Why are the Predators in the Western Conference?

[LordChazzi93]

I apologise if this has already been brought up, but I was looking at an NHL team map and I noticed that the Predators are closer to Columbus, Pittsburgh, Carolina, Detroit, Washington, Philadelphia, Toronto, and Buffalo than they are to basically everyone in their division besides St. Louis, Chicago, and Dallas. Houston would even be farther than the majority of those teams I mentioned. Winnipeg is 20 hours away. Minnesota is 13 hours away. Colorado is 16 hours away. Houston is 12 hours away. Toronto, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Columbus and Carolina are 13 hours or less from Nashville, with Carolina, Columbus, Detroit, and Pittsburgh being less than 9 hours from Nashville which makes Dallas farther so it’s really now only 2 teams in their division that they’re closer to.

If Columbus got to move to the East, and they’re 5 hours from Nashville, why is Nashville still in the West? As a Sharks fan I think it’s unfair that they have to travel to California and Nevada and BC and Alberta and Manitoba and Colorado, etc. than they do the teams that they’re closer to in the East, especially Columbus.

I wasn’t the greatest at geography but I think others will agree with me on this one.

Also, why are Tampa and Florida in the Atlantic? Lol. I also just noticed this. You know how many other teams are closer to the Atlantic Division than Florida and Tampa? Literally every Metro team and Nashville lmao. Like, the Rangers are closer to Buffalo than the Panthers are, yet the Rangers are in the Metro. Oh well. I don’t want to make this confusing. Let’s discuss the Nashville thing.

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[triggrman]

Our only guess is that it's a time zones thing. There aren't any teams in the east not on eastern Time. Someone has to be in the west.

 

[Spirit of 67]

Because they're not in the Eastern Time Zone.

 

[PredsV82]

Also because the 4 team expansion that the Preds were part of included two teams farther east than Nashville, so for balance they had to go west. Remember Detroit was in the west until the most recent realignment.

Pretty much explains why Seattle is getting an expansion team and Quebec is not.

 

[Spirit of 67]

Pretty much explains why Seattle is getting an expansion team and Quebec is not.

 

[PredsV82]

Are you saying the Qubec group wouldnt pay 650M?

 

[LordChazzi93]

Are you saying the Qubec group wouldnt pay 650M?

It’s about TV & Radio. Seattle is the 13th largest television market in the United States. The potential Seattle NHL team will more than likely go with Root Sports like the Seahawks (NFL), Mariners (MLB), and Sounders (MLS) and that network is owned by AT&T so it’s much larger than anything Quebec City could offer, such as TVA which is owned by Quebecor, the group that wants to own an NHL team. Of course the odd number of teams in the West is a reason but the TV market is the biggest reason.

 

[Spirit of 67]

Are you saying the Qubec group wouldnt pay 650M?

US$ = $855M ish CDN. That is a lot of money.

Maybe they would, maybe they wouldn't.
But the impression I got was that the NHL didn't think they could. Keep in mind it was Quebecor who have stakes in dying industries. Like print, DVD, video rental, etc.

I also think the NHL likes having QC as a turn key location. Like Winnipeg was. They probably still have some stuff on rolling boil that will need to be address. And if it goes south like it did in Atlanta, they could pull out right away and go there.

 

[Adz]

If they had other teams from the central time zone it would be okay for Nashville to be moved to the Eastern Conference. Similarly, if the state of Tennessee was standardized to the eastern time zone THAT would be okay. But to have only one team on a different time zone is a detriment to that team, particularly when you're playing teams to your east. While it's true that everyone gets the time lag for a certain number of games a year and they know how to adjust for it, being in the East would mean that there would be a loss of an hour for every game played against your own conference and division, the bulk of your games. It is inherently unfair. Geographically, it would make sense either way.

 

[AdmiralsFan24]

Because if you want an equal number of teams in the conferences, someone has to be. The vast, vast majority of the population of the United States and Canada lives in the Eastern and Central time zones so some teams are going to be stuck in divisions and conferences that either don't make a lot of sense or have a lot of travel, sometimes both.

St. Louis, Nashville, Minnesota and Chicago are in no way the West but since they are part of the time zone that is closest to Mountain and Pacific time, they go West. Kansas City and St. Louis (when they had a team) are not in the West in the NFL but they made the most sense with how the rest of the geography of the league was.

New Orleans, Houston, Oklahoma City, San Antonio, Dallas, Memphis and Minnesota aren't the West but the geography of the rest of the NBA says they make the most sense to be in the West.

 

[Drake744]

Every team in the east is in the Eastern Time Zone and Nashville is not.

 

[Drake744]

Also because the 4 team expansion that the Preds were part of included two teams farther east than Nashville, so for balance they had to go west. Remember Detroit was in the west until the most recent realignment.

Pretty much explains why Seattle is getting an expansion team and Quebec is not.

Columbus was in the West also. Just adding onto your point.

