[Globe Editorial] NHL expansion: And why is Canada always the last draft choice?

[Semantics]

Canadian teams deliver higher profit percentages than usa teams and drive profits. There was numbers out on it recently and i did not acknowledge the main link.

Canadian teams are great for the league's bottom line though apparently.

When the Canadian dollar is doing well relative to the USD, yes, the Canadian teams are a cash cow.

When the Canadian dollar is doing poorly, only Toronto brings in much profit. Think back to when the dollar was around $0.65, don't you remember how things were then? How old are you? The Canucks were losing money. The Habs were barely in the black, if at all. Ottawa, Edmonton, Calgary were all struggling and there was talk of bankruptcy. Bettman had to bring in an emergency revenue sharing plan to save the small market Canadian teams.

If the $ goes down much more, Toronto will be the only profitable Canadian team again.

Edit: Incidentally this is why I think the next Canadian team should be a second GTA team. There's enough money in the market that a team in Toronto could be profitable even with a weak dollar.

 

[Budsfan]

Bettman must think he's working for the NBA still. I hope he doesn't think he's gonna get a TV deal even close to the NBAs by bringing more teams to America over Canada.

I mentioned it before, there are a number of American cities, that are Major Sports Markets, as "Bluelines" has indicated however Hockey rates way down the list of major teams, that have TV deals and Hockey in Canada is the #1 Sports ticket, in those U.S. cities NFL, NBA, MLB and perhaps, Golf and Tennis rate ahead of Hockey and will get those TV deals.

Now Bettman wants to move into Las Vegas and here he might succeed because most Major League Teams won't go there because of the Gambling and as "Bluelines" indicated they are 41st as a Major Sports Market, so he might get a TV deal there but at what cost to the Sport of Hockey.

 

[hfman]

they denied all reports of Winnipeg ever getting another team as well

 

[Wafflewhipper]

When the Canadian dollar is doing well relative to the USD, yes, the Canadian teams are a cash cow.

When the Canadian dollar is doing poorly, only Toronto brings in much profit. Think back to when the dollar was around $0.65, don't you remember how things were then? How old are you? The Canucks were losing money. The Habs were barely in the black, if at all. Ottawa, Edmonton, Calgary were all struggling and there was talk of bankruptcy. Bettman had to bring in an emergency revenue sharing plan to save the small market Canadian teams.

If the $ goes down much more, Toronto will be the only profitable Canadian team again.

Edit: Incidentally this is why I think the next Canadian team should be a second GTA team. There's enough money in the market that a team in Toronto could be profitable even with a weak dollar.

Hopefully this drop in the Canadian dollar washes out pretty quick. Its related to the bank of Canada dropping interest rates again. The economy growth is slowing and the dollar is sucking now in the short term. Ideally a loonie at approximately $.85 us is the best way our economy works.

Its a fluctuation right now but it will go up. Time to buy Silver lol.

 

[Gabriel426]

First of all, NHL is not consider a top sports in a lot of the US cities, and that's why a lot of teams struggles in the States.
Secondly, even if the dollars drop to 0.65 to USD, small market Canadian teams will still do better than Florida and Arizona.
Thirdly, unless Leafs have a dynasty and a couple of Stanley Cups along with a top 5 player in their roster, they will never agree to another team in their region.
Funny thing is, before the draft lottery, my friends and I had a discussion that The NHL should use the draft lottery as a bargain chip for another franchise in TO. Thus giving Leafs McDavid in exchange for a team in Hamilton or Unionville. Ofcourse that didn't happen, but if it did, and a group submit a bid from GTA. Something will smell fishy.

 

[Pookie]

100% of the revenue in a most Canadian cities in converted to USD is a heck of a lot more than 100% of revenue in USD in Phoenix, Carolina, Florida, Nashville, Buffalo, NYI...

Actually, it isn't. While CDN teams earn income in CDN dollars, their salary expenses are in USD. A $50M USD cap floor would cost a CDN team 62.5M loonies.

Sure. They may have reserves of US$ but if the dollar stayed low for an extended period of time, those reserves dry up quickly.

This issue is not at the team level its at the aggregate league wide revenues level. The NHL wants to show growth, the CAD dropping puts stress on that goal. A team like Quebec with Quebecor as owners have significant US equity fund reserves, for them the CA dollar is not as much of an issue as you think.

