Around the league part 2

[Kingfan1967]

They can name the team after the state, but the city population matters in terms of attendance. Around 140k people live in SLC. That’s a joke. Even Irvine has like 290k.

This exit from Phoenix is a loss for Bettman. The league is getting extorted by the team owner and also moving a franchise to a C grade market.

Owners around the league have to question why they aren’t getting more to approve a sale than what is being reported as less than $10M a team. Seems like this whole situation has been misplayed. And SLC needs a real rink, so that’s no slam dunk either.

SLC is campaigning for the Olympics', and they would need a new arena for that.

 

[Bandit]

Matt Roy and his agent are licking their lips right now.

And Rob Blake is licking his balls.

 

[DoktorJeep]

SLC is campaigning for the Olympics', and they would need a new arena for that.

good call, I heard that mentioned as well. Yes, Utah is an improvement over Phoenix, but for all the sunk cost, you’d hope for the team to be somewhere like Houston which has well established major league sports franchises.

 

[Bandit]

They can name the team after the state, but the city population matters in terms of attendance. Around 140k people live in SLC. That’s a joke. Even Irvine has like 290k.

This exit from Phoenix is a loss for Bettman. The league is getting extorted by the team owner and also moving a franchise to a C grade market.

Owners around the league have to question why they aren’t getting more to approve a sale than what is being reported as less than $10M a team. Seems like this whole situation has been misplayed. And SLC needs a real rink, so that’s no slam dunk either.

Yeah Hartford is smaller than Glendale CA. You can drive through the whole city in 4 minutes. Pretty wild they had an NHL team.

 

[DoktorJeep]

Yeah Hartford is smaller than Glendale CA. You can drive through the whole city in 4 minutes. Pretty wild they had an NHL team.

At least Hartford is a suburb of a metropolis. I think more Americans think of bad drivers than ice hockey when you ask their opinion on the city of Glendale.

 

[Bandit]

At least Hartford is a suburb of a metropolis. I think more Americans think of bad drivers than ice hockey when you ask their opinion on the city of Glendale.

Wut?

Hartford is a 2 hour 45 minute drive from New York. 1 hour 45 to Boston.

Glendale is 20-30 minutes from DTLA.

 

[johnjm22]

It doesn't really matter what the city population is. It matters what the metro area population is.

NY 19.5M
LA 9.5M
Chicago 9.2M
Dallas 8.1M
Houston 7.5M
Atlanta 6.3M

Phoenix is 5M (10th Largest in USA).

Meanwhile SLC is only 1.2M.

You might as well make the Ontario Reign an NHL team. The San Bernardino Metro area (SB, Riverside, Ont) is 4.6M.

 

[Omni Owl]

No NHL team should ever go back to Atlanta, they don't give a f*** about hockey in that city, the league and owners should let it rest already. Houston seems to make the most sense, plus a Dallas/Houston rivalry would be great. Some Coyotes players don't seem to be to happy about the recent SLC talk, understandably. Though I've heard SLC is a lot better than it used to be as far as stringent lifestyle rules. The Jazz serve beer until the end of the 3rd quarter. Utah is a great place if you love nature, tons of gorgeous national parks. The weather also beats the hellhole that is the greater Phoenix area.

 

[kingsholygrail]

It doesn't really matter what the city population is. It matters what the metro area population is.

NY 19.5M
LA 9.5M
Chicago 9.2M
Dallas 8.1M
Houston 7.5M
Atlanta 6.3M

Phoenix is 5M (10th Largest in USA).

Meanwhile SLC is only 1.2M.

You might as well make the Ontario Reign an NHL team. The San Bernardino Metro area (SB, Riverside, Ont) is 4.6M.

Sounds like they could all fill a 15-18,000 capacity arena.

 

[apadilla]

Salt Lake City Sister Wives
Utah Jeffs

Salt Lake Leaping Lizards

 

[johnjm22]

 

[johnjm22]

I thought Austin would be a good place for an NHL team. 2.5M metro population and growing rapidly. Vibrant city with high incomes and no other pro sports team.

I think being the first to market makes a big difference. Houston already has an NFL team, NBA, and MLB team.

 

[Herby]

SLC is also going to be a challenging place to bring in UFA’s. You have the western conference travel challenges that all teams already face, but now you add in cultural elements that are just not going to be appealing to young men in their late 20’s and early 30’s.

But they have the rich owner, they are more committed to building an arena than anyone else (maybe save ATL) and geographically it makes the most sense for current alignment.

