Budsfan
Registered User
- Sep 17, 2006
- 19,218
- 1,365
Globe editorial
NHL expansion: Why Canada is always the last draft choice
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/glob...always-the-last-draft-choice/article25666886/
NHL expansion: Why Canada is always the last draft choice
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/glob...always-the-last-draft-choice/article25666886/
If anything, the NHL appears eager to avoid Quebec City, or any other location in hockey’s northern homeland. Here’s looking at you, Hamilton. Los Angeles has two NHL teams but the Toronto area still has but one; artificially limiting hockey supply in the biggest hockey market on Earth predictably leads to the Leafs recording league-topping revenues, year after year, regardless of their record on the ice.
Winnipeg only got its Jets back in 2011 because, when the Atlanta Thrashers went into financial cardiac arrest, Winnipeg was the one hospital available. It was a similar story for Calgary in 1980, after an earlier attempt at Sunbelt expansion failed: When the Atlanta Flames flamed out, they were moved north. (Recite now the Canadian Hockey Fan’s Prayer: Almighty NHL, we beseech thee, put another team in Atlanta. Please.)
At first glance, Quebec City’s bid ticks all of the league’s boxes: deep-pocketed corporate owner, ready-made television deal, rabid fan base and, of course, a state-of-the art arena, gifted by taxpayers. It might not matter.
One of the benefits of running a cartel is that it, and not the market, sets the rules. In what other business is a prospective entrepreneur required to plead, cap in hand, with all of his North American competitors in order to set up shop? And then cut them a fat cheque for the privilege?