City Markets

Ender

Registered User
I was looking at a geographical map of all sports teams and what city they reside in. And Looking at the map, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Alaska, Hawaii, and Nebraska do not have a major sports team. Now in the NHL terms, what about the thoughts to expand/re-locate to one of these states? I know the Dakotas, Hawaii, and Wyoming would be off the map because of population (and in Hawaii) travel issues. And Nevada has been discussed already, but what about Idaho, Montana, Nebraska, or Alaska? I looked up some of the biggest cities in these states and got these numbers:

Boise, Idaho:
Population
- City 211,830
- Metro 624,000

Billings, Montana:
Population
- City 101,721
- Metro 181,593

* (has grown 10.9% or 11,281 since 2000)

Anchorage, Alaska:
Population
- City 275,043
- Metro 339,286

Omaha, Nebraska:
Population
- City 414,521
- metro 813,170


Most of those, the pop is low, but I would think the NHL would like to entertain the thought they'd be the only major team in the city or around the city. Do you think it'd be profitable for the NHL to try a northern state that might be more open to NHL hockey since (for some of those cities) it'd be the head dog in town?
 

Jumptheshark

Rebooting myself
Oct 12, 2003
99,859
13,840
Somewhere on Uranus
I was looking at a geographical map of all sports teams and what city they reside in. And Looking at the map, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Alaska, Hawaii, and Nebraska do not have a major sports team. Now in the NHL terms, what about the thoughts to expand/re-locate to one of these states? I know the Dakotas, Hawaii, and Wyoming would be off the map because of population (and in Hawaii) travel issues. And Nevada has been discussed already, but what about Idaho, Montana, Nebraska, or Alaska? I looked up some of the biggest cities in these states and got these numbers:

Boise, Idaho:
Population
- City 211,830
- Metro 624,000

Billings, Montana:
Population
- City 101,721
- Metro 181,593

* (has grown 10.9% or 11,281 since 2000)

Anchorage, Alaska:
Population
- City 275,043
- Metro 339,286

Omaha, Nebraska:
Population
- City 414,521
- metro 813,170


Most of those, the pop is low, but I would think the NHL would like to entertain the thought they'd be the only major team in the city or around the city. Do you think it'd be profitable for the NHL to try a northern state that might be more open to NHL hockey since (for some of those cities) it'd be the head dog in town?

the fun part of those numbers is what is decrbed as metro

I have been to 3 of those cities and I think the cities would be barely big enough to support an echl team--let alone and nhl team
 

Sens Rule

Registered User
Sep 22, 2005
21,251
73
the fun part of those numbers is what is decrbed as metro

I have been to 3 of those cities and I think the cities would be barely big enough to support an echl team--let alone and nhl team

Winnipeg and Quebec lost there NHL teams for a number of factors like arena's and such but also because they were not large enough cities. They have about 650-750 000 people in their Metro areas and as many hockey fans per capita as you will find anywhere in the world. Why would NHL hockey move to far smaller cities with far less hockey fans per capita?

It makes no sense at all.
 

garnetpalmetto

Jerkministrator
Jul 12, 2004
12,476
11,841
Durham, NC
Well two of those markets are ECHL markets, while one is an AHL market Here are their avg attendance numbers from last year:

Anchorage, AK (Alaska Aces): 4,883 (10th in the ECHL)
Boise, ID (Idaho Steelheads): 4,365 (12th in the ECHL)
Omaha, NE (Omaha Ak-Sar-Ben Knights): 3,271 (27th & last in the AHL)

For comparison's sake, here were the top teams in each league:

Stockton, CA (Stockton Thunder): 6,343 (1st in the ECHL)
Manchester, NH (Manchester Monarchs): 8,612 (1st in the AHL)
 

Ender

Registered User
Winnipeg and Quebec lost there NHL teams for a number of factors like arena's and such but also because they were not large enough cities. They have about 650-750 000 people in their Metro areas and as many hockey fans per capita as you will find anywhere in the world. Why would NHL hockey move to far smaller cities with far less hockey fans per capita?

It makes no sense at all.

Did not know what all went into the NHL moving from Winnipeg/Quebec. I guess that answers my question easily. If that size was enough to lose a team in Canada then surely those places would not have a major league team in them at this time.
 

Jumptheshark

Rebooting myself
Oct 12, 2003
99,859
13,840
Somewhere on Uranus
niether city was also able to raise enough money from the finacial districts

the infra structures of both the peg and QC were and are somewhat hindered by the fact that there is not enough money in the finacial area to help off set things that it helps to have large finacial diversification

I worked briefly for the nucks when they were moving into GM place and the the business community at that time were ponying up 1m to 2mill for the private boxes. I don't think there is enough business in the peg to step up and do that
 

Slink

Registered User
Jan 31, 2004
1,509
0
Newmarket, ON
niether city was also able to raise enough money from the finacial districts

the infra structures of both the peg and QC were and are somewhat hindered by the fact that there is not enough money in the finacial area to help off set things that it helps to have large finacial diversification

I worked briefly for the nucks when they were moving into GM place and the the business community at that time were ponying up 1m to 2mill for the private boxes. I don't think there is enough business in the peg to step up and do that

I think Omaha might have support from at least corporations in town. Winnipeg and Quebec had very, very, very little support from businesses in town mostly because there is very little BIG business located in town. Omaha, on the other hand, has a lot of big business, especially for a city that size.
 

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