Natural ice? Define natural ice and its duration? Vancouver gets natural ice? For a couple of days a year, arguably similar to what New York gets, probably less and the Rangers are an original six team.
What is the sizeable population delineation point? Number of rinks? Arbitrary based on geography isn't really much of a criteria. (not sure if image will show or not, look up number of rinks by state and you'll find it- "where can you play some hockey")
You are correct, we have different criteria. As for Minnesota, that state renders many Canadian provinces as irrelevant by your criteria, including dear old Manitoba.
A) I’m surprised Texas has so many rinks.
B) any reason that a person decides to cheer for a place is arbitrary not based on logic. Therefore, my answer is mostly emotional not logical.
A lot of people are cheering against Edmonton, because they got Gretzky and Mcdavid, so what?
A lot of people cheer for the jets because that’s where we are from. We are from Canada so taking the connection we have to the jets one step further we should root from any Canadian team.
All Canadian teams are underdogs. Have a smaller population, are not as rich have a harder time attracting fa then American teams.
Thinking that a team deserves a team because it’s cold and bitter, vs sunny, hot dessert is a silly argument, even though that’s the one I am making.
Growing up, peggers would play hockey whether we had the jets or not, I can’t imagine the same is true for Texans.
So what is your criteria? Any place big enough to have enough fans deserves a team?