z Man 1990]

The NHL seems like they were pretty strategic in their expansion to Columbus in trying to have it be the team of Ohio, but then it ran into the misfortune of having a pretty poorly run quarter century to start out.

Hockey is also an afterthought at OSU, which puts most of its resources into football. By contrast, the other full-time Big Ten schools with well-established men's hockey teams are among the powers in the sport.

 

[edog37]

Their AHL team gets over 11K per game in attendance, routinely leads that league in attendance.

Seems like they'd be considered for a franchise at some point.

It’s too close to Pittsburgh & Columbus to make it work.

 

[PistolPete]

Well, I graduated from college (CWRU) in Cleveland back in 1994.

I realize Cleveland's city limits aren't huge; but the entire Cleveland-Akron-Canton market is well over 2 million.

I figure they'd be in contention, based on that.

Corporations? Economy drivers?

It is a declining population as well.

Of the 2 million, how many are black? This is important because watch gsmes and the fsns are still almost all white suggesting the NHL isn't on the radar of blacks.