Hockey Dream won't Die

[OG6ix]

Larry G still determind to Bring NHL back to Hartford

This guy is a persistant S.O.B. isn't he? I admire it.

Click to read more...

 

[Spetzky]

Fingold still determind to Bring NHL back to Hartford

This guy is a persistant S.O.B. isn't he? I admire it.

Lawrence R. Gottesdiener.

Fingold purchased (LOI) the team and most likely will keep it in the 'Burgh

 

[OG6ix]

Lawrence R. Gottesdiener.

Fingold purchased (LOI) the team and most likely will keep it in the 'Burgh

That's not stopping him from trying to get other franchises it seems.

 

[jkrdevil]

From the article

Now that Pittsburgh is off the table, other potential targets are teams with low attendance numbers, including the New York Islanders, the Nashville Predators, the Atlanta Thrashers and the Florida Panthers.

I don't think any of those teams are for sale and they all seem to have committed ownership except for Atlanta with their dispute and they should have some after that is over with.

 

[Hawker14]

That's not stopping him from trying to get other franchises it seems.

edit your first post. it's incorrect and misleading.

 

[Voice of Reason]

We had a long thread about this in the past month or so.
The bottom line was the majority felt other cities were more deserving than Hartford, Pittsburgh was the most likely to move, and Hartford has no modern rink at present.
As someone who works in downtown Hartford and lives about 15 miles away in the lush Northwest Connecticut hills, I would be 110% behind the NHL returning.
I would also be 110% behind winning Powerball, a date with Sienna Miller and a penthouse apartment in New York City, but none of them are happeneing anytime soon either.

 

[puckhead103*]

From the article



I don't think any of those teams are for sale and they all seem to have committed ownership except for Atlanta with their dispute and they should have some after that is over with.

i have some darkhorses.....

1. edmonton oilers....can't attract big name free agents and an arena that is over 30 years old....

2. calgary flames.....arena that is over 20 years old....

 

[OG6ix]

edit your first post. it's incorrect and misleading.

How is it misleading? The Name of the damn article is in the Topic, and if you READ the article he is determined to get a NHL team to Hartford. Again, what is misleading about it?

 

[WesMantooth]

Fingold still determind to Bring NHL back to Hartford

This guy is a persistant S.O.B. isn't he? I admire it.

The article you posted is about Gottesdiener wanting to bring a team to Harford. Fingold is in the process of buying the Pens, and is not planning on moving the team.

By writing "Fingold still determind to Bring NHL back to Hartford", you're giving Pens fans heart attacks.

 

[kdb209]

How is it misleading? The Name of the damn article is in the Topic, and if you READ the article he is determined to get a NHL team to Hartford. Again, what is misleading about it?

The article is about Gottesdiener, not Fingold.

Fingold = LOI to buy Pens. Keeping them in the 'burgh.

Gottesdiener = runner-up to by the Pens. Looking to buy another team to move to Hartford.

Capisce?

The man who was the runner-up to buy the Pittsburgh Penguins says he is "still determined to bring hockey back to Hartford" and is actively looking into two other hockey teams.

Lawrence R. Gottesdiener - whose bid to buy the Penguins was second only to that of Hartford developer Sam Fingold - won't name the teams he is pursuing, but insists he isn't giving up.

 

[OG6ix]

The article is about Gottesdiener, not Fingold.

Fingold = LOI to buy Pens. Keeping them in the 'burgh.

Gottesdiener = runner-up to by the Pens. Looking to buy another team to move to Hartford.

Capisce?

I can't believe I missed that one.

 

[dabid]

The article is about Gottesdiener, not
Fingold = Keeping them in the 'burgh.

 

[bleedgreen]

We had a long thread about this in the past month or so.
The bottom line was the majority felt other cities were more deserving than Hartford, Pittsburgh was the most likely to move, and Hartford has no modern rink at present.
As someone who works in downtown Hartford and lives about 15 miles away in the lush Northwest Connecticut hills, I would be 110% behind the NHL returning.
I would also be 110% behind winning Powerball, a date with Sienna Miller and a penthouse apartment in New York City, but none of them are happeneing anytime soon either.

not that im disagreeing, but who is the "majority"? why would their opinion count in the actual issue? i dont think a team will ever come back either, but a bunch of hf's thinking hartford doesnt deserve one is hardly evidence for them never coming back.