That was my point but you are missing the tie in. The NHL Board of Governors doesn't like CDN expansion as the business is tied to a fluctuating dollar that they have no control over. Right now, every dollar earned is done at a 25% discount. We agree on that.

And the tie in is that teams in smaller markets contribute less revenue to the overall picture and based on history are unstable.

Remember the last time the dollar was low?

Winnipeg and Quebec left.

Calgary, Edmonton and Ottawa were on the verge of bankruptcy. There was talk of a federal government bail out. Alberta was going to create a lottery to keep the teams afloat. In the end, the NHL came up with a subsidy of their own.

That was about 15 years ago. Not long in business terms. As much as Canadians would fill a stadium, it isn't good business to expand up here.

A consideration might be the "successful" Winnipeg Jets. Filling the stadium every night. Revenues of $102M annually.

Their operating profit (revenue - expenses) is a slim $3.3M and Forbes offered this commentary (Nov 2014):

Profile

The Jets have sold out every game at MTS Centre since moving to Winnipeg from Atlanta two years ago. But with no NBA tenant, a relatively low fee for its local television rights, and not much in the way of concert revenue, the Jets must make the playoffs to ensure a big profit and the team has missed the Stanley Cup tournament the past three seasons. The playoff drought is currently seven seasons, including the Atlanta years. The franchise has only qualified for the playoffs once since entering the NHL in 1999

http://www.forbes.com/teams/winnipeg-jets/

Yes, perhaps more profitable than some US markets but the dollar was a lot higher when that was written. Quebec would have the same issues on arena share and small TV revenue.

 

[pfloyd75]

As a former Thrashers fan and new Leafs fan (Hi all.)... and having seen the NHL debacle in Atlanta up close and personal... I can say with some authority that the part of this article about Atlanta is pretty much garbage. Unfortunately, the popular thought is that Atlanta can't support an NHL franchise but that simply isn't true. Atlanta is a transplant town and there is a massive population of people who grew up in Northern cities following hockey. There is even a pretty thriving adult league hockey community here. The fans are here and can suport a team.

Unfortunately, Atlanta has had the misfortune of having its two NHL franchises be owned by terrible owners. The Flames were owned by Tom Cousins who lost a fortune in real estate and had no real way to keep the Flames so he sold them to the highest bidder (hi Calgary). The Thrashers were owned by the literal worst owners in professional sports history, the "Atlanta Spirit Group" who were a bunch of basketball fans (they also owned the Atlanta Hawks) who were more interested in suing each other over disagreements than owning the Thrashers, so they put no funding in the Thrashers and kept inept (cheap) management in place until they got to a point where they could offload the team to the highest bidder (Hello Winnipeg) and get them out of their building and cut costs to funnel into Basketball ops.

Can Atlanta support a team? With a decent owner, absolutely. I don't think that we could support a team as well as other traditional markets but I think that we can absolutely be better than the smaller Southern markets and on par with Dallas. The key is having ownership that gives a damn about the team and the sport and wants to see it it succeed.

Its tough to be a hockey fan in Atlanta. Believe me.

Go Leafs Go. (that feels weird.)

 

[HoweHullOrr]

What an awful speculation piece by the Globe, bereft of evidence.

So the "NHL appears eager to avoid" expansion to Quebec City because (I had to read the article twice to find the supporting argument)....

- The league seems to care deeply about balancing the conferences.
- There isn't a 2nd or 3rd team in Ontario.

Guess I shouldn't have expected much from a Globe editorial piece with no sight of the writer's name anywhere.

It was a bit of a meandering article to be sure.

The last sentence of the article (the blog) stated that Quebec would more likely be a relocation target similar to Winnipeg because the NHL would make more money that way. The author seems to suggest (in the last sentence) that the NHL could get more than the rumored $500 million "expansion" fee via a relocation to Quebec. This statement wasn't supported very well from what I read (or interpreted).

Someone else might be able to comment on that or throw more light on that subject.

 

[Budsfan]

As a former Thrashers fan and new Leafs fan (Hi all.)... and having seen the NHL debacle in Atlanta up close and personal... I can say with some authority that the part of this article about Atlanta is pretty much garbage. Unfortunately, the popular thought is that Atlanta can't support an NHL franchise but that simply isn't true. Atlanta is a transplant town and there is a massive population of people who grew up in Northern cities following hockey. There is even a pretty thriving adult league hockey community here. The fans are here and can suport a team.