I'm assuming Seattle is getting a team based on the absurdly high number of ticket deposits, market size, and renovation of Key Arena

 

[adsfan]

Because if you want an equal number of teams in the conferences, someone has to be. The vast, vast majority of the population of the United States and Canada lives in the Eastern and Central time zones so some teams are going to be stuck in divisions and conferences that either don't make a lot of sense or have a lot of travel, sometimes both.

St. Louis, Nashville, Minnesota and Chicago are in no way the West but since they are part of the time zone that is closest to Mountain and Pacific time, they go West. Kansas City and St. Louis (when they had a team) are not in the West in the NFL but they made the most sense with how the rest of the geography of the league was.

New Orleans, Houston, Oklahoma City, San Antonio, Dallas, Memphis and Minnesota aren't the West but the geography of the rest of the NBA says they make the most sense to be in the West.

In MLB, the Cubs were in the NL East & the White Sox were in the AL West. I believe that was due to expansion etc, i.e. no St Louis team in the AL since they moved to Baltimore.

 

[PredsV82]

In MLB, the Cubs were in the NL East & the White Sox were in the AL West. I believe that was due to expansion etc, i.e. no St Louis team in the AL since they moved to Baltimore.

For all of my childhood the Cincinnati Reds and the Atlanta Braves were in the NL West along with the Dodgers, Giants and Padres(and Astros) while the Cardinals and Cubs were in the East.

 

[LCPreds]

I'd love it if the Preds could move to the East. For purely selfish reasons of course.

 

[Soundgarden]

I think we'd fare better in the east, just because the central is such a tough division.

 

[adsfan]

For all of my childhood the Cincinnati Reds and the Atlanta Braves were in the NL West along with the Dodgers, Giants and Padres(and Astros) while the Cardinals and Cubs were in the East.

The two divisions per league started in 1969. I really think the idea was to put most of the big eastern cities in the NL East. A lot of people feel that St Louis is the last eastern city and KC is the first western city in the US. Cincinnati is really a southern city via culture. They have a lot of fried foods and riverboats, kind of like New Orleans. They seemed to have a Baptist church on every other block when I lived there. Atlanta is the economic powerhouse of the south. It makes sense to pair CIN and ATL along with CHI and STL for travel. You played teams in your division 18 games in the old days versus 12 against the other division.

 

[ThirdManIn]

Because they're not in the Eastern Time Zone.

This argument always gets on my nerves because for it to make any sense as a real reason it must imply that only teams in the Eastern Time Zone should be in the Eastern Conference. Meanwhile, three other time zones are represented in the Western Conference. It's just a silly reason, and if it is in any way an official reason the person who perpetuates it as such should be beaten with pool noodles.

 

[Drake744]

This argument always gets on my nerves because for it to make any sense as a real reason it must imply that only teams in the Eastern Time Zone should be in the Eastern Conference. Meanwhile, three other time zones are represented in the Western Conference. It's just a silly reason, and if it is in any way an official reason the person who perpetuates it as such should be beaten with pool noodles.

I just figure it's the amount of large cities in the Eastern time Zone and the fact that if a Central time zone team was in it, you'd have way too many games starting at 6pm, which isn't typically what people want.

 

[LCPreds]

I just figure it's the amount of large cities in the Eastern time Zone and the fact that if a Central time zone team was in it, you'd have way too many games starting at 6pm, which isn't typically what people want.

May simply depend on your demographics. I’ll speak for the crowd that has to get up at 430 in the morning during the week: bring on the 6pm start times! Granted for home games I would still expect a 7pm start.

 

[PredsV82]

It's purely numbers.

There are 31 teams in the league therefore there have to be 15 in one conference and 16 in the other. There are 16 teams that are geographically to the east of Nashville, so even if you arent considering the time zones, it's still not feasible for Nashville to be in the east until and unless the league expands to 33 or 34 teams and all the new teams are located west of Nashville.

 

[Adz]

May simply depend on your demographics. I’ll speak for the crowd that has to get up at 430 in the morning during the week: bring on the 6pm start times! Granted for home games I would still expect a 7pm start.

Which would be an 8 PM start for all fans of our conference opponents.

 

[LCPreds]

Which would be an 8 PM start for all fans of our conference opponents.

Right so maybe we would split the difference at 630? As it currently stands we’re already in an odd spot. They still put up with it part of the year when playing us just like we get to put up with the frequent west coast start times more frequently than they do.

 

[Adz]

Right so maybe we would split the difference at 630? As it currently stands we’re already in an odd spot. They still put up with it part of the year when playing us just like we get to put up with the frequent west coast start times more frequently than they do.

Right, but each conference plays more times with divisional or conference teams than they do the others. So it is a factor for fans watching in the ETZ because as of now it's ONE away game with non conference opponents, not 2 or 3. Any team flying east loses 1 - 3 hours time in preparation. Coming home they gain those hours back but it's tempered with flight lag. If you balanced each division with teams from each time zone it wouldn't be an issue for me. I don't necessarily want that but I don't think Nashville should be part of the Eastern Conference without that balance.

 

[Price is Wright]

Expansion in Seattle in the Pacific, relocate Ottawa to Houston in the Central, move Columbus to Atlantic, put Nashville in the Metropolitan division.