NHL Expansion: What about Bahamas?

[alko]

Thank you Wikipedia:
- Only 292 km far from Miami
- it has almost 400 000, what is not a big deal. But very popular tourist destination all year long
- The Bahamas is the richest country is the entire Caribbean and the third wealthiest country in the Americas.
- Sport is a significant part of Bahamian culture.
- The Bahamas has no income tax, corporate tax, capital gains tax, or wealth tax. Payroll taxes fund social insurance benefits and amount to 3.9% paid by the employee and 5.9% paid by the employer.[8] In 2010, overall tax revenue was 17.2% of GDP.[9] A value-added tax (VAT) of 7.5% has been levied 1 January 2015.
- No direct concurrence from NFL, MLB, NBA or MLS

When you can have team in Vegas, you can have a team in Bahamas.

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[gstommylee]

Thank you Wikipedia:
- Only 292 km far from Miami
- it has almost 400 000, what is not a big deal. But very popular tourist destination all year long
- The Bahamas is the richest country is the entire Caribbean and the third wealthiest country in the Americas.
- Sport is a significant part of Bahamian culture.
- The Bahamas has no income tax, corporate tax, capital gains tax, or wealth tax. Payroll taxes fund social insurance benefits and amount to 3.9% paid by the employee and 5.9% paid by the employer.[8] In 2010, overall tax revenue was 17.2% of GDP.[9] A value-added tax (VAT) of 7.5% has been levied 1 January 2015.
- No direct concurrence from NFL, MLB, NBA or MLS

When you can have team in Vegas, you can have a team in Bahamas.

Really? A team would not survive there.

 

[tarheelhockey]

This wouldn't work. Tourists go to Vegas to attend flashy events like NHL games. Tourists go to the Bahamas to get away from it all and lay out on the beach for a week. At most, maybe some of the resorts could organize evening excursions for their visitors, but you're talking 10-20 people at a time. The bulk of the support would have to come from residents.

Bear in mind that the Bahamas is not one island but a series of islands. People can't just casually jump in their car and drive around between them like a city. Assuming the team played on New Providence, you're talking a population of only 270,000. That's about the size of the Erie, Pennsylvania or Amarillo, TX metro areas.

Despite your assertion that the Bahamas is the "richest country in the Caribbean and the third wealthiest in the Americas", its per-capita wealth is 6th in North America alone -- about half that of the USA and Canada. So of those 270,000 people, only those with double the median national income would match the buying power of the average American/Canadian citizen. And the average American/Canadian citizen cannot afford NHL tickets on a regular basis. So it's fair to say that you are talking about a tiny, tiny fraction of Bahamians who would have the economic ability to buy tickets regularly. Of those, how many would actually want to do that? It would be surprising to me if you could sell 1000 season ticket packages to individuals. And relative to a large American or Canadian city, the corporate economy of the Bahamas is tiny, so you're not selling tickets that way either. So... who shows up? And forget the TV market.

I'm not even going to speculate on what would happen to an arena that takes a direct hit from a hurricane every 4 years.

 

[superdeluxe]

Just way too many hurdles, Small media market, Transportation/logistical nitemares abound.

 

[Le Tricolore]

I don't think this is necessary.