Unfortunately, Atlanta has had the misfortune of having its two NHL franchises be owned by terrible owners. The Flames were owned by Tom Cousins who lost a fortune in real estate and had no real way to keep the Flames so he sold them to the highest bidder (hi Calgary). The Thrashers were owned by the literal worst owners in professional sports history, the "Atlanta Spirit Group" who were a bunch of basketball fans (they also owned the Atlanta Hawks) who were more interested in suing each other over disagreements than owning the Thrashers, so they put no funding in the Thrashers and kept inept (cheap) management in place until they got to a point where they could offload the team to the highest bidder (Hello Winnipeg) and get them out of their building and cut costs to funnel into Basketball ops.

Can Atlanta support a team? With a decent owner, absolutely. I don't think that we could support a team as well as other traditional markets but I think that we can absolutely be better than the smaller Southern markets and on par with Dallas. The key is having ownership that gives a damn about the team and the sport and wants to see it it succeed.

Its tough to be a hockey fan in Atlanta. Believe me.

Go Leafs Go. (that feels weird.)

It appears your pretty close to the Atlanta Hockey scene and if what you're saying is true, Bettman would put a team in a good U.S. market reguardless of the ownership, all he intends on doing, is to try to put a team into that market because they are a Major Sports Market, one that could produce a TV deal and this is the problem.

Bettman is trying to promote hockey in the U.S. by excluding Canadian Teams and this is all about money and not in the interests of the Game itself, promoting hockey, in my opinion, is to build a fan base, no matter where it is but not at any cost.

Basically the last time they put a team in Quebec it too was full of problems, this time around, they have a new arena and ownership (Quebecor) and this should relate to a solid franchise and should be a no brainer successful bid.

 

[highslot]

Bettman's agenda is to grow hockey in major TV markets, the whale he is chasing is a TV contract like the NFL. He could care less if it grows hockey in small town USA, his focus is on major TV markets, that is what grows revenues.

Bettman is able to bring in close to $4 billion in revenue from mostly a gate revenue driven sport, imagine if he gets that big US network deal?

There are 210 Designated Market Areas (DMAs) listed by the 2014-15 Nielsen ranks.

New York (#1)
Los Angeles (#2)
Chicago (#3)
Philadelphia (#4)
Dallas-Fort Worth (#5)
San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose (#6)
Boston (Manchester) (#7)
Washington, D.C. (Hagerstown) (#8)
Atlanta (#9)
Houston (#10)
Phoenix (Prescott) (#11)
Detroit (#12)
Tampa-St. Petersburg (Sarasota) (#13)
Seattle-Tacoma (#14)
Minneapolis-St. Paul (#15)
Miami-Fort Lauderdale (#16)
Denver (#17)
Orlando-Daytona Beach-Melbourne (#18)
Cleveland-Akron (Canton) (#19)
Sacramento-Stockton-Modesto (#20)
St. Louis (#21)
Pittsburgh (#22)
Portland, OR (#23)
Charlotte (#24)
Raleigh-Durham (Fayetteville) (#25)
Baltimore (#26)
Indianapolis (#27)
San Diego (#28)
Nashville (#29)
Hartford & New Haven (#30)
Kansas City (#31)
Columbus, OH (#32)
San Antonio (#33)
Salt Lake City (#34)
Milwaukee (#35)
Cincinnati (#36)
Greenville-Spartanburg-Asheville-Anderson (#37)
West Palm Beach-Fort Pierce (#38)
Austin (#39)
Grand Rapids-Kalamazoo-Battle Creek (#40)
Las Vegas (#41)

Canada - Markets are Designated Market Areas (DMAs),

1. Toronto/Hamilton/Niagara Falls, ON
2. Montreal/Laval, QC
3. Vancouver-Victoria, BC
4. Ottawa, ON/Gatineau, QC
5. Edmonton, AB
6. Calgary/Lethbridge, AB
7. Quebec City/Levis, QC
8. Winnipeg/Brandon, MB
9. Kitchener-Waterloo/Cambridge/Guelph, ON
10. London/Woodstock/Wingham, ON

seattle, cleveland, and charlotte make the most sense of the american teams.

quebec makes more sense than winnipeg.

i can promise you, lv will be a disaster worse than phoenix. on the plus side, maybe it will get bettman fired. which he should have been after miami and phoenix.