 

[GWhale*]

I don't want the NHL in Hartford. I'm trying to drum up support for the Swedish Elite League to expand here.

 

[Voice of Reason]

not that im disagreeing, but who is the "majority"? why would their opinion count in the actual issue? i dont think a team will ever come back either, but a bunch of hf's thinking hartford doesnt deserve one is hardly evidence for them never coming back.

I was referring only to the old thread. You're right, it doesn't matter what any of us think in reality.
While no Whaler fan (Devils since 82), I would love the return simply because I don't give a crap about UConn and there are no other significant sport options.

 

[Realm]

i have some darkhorses.....

1. edmonton oilers....can't attract big name free agents and an arena that is over 30 years old....

2. calgary flames.....arena that is over 20 years old....

Both teams have season ticket waiting lists, these teams arent going anywhere and thats what we had the lockout for.

 

[OG6ix]

How much are those season tickets? I bet they aren't as expensive as some other cities.

 

[Dogbert*]

i have some darkhorses.....

1. edmonton oilers....can't attract big name free agents and an arena that is over 30 years old....

2. calgary flames.....arena that is over 20 years old....

Oh, stop being bitter about the Southern teams not being able to draw fans. Most of this board wouldn't talk about teams like Florida, Atlanta and Nashville being moved if they could fill their buildings like teams up here can.

I don't think that we can count this guy out. Money talks, after all; need I remind anyone of why the Flames were moved to Calgary in the first place?

 

[Gnashville]

Most of this board wouldn't talk about teams like Florida, Atlanta and Nashville being moved if they could fill their buildings like teams up here can.

Really? Tampa drew very well last season and still gets the same garbage thrown at them.
BTW if you care to do a little research you will find that not all the teams up there have historically drawn too well either with numbers much lower than the teams you mentioned.

Also teams tend to move due to bad buildings not fan support. Hartford, Winnipeg, Quebec all had great fans but god awful buildings.

 

[Dogbert*]

Really? Tampa drew very well last season and still gets the same garbage thrown at them.

Yes, they did... because the team won the Stanley Cup in the preceding season. How'd they draw in the years before that? They barely eclipsed the 90% capacity mark in 2003-04 (90.2%, 18th in the NHL), and weren't above 83.7% in the previous three seasons. If the team doesn't do well this season, can we really expect attendance to stay as high as it has been?

BTW if you care to do a little research you will find that not all the teams up there have historically drawn too well either with numbers much lower than the teams you mentioned.

Hartford should've supported its team when the city had one; if they did, maybe the Whalers never would have moved. More on that later.

Also teams tend to move due to bad buildings not fan support. Hartford, Winnipeg, Quebec all had great fans but god awful buildings.

Hartford moved because the team's fans didn't support it. Peter Karmanos decided that he was tired of losing revenue because the Whalers couldn't draw, and he moved it to Carolina. Quebec moved because of the team's financial losses during the 1994-95 lockout, and that only happened because the wonderful PQ government refused to bail the team out. Winnipeg's move was partially caused by the lack of a "modern" arena to play in, but player salaries and a declining Canadian dollar were also responsible.

All three of the teams you mentioned moved because of the almighty dollar, and fan support has a lot to do with that. If those teams continue to have problems drawing fans to their games, then they're going to have money problems, and that's really the bottom line with a lot of the billionaires who own teams.

 

[Gnashville]

Yes, they did... because the team won the Stanley Cup in the preceding season. How'd they draw in the years before that? They barely eclipsed the 90% capacity mark in 2003-04 (90.2%, 18th in the NHL), and weren't above 83.7% in the previous three seasons. If the team doesn't do well this season, can we really expect attendance to stay as high as it has been?



Hartford should've supported its team when the city had one; if they did, maybe the Whalers never would have moved. More on that later.