And the 36 team and expanded playoff is inevitable, much as I feel about college football expanding and how it now cheapens the regular season, it makes more business sense to dangle the playoff carrot to get fans to keep showing up. I personally wish it was 82 games and then straight to conference semi-finals , that would make your regular season mean something, but its going the other direction. Will probably have 24 of the 36 teams make some kind of playoffs or play-in.

 

[johnjm22]

SLC is also going to be a challenging place to bring in UFA’s. You have the western conference travel challenges that all teams already face, but now you add in cultural elements that are just not going to be appealing to young men in their late 20’s and early 30’s.

I think the Mormon thing is way over blown.

They do have some strict alcohol laws, but younger generations aren't really into drinking culture as much anymore.

Lots of pretty white girls in SLC

 

[kingsholygrail]

SLC is also going to be a challenging place to bring in UFA’s. You have the western conference travel challenges that all teams already face, but now you add in cultural elements that are just not going to be appealing to young men in their late 20’s and early 30’s.

But they have the rich owner, they are more committed to building an arena than anyone else (maybe save ATL) and geographically it makes the most sense for current alignment.

And the 36 team and expanded playoff is inevitable, much as I feel about college football expanding and how it now cheapens the regular season, it makes more business sense to dangle the playoff carrot to get fans to keep showing up. I personally wish it was 82 games and then straight to conference semi-finals , that would make your regular season mean something, but its going the other direction. Will probably have 24 of the 36 teams make some kind of playoffs or play-in.

Like what? Their liquor laws are less restrictive than many places in Texas.

 

[mbar]

Sometimes smaller markets end up with more passionate fanbases (less professional competition) so it won't be obvious watching games. The attendance will be fine. Its probably more of a problem for ownership as there is less opportunity to sell high priced corporate sponsorships or high end arena stuff to really wealthy people.

In Major League Soccer, the Salt Lake City team draws very well and their players (no matter where they are from in the world) tend to fall in love with living there. It's pretty beautiful. Wouldn't expect it to be a problem with attracting players too much.

 

[Johnny Utah]

Bummed about AZ - I was going there for Kings vs Coyotes games...they were fun and Scottsdale is a great city.

 

[dabeechman]

Moved from LA to Utah a few years back. This needs to happen so I can watch live hockey again.

 

[DoktorJeep]

Seattle and to an extent Vegas are large metropolis’ in a heavily populated region. SLC is nowhere close to a metropolis. Are there more billionaires in Utah vs Quebec City? You’d like to see a team relocate to a thriving economy like Houston over a place with a billionaire and a half ass arena. Barely an improvement over the multi decade long failure in Phoenix.

 

[johnjm22]

Seattle and to an extent Vegas are large metropolis’ in a heavily populated region. SLC is nowhere close to a metropolis. Are there more billionaires in Utah vs Quebec City? You’d like to see a team relocate to a thriving economy like Houston over a place with a billionaire and a half ass arena. Barely an improvement over the multi decade long failure in Phoenix.

Quebec metro only has 800K.

And Canadiens have less disposable income than Americans.

 

[DoktorJeep]

Quebec metro only has 800K.

And Canadiens have less disposable income than Americans.

110% of Canadians are taught the definition of icing in pre school.

 

[Omni Owl]

And like clockwork Mark Stone is ready to play, because they conveniently need him right now. What a f***ing joke, didn't other teams like Ottawa get penalized for shit like this? I guess Vegas doesn't get held accountable. I doubt this f***er even had a spleen injury to begin with, even a minor one is pretty serious.

 

[kingsfan28]

And like clockwork Mark Stone is ready to play, because they conveniently need him right now. What a f***ing joke, didn't other teams like Ottawa get penalized for shit like this? I guess Vegas doesn't get held accountable. I doubt this f***er even had a spleen injury to begin with, even a minor one is pretty serious.

Yeah, the added Hertyl coming off LTIR too. That 16 mil added to their cap, just in time for the playoffs. Hertyl and Hanifin aren't on the team unless Stone is on LTIR...AGAIN!

 

[johnjm22]

A fully healthy Vegas team is very deep.

 

[kingsholygrail]

Seattle and to an extent Vegas are large metropolis’ in a heavily populated region. SLC is nowhere close to a metropolis. Are there more billionaires in Utah vs Quebec City? You’d like to see a team relocate to a thriving economy like Houston over a place with a billionaire and a half ass arena. Barely an improvement over the multi decade long failure in Phoenix.

SLC has things already in motion. Houston doesn't have anything from what I understand and Quebec City is a no go because we would have an Eastern team playing in the west again.