 

[ULF_55]

http://espn.go.com/nhl/attendance

Winnipeg at capacity, 15,037. Smaller capacity arena.

Will Quebec sell out? Capacity 18,259? What will their average ticket price be?

Average ticket price? Usually higher in Canada.

14th. - Winnipeg lowest average Canadian ticket price at US$156.00

http://www.thehockeynews.com/blog/t...nsive-ticket-in-nhl-all-teams-listed-1-to-30/

16 lowest ticket prices are in the US.


I conservatively expect ticket prices in QC would be in the top 15.
Say even at 80% capacity they would still better Arizona, Carolina and Florida.
At 90%, they'd outsell Columbus, New York Islanders, New Jersey, Winnipeg, Arizona, Carolina, Florida.

Projected 90% attendance with average ticket price of $150, which is less than Winnipeg. *** I realize the following is simplistic but shows it would not be difficult for QC to outperform US franchises financially ***

Att Rank|Team|Tickets|Avg Price|Total|Avg Att
7|Toronto|781,576|$373.50 |$291,918,636.00 |19063
1|Chicago|892,532|$275.65 |$246,026,445.80 |21769
10|Vancouver|767,149|$282.58 |$216,780,964.42 |18711
2|Montreal|872,752|$218.30 |$190,521,761.60 |21287
6|Calgary|782,977|$241.18 |$188,838,392.86 |19097
22|Edmonton|690,399|$259.83 |$179,386,372.17 |16839
17|NY Rangers|738,246|$217.97 |$160,915,480.62 |18006
12|Pittsburgh|763,319|$208.50 |$159,152,011.50 |18618
18|Boston|720,165|$210.83 |$151,832,386.95 |17565
8|Minnesota|779,944|$178.81 |$139,461,786.64 |19023
16|Ottawa|748,112|$174.32 |$130,410,883.84 |18247
4|Philadelphia|790,107|$162.47 |$128,368,684.29 |19271
14|St. Louis|760,349|$163.98 |$124,682,029.02 |18545
11|San Jose|767,012|$140.82 |$108,010,629.84 |18708
5|Washington|783,072|$128.88 |$100,922,319.36 |19099
15|Los Angeles|748,893|$132.95 |$99,565,324.35 |18266
13|Buffalo|761,809|$130.28 |$99,248,476.52 |18581
Projected|Quebec|656,000|$150.00 |$98,400,000.00 |16000
27|Winnipeg|616,556|$156.64 |$96,577,331.84 |15038
3|Detroit|821,107|$112.27 |$92,185,682.89 |20027
19|Dallas|711,359|$120.75 |$85,896,599.25 |17350
26|New Jersey|622,783|$127.16 |$79,193,086.28 |15190
25|NY Islanders|628,729|$125.88 |$79,144,406.52 |15335
23|Colorado|663,247|$102.72 |$68,128,731.84 |16177
|Anaheim|691,835|$95.52 |$66,084,079.20 |16874
21|Nashville|691,028|$94.31 |$65,170,850.68 |16854
24|Columbus|635,973|$96.52 |$61,384,113.96 |15512
9|Tampa Bay|771,761|$77.21 |$59,587,666.81 |18823
28|Arizona|547,149|$95.51 |$52,258,200.99 |13345
29|Carolina|516,375|$94.64 |$48,869,730.00 |12595
30|Florida|461,877|$89.76 |$41,458,079.52 |11265

 

[Steve]

Have you checked the Canadian Dollar vs US Dollar lately?

Any revenue realized in Canada comes with a +25% discount.

Of course they aren't eager to expand up here. It's a business.

This is very true, you can't really blame the NHL.

On the other hand, IMO Las Vegas will have empty seats and will struggle financially within 5 years. People go to Vegas to get something they can't do at home, gamble.

If I were the NHL, I would look into expansion into places like KC or Seattle etc.. Toronto is a given b/c regardless of the 25% cut, it's still going to make a killing. I'm also 60/40 in favor of Quebec.

I think the NHL should maybe pass on expansion just now.

 

[pfloyd75]

I think the NHL should maybe pass on expansion just now.