Hartford moved because the team's fans didn't support it. Peter Karmanos decided that he was tired of losing revenue because the Whalers couldn't draw, and he moved it to Carolina. Quebec moved because of the team's financial losses during the 1994-95 lockout, and that only happened because the wonderful PQ government refused to bail the team out. Winnipeg's move was partially caused by the lack of a "modern" arena to play in, but player salaries and a declining Canadian dollar were also responsible.

All three of the teams you mentioned moved because of the almighty dollar, and fan support has a lot to do with that. If those teams continue to have problems drawing fans to their games, then they're going to have money problems, and that's really the bottom line with a lot of the billionaires who own teams.

Dude the three teams I mentioned lost millions due to the bad arenas. Hartford didn't draw well because of a bad arena and the team stunk. When I said "up there" I meant CANADA not Hartford same as you did. Do some research into what the current teams in Canada draw when they are losing. It is NOT 100% capacity most draw like Tampa (and other southern teams BTW) does good when winning bad when losing yet Tampa and other southern cities have to endure this crap about being bad fans and Canadian fans are given a pass. Vancouver has had some of the worst attendance in NHL history, yet when I applied the same rules to Vancouver that my city has to endure, I was called names for it.

 

[GWhale*]

Hartford didn't draw well because of a bad arena and the team stunk.

Exactly. No team was as bad as the Whalers the in the past quarter century and change. No team had to endure completely inept management and laughable trades of any player who showed an ounce of talent. There is no way to compare Hartford fans to anyone else, because nobody put up with as much **** as we did.

 

[Dogbert*]

Dude the three teams I mentioned lost millions due to the bad arenas. Hartford didn't draw well because of a bad arena and the team stunk. When I said "up there" I meant CANADA not Hartford same as you did. Do some research into what the current teams in Canada draw when they are losing. It is NOT 100% capacity most draw like Tampa (and other southern teams BTW) does good when winning bad when losing yet Tampa and other southern cities have to endure this crap about being bad fans and Canadian fans are given a pass. Vancouver has had some of the worst attendance in NHL history, yet when I applied the same rules to Vancouver that my city has to endure, I was called names for it.

Nobody calls Southerners "bad fans." The problem is that there doesn't seem to be enough of them to warrant the continued existence of the teams.

I'll give you this much: if the teams in the South are very good for certain periods of time, then the bandwagons will fill up, and I'd be willing to bet that enough of those bandwagoners would turn into diehards to justify the teams staying there; heck, we've already got a good example of that in San Jose. Tampa and Carolina have now won titles, and they're both on their way to solidifying their places in those cities' respective markets; Anaheim and Nashville might be following suit, given how good those two clubs look this year. The question, however, is this: how long are the owners of the bottom-dwelling Southern teams willing to wait for that to happen to their clubs? Some of these rich guys don't take kindly to losing money, and might look to recoup some of that cash by selling their teams to the highest bidder.

 

[Gnashville]

Nobody calls Southerners "bad fans." The problem is that there doesn't seem to be enough of them to warrant the continued existence of the teams.

I'll give you this much: if the teams in the South are very good for certain periods of time, then the bandwagons will fill up, and I'd be willing to bet that enough of those bandwagoners would turn into diehards to justify the teams staying there; heck, we've already got a good example of that in San Jose. Tampa and Carolina have now won titles, and they're both on their way to solidifying their places in those cities' respective markets; Anaheim and Nashville might be following suit, given how good those two clubs look this year. The question, however, is this: how long are the owners of the bottom-dwelling Southern teams willing to wait for that to happen to their clubs? Some of these rich guys don't take kindly to losing money, and might look to recoup some of that cash by selling their teams to the highest bidder.

Some people do call southerners bad fans, being from Tennessee trust me on that. There are a lot more fans here than most people think and give us credit for also.

Good points,
Most teams are locked into arena deals that prevent them from moving, even if the owners sell out. Moving the team after someone buys it could cost more than it is worth especially to Hartford, Winnipeg, and Quebec which don't have arenas that would make the team more profitable than where it is and may even lose more money in those towns.

 

[OG6ix]

Dude, hockey/basketball isn't going to sell out everygame especially when the team stinks. This isn't the NFL. Many canadians are being overzealous now, I mean the Flames and Oilers weren't selling out in the 90s when their team sucked. Neither were the canucks.