The NHL IS A REGIONAL SPORT, and probably alwasy will be. The sooner we all realise that, the better.
because? What happens when we all realize this? We stop trying to introduce new fans to an awesome sport, putting it on television, and don't have teams in cities where 27% of the populations of USA/CAN reside?
If the NHL was a regional sport then no Southern markets would be succeeding which obviously isn't true.
Yes, if hockey was only a regional sport then LA, SJ, ANA, DAL, NASH, CAR, FLA, TB, ATL, AHL teams in Austin, Houston, San Antonio, Charlotte and Virginia, and ECHL teams in California, Las Vegas, etc, etc, would have sold zero tickets instead of the probably 60 million total (a guess) over the last 40 years.
Thank you! Bettmans dream of a national US sport is nothing but that, a dream. It has nothing to do with reality. I still wonder what ****ing research they did which demonstrated that it would be advisable to give a team to ****ing miami
Bettman wasn't the commissioner when the NHL's Board of Governors told commission John Zeigler to expand to at least 28 in 10 years back in 1989.
It is a regional sport. It will never be Number 1, hell even Number 2 in most American markets.
I suspect that if you randomly stopped someone in the street in Dallas or Raleigh, they'd probably rank the NHL as a third tier sport now, behind Football, Basketball, Nascar, etc. Reaching to be held in the same regard as the NFL in these markets might just be an unattainable goal.
So what? The Rangers will never be bigger than the Yankees or NY Giants, the Red Wings will never be bigger than the Lions, the Blackhawks will never be bigger than the Bears. Why does that matter? That's not a sign of viability for anything.
I watch the NHL (even when my team isn't in the playoffs), MLB, NFL (my interest is slowly dying in this… even though I lived in New Orleans when the Saints won the Super Bowl). L'il bit of the NBA finals, college basketball (STH), college baseball (STH), college football, IndyCar, occasionally Nascar, EPL (and next year Champions League since I'm a City fan), the World Cup, the Euro competition every four years, US soccer in any competition, Occasionally watch an MLS game. I've been to college volleyball matches (men's and women's), softball games, field hockey games (although I confess I've been on the clock to be at some), not to mention curling, and the Olympics every four years.
So, if hockey isn't #1 in my heart, I don't count as a hockey fan? I can't watch the games? The NHL isn't interested in my money from tickets, TV ratings, and merchandise sales?
The NHL will always get a constant cash flow from Canadian markets, even if they are small.
Yes, and? The NHL is also getting constant cash flow from US markets. NY, CHI, BOS, PHI, DET, LA are all big US markets that make a lot of money for the NHL. That's because the NHL is a LEAGUE of codependent members.
Something like 22 of 30 teams have gotten some form of the revenue sharing, including EDM, CAL, OTT, VAN and soon to be WIN.
The League of codependent members gives the bottom half of the league payments to pull each other closer to the revenue midpoint, regardless of geography. Every team is eligible but NYR, NYI, CHI, TOR, LA and ANA.
Yes it's regional, but that doesn't mean it can't find a place in some non-traditional markets. Heck, it's a niche in some of the more traditional US markets and has found its place in these cities.
SPORTS are niche, as well as virtually everything in life. There's virtually nothing that is universal. There's people in every city who have no interest in different things. "Hockey is Religion in Canada" is a great metaphor. But that doesn't mean atheists don't exist.
There's people who don't pay any attention to ______. Religion, politics, sports, news, TV, movies, music, etc.
"It's place" has to be enough revenue to make it a business venture that someone wants to buy when the current owner sells. That's it. The more people interest, the more money it'll make, but it doesn't need total saturation.
I do think a team can work in Houston, BTW - the metro area is big enough that it can work well enough without being 1st tier in that market. It doesn't have the same problem as Miami (weird metro area layout, making the market difficult to reach). The biggest factor is having the _right_ owner - one whose first priority is bringing hockey to Houston & making it work. By that I mean one whose willing to lose money over a few years if needed, to develop a strong club, to stick it out while the team gets competitive and not run early. One who takes it personal & not one who sees it as a business venture. Until that owner is in place there's no point bringing a team in.
Hockey/sports teams aren't stand-alone businesses. Guys who own sports teams got their money from other business ventures, and the team is part of a portfolio. Which is why "they're losing money!" is a stupid thing to point to as a "failing market." Lots of owners don't care if the team loses money, because it's a tax shelter that way. They make the money off the sale, not off the operation in 75% of franchises.
The NHL would work in Houston because it's a top 7 market, with millions of people who really care about their sports, take pride in beating Dallas in anything, have an arena ready to go, have ample corporate sponsorship opportunities, a massive TV market reach beyond their DMA. And they're on the cusp of not being eligible for revenue sharing which some people here seem to despise so much.