This. There are several under-performing franchises already- hows about fixing those first?

 

[Budsfan]

I don't doubt that Las Vegas will also be successful too ULF but there is a lot of downside, to placing a Team there.

Sports in the Las Vegas metropolitan area

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sports_in_the_Las_Vegas_metropolitan_area

Issues with major league sports

The most prominent issue is the perceived problem of legal sports betting. All four major professional sports leagues have strong anti-gambling policies, prohibiting their personnel from having any involvement in gambling. The NFL has taken the toughest stance, even refusing to accept Las Vegas tourism advertising for Super Bowl telecasts[2] and threatening to file suit against any local hotels holding Super Bowl parties.[3] In recent years hotels have gotten around the legal threat by referring to the Super Bowl as "The Big Game" rather than its actual name in advertising.[3]

Some potential owners believe a professional sports franchise would have difficulty gaining an audience, given Las Vegas' numerous entertainment options. Las Vegas also has a high percentage of residents working in 24-hour occupations, many of whom work nights and weekends when most games would be played. Several owners of other sports franchises have disagreed. Miami Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria described Las Vegas as "a potential gold mine" for a professional sports team owner. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has also been quoted as saying that Las Vegas would be a good professional sports town.

A huge obstacle is the lack of suitable facilities. Cashman Field, Sam Boyd Stadium, the Thomas & Mack Center, MGM Grand Garden Arena, and Mandalay Bay Events Center are all inadequate to host a professional sports franchise due to capacity, age or design. Harrah's Entertainment and the Anschutz Entertainment Group committed to building a new arena on a parcel of land behind Harrah's Paris and Bally's off the Strip, to be built to NHL and NBA standards. The arena was expected to open in the fall of 2010, but construction has not begun. Harrah's Entertainment CEO Gary Loveman said in a June, 2009 article in Las Vegas Business Press that his company is still committed to building the arena, but it has been delayed by a lack of financing. He said that the arena will probably be completed in 2012 or 2013.[4] There have been no announced plans to replace Sam Boyd Stadium or Cashman Field.[5][6][7] On April 6, 2010 the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that three proposals have been made to build an arena of approximately 20,000 seats on or near the Strip to host professional basketball and hockey, rodeo, concerts and other events. All three proposals called for public money to be used for a portion of the construction cost.[8] On November 5, 2013, Las Vegas news media reported plans for a joint-venture arena to be built on the Strip. The backing parties are AEG and MGM Resorts. Located at a former parking lot at the back of the Monte Carlo, the MGM - AEG Arena will seat 20,000 and cost $350 million. Ground was broken on May 2014, with opening projected for spring 2016.[9][10]

 

[RealityBytes]

This is very true, you can't really blame the NHL.

On the other hand, IMO Las Vegas will have empty seats and will struggle financially within 5 years. People go to Vegas to get something they can't do at home, gamble.

If I were the NHL, I would look into expansion into places like KC or Seattle etc.. Toronto is a given b/c regardless of the 25% cut, it's still going to make a killing. I'm also 60/40 in favor of Quebec.

I think the NHL should maybe pass on expansion just now.

People can gamble just about everywhere now, including in Canada. Casinos are everywhere now. People go to Vegas for entertainment, the splendour of the hotels, and yes some gambling. It is the Disneyland for adults.

Still, a Las Vegas team would probably have as many Canadian tourists going to low priced games as local Vegas fans. Vegas against Canadian teams would outdraw many present US franchises. Vegas against non Canadian or non original six US teams would be close to empty. The UNLV Rebels would probably outdraw them.

(Leafs games would probably get sold out. Fly to Vegas for a few days for a cheap Leafs game and some Vegas fun. Lots would pick up on that.)

 

[LaPlante94]

The atmosphere at a LV hockey game would probably be crap. Just a bunch of suit dummies who will get front row seats for free from businesses like the Leafs and not be interested in the game at all.

 

[Budsfan]

People can gamble just about everywhere now, including in Canada. Casinos are everywhere now. People go to Vegas for entertainment, the splendour of the hotels, and yes some gambling. It is the Disneyland for adults.

Still, a Las Vegas team would probably have as many Canadian tourists going to low priced games as local Vegas fans. Vegas against Canadian teams would outdraw many present US franchises. Vegas against non Canadian or non original six US teams would be close to empty. The UNLV Rebels would probably outdraw them.

