dolfanar
Registered User
Coolburn said:First, I'm not saying that there should or shouldn't be 2 teams in the state of Florida. But I see a few people making comments like "area is only big enough for 1 team" or "if Tampa had the whole region to itself", etc. The distance (243 miles) between Tampa and Sunrise is more than the distance between some teams that are not expansion teams (Chicago to Detroit is 237 miles, Toronto to Ottawa is 217 miles, Ottawa to Montreal is 102 miles). Using that as an excuse is just absolutely ridiculous and shows how little you understand things.
The argument that has been made over and over again was that an area like Florida, a virgin NHL market, could not possibly sustain 2 franchises when they were introduced. Grade school geography lesson aside (Yes, let's pretend that the concentration of Hockey fans in the Ottawa/Montreal, Toronto/Ottawa and Chicago/Detroit areas are equal to the mecca of hockey that is Florida ) the point is that a second team was granted to the state of Florida before the first team ever had a chance to establish itself. Ditto for the third California team.