(Leafs games would probably get sold out. Fly to Vegas for a few days for a cheap Leafs game and some Vegas fun. Lots would pick up on that.)

This is true, Gambling is everywhere but not very popular with Major League Sports and the possible consequences and how many actual games will Toronto or any Canadian NHL Cities play in Las Vegas.

This year they changed the divisions, with Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto, in the Atlantic division but also included Tampa Bay and Florida, so that those teams, that were losing money, could take advantage of the Snow Birds, that would go to see their home teams play there but unless Las Vegas moves to that division, few Canadians from the most populated cities, will be there and because of the apathy of U.S. Hockey fans, even in their own Arenas, there is nothing to indicate that a team in Las Vegas, would be sold out to any degree but they would make money because it's entertainment and that's what Vegas is all about however Bettman's only thought is a TV deal and money and to heck with the rest of it.

 

[BayStreetBully]

As a former Thrashers fan and new Leafs fan (Hi all.)... and having seen the NHL debacle in Atlanta up close and personal... I can say with some authority that the part of this article about Atlanta is pretty much garbage. Unfortunately, the popular thought is that Atlanta can't support an NHL franchise but that simply isn't true. Atlanta is a transplant town and there is a massive population of people who grew up in Northern cities following hockey. There is even a pretty thriving adult league hockey community here. The fans are here and can suport a team.

Unfortunately, Atlanta has had the misfortune of having its two NHL franchises be owned by terrible owners. The Flames were owned by Tom Cousins who lost a fortune in real estate and had no real way to keep the Flames so he sold them to the highest bidder (hi Calgary). The Thrashers were owned by the literal worst owners in professional sports history, the "Atlanta Spirit Group" who were a bunch of basketball fans (they also owned the Atlanta Hawks) who were more interested in suing each other over disagreements than owning the Thrashers, so they put no funding in the Thrashers and kept inept (cheap) management in place until they got to a point where they could offload the team to the highest bidder (Hello Winnipeg) and get them out of their building and cut costs to funnel into Basketball ops.

Can Atlanta support a team? With a decent owner, absolutely. I don't think that we could support a team as well as other traditional markets but I think that we can absolutely be better than the smaller Southern markets and on par with Dallas. The key is having ownership that gives a damn about the team and the sport and wants to see it it succeed.

Its tough to be a hockey fan in Atlanta. Believe me.

Go Leafs Go. (that feels weird.)

Thanks for that insight. Atlanta needs a team in the NHL and it is insane that a major sports league does not have a team there. They are the only city that can represent the Deep South (although not exactly a Deep South city), and is a major booster to any TV deal the NHL makes. Yes, it will always take a back seat to the Bulldogs, Falcons and Braves, but Atlanta needs a hockey team for sure.

 

[BayStreetBully]

seattle, cleveland, and charlotte make the most sense of the american teams.

quebec makes more sense than winnipeg.

i can promise you, lv will be a disaster worse than phoenix. on the plus side, maybe it will get bettman fired. which he should have been after miami and phoenix.

There is a massive population shift southward in the U.S. these days. It is impossible to have a major league and a major TV deal and not have multiple teams in California, Florida and Texas. Miami in the NHL is a given. I'm surprised the NHL hasn't yet gone to Houston.

 

[Quares27]

I was hoping for Seattle. Either way I just think it would be weird to have another team here so I really hope it doesnt happen

 

[DesertHombre]

It will be interesting to see how Canadian teams react to the low Canadian dollar as time goes on. It is projected that the Canadian dollar may go even lower and as Canada lives off exporting goods, it is overall a better thing for the Canadian economy. It also is of no help to the Alberta teams that Oil prices are stagnant and the economy in Alberta is deeply affected by that.
Teams like Winnipeg, Calgary and Edmonton could be in for some tough times.
A team in Las Vegas is a no brainer. The money is definetly there, they have people/tourists there constantly looking for fun times and their geographic location is perfect for the Western Conference.

 

[Budsfan]

It will be interesting to see how Canadian teams react to the low Canadian dollar as time goes on. It is projected that the Canadian dollar may go even lower and as Canada lives off exporting goods, it is overall a better thing for the Canadian economy. It also is of no help to the Alberta teams that Oil prices are stagnant and the economy in Alberta is deeply affected by that.
Teams like Winnipeg, Calgary and Edmonton could be in for some tough times.
A team in Las Vegas is a no brainer. The money is definetly there, they have people/tourists there constantly looking for fun times and their geographic location is perfect for the Western Conference.

It will also be interesting to see how the American teams will survive when the top money making teams are Canadian (Check Ulf's Chart) and the revenue stream for the Cap and also for revenue sharing, here's an article from 2012.

How much revenue sharing should the NHL have?

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/spor...e-sharing-should-the-nhl-have/article5103058/

Revenue sharing is a prickly subject in Canada.

After all, it only came into the NHL beginning in 2005-06, when the Canadian dollar had already jumped up to 85 cents and revenues were starting to explode for the six (now seven) teams in this country.

And that meant having to pay into revenue sharing.

Fast forward six years, and the Canadian teams haven’t just been paying into revenue sharing, they’ve been paying a lot. The Toronto Maple Leafs lead the way with $20-million into the communal kitty in 2011-12 alone (in another non-playoff year) but Montreal and Vancouver were also among the league’s top four revenue generators and sharers.

There was even a year or two under the last CBA where the Edmonton Oilers (!) paid into revenue sharing. (The mighty Winnipeg Jets and their 15,000-seat rink weren’t even able to receive payments last season because they made too much money.)

Then there’s the other end of the equation, and in a half dozen American cities, it isn’t pretty. The best example of revenue sharing excess I always like to point to is that, according to the team’s own bankruptcy documents, in 2008-09 the Phoenix Coyotes received more in revenue sharing ($13.5-million) than they generated in ticket revenue ($13.3-million).

 

[highslot]

This. There are several under-performing franchises already- hows about fixing those first?

i agree. i would even consider contraction.

 

[RealityBytes]

This is true, Gambling is everywhere but not very popular with Major League Sports and the possible consequences and how many actual games will Toronto or any Canadian NHL Cities play in Las Vegas.

This year they changed the divisions, with Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto, in the Atlantic division but also included Tampa Bay and Florida, so that those teams, that were losing money, could take advantage of the Snow Birds, that would go to see their home teams play there but unless Las Vegas moves to that division, few Canadians from the most populated cities, will be there and because of the apathy of U.S. Hockey fans, even in their own Arenas, there is nothing to indicate that a team in Las Vegas, would be sold out to any degree but they would make money because it's entertainment and that's what Vegas is all about however Bettman's only thought is a TV deal and money and to heck with the rest of it.

Well, that's exactly my point. With the exception for a few games with Canadian or original six teams, there would be low fan attendance and it is doubtful they would make money.

(However, there would be Toronto junkets for sure, just as there are for other cities now. A few days of fun in Vegas and Leafs games for the price of two tickets in Toronto.)

As for gambling, there is a lot of betting on major league sports based on setups from Vegas.

 

[Budsfan]

Well, that's exactly my point. With the exception for a few games with Canadian or original six teams, there would be low fan attendance and it is doubtful they would make money.

(However, there would be Toronto junkets for sure, just as there are for other cities now. A few days of fun in Vegas and Leafs games for the price of two tickets in Toronto.)

As for gambling, there is a lot of betting on major league sports based on setups from Vegas.

I can't argue the point with you and the reason is entertainment usually needs a new twist, or different talent to draw people and I think for the short-term, Hockey will be a hit, until the novelty wears off but with the Gambling aspect, it may continue to produce revenue for many years and that's the unknown factor.

Gambling unfortunately produces the problem of players, or their friends and family getting involved and games being in question because of the play and with the added devil of having thrown games, maybe true or not, I believe there is very little of it but it has an adverse effect, on promoting the sport and why Major league teams avoid it.

Pete Rose a great ball player but he was ostracized for Gambling and tossed out of the League, I didn't agree with the way it was handled and I was a big fan of his talent however he did bet on baseball and so he was suspect after every Reds loss and it is just now he is being lauded for his ball playing ability, so this is the Spector of gambling, that happens when major league teams, or the players are involved.

Junkets again because of the divisions we might see the Leafs play there 1 or 2 times a year same goes for Montreal or Ottawa so a total of 6 games a year being sold out, doesn't make for a successful franchise.