Which American city is a natural for an new NHL franchise?

[Emerald City Bruin]

They have a lousy arena as has been mentioned, and as far as drawing, the Thunderbirds (WHL) barely drew 3000 per game in the playoffs series against their top division rival Portland. They drew 3074 for game seven in the series and easily 200+ of those in attendence wre Winter Hawks fans. I don't see Seattle as having a "large hockey fan base".

We all know you can't use junior numbers to support or debunk the possibility of a pro team.

Having said that, yes, attendance is bad for the Thunderbirds. You also fail to take in to account, though, the hundreds of people that have at least a couple or handful-game packages to the Canucks, not to mention a few season ticket holders, the fans in Tacoma that aren't represented in Seattle numbers, the Silvertip fans whose appetite for competitive hockey has been whetted and might be further surved by a team at a higher competitive level and also large corporations (Boeing, Nintendo, Microsoft, Starbucks, etc.) that won't help or support a no-face junior team but would welcome the national and international exposure that an NHL team would bring.

It's all moot without a new arena, though.

 

[Hasbro]

That would be sexy. But they should start with an AHL franchise first... anyone know what is the ancorage population ?

Less than 300k. Way too small.

 

[puckhead103*]

This is false, Quebec's fans were filling up the seats, but winnipeg arena was empty on many nights.

winnipeg arena also had bad sight lines...another reason for the small attendance...

 

[puckhead103*]

Where should they go? Back to hartford where sometimes only 11,000 people showed up? Or back to winnipeg where when the team was losing couldn't attract flies, yet once the team was about to move they all woke up? How about Quebec city where this new arena will magically come out of the sky and the quebec politicians who didn't help the team out the first time will come out of the woodwork to accomodate them? Who are going to own these teams? You planning on buying a team? The Habs aren't even owned by a local.

u r absolutely right...

canadian hockey fans are hypocrites.....they beat their chest like a stupid gorilla saying hockey is their birthright, but when it comes to saving teams and building new arenas they get very quiet......

nhl is an american-based sport league that sells a canadian sport...

I would rather see more canadian teams move to US cities.....because america is richer and canada is poorer.....maybe get a chance at a lucrative TV contract....

canadians need to form their own professional leagues because cities like saskatoon, hamilton, winnipeg, and quebec are just darn small for the nhl despite having a salary cap/revenue sharing....

and thats the truth...ruth...

 

[Hartford HockeyFan]

Anywhere but Hartford is fine. I say put teams back in Winnipeg and Quebec.

 

[Montrealer]

I wouldn't be surprised to see 2-4 expansion teams within the next 5-10 years coinciding with playoff expansion (from 16 to 20 teams). As for American teams...

Portland
Kansas City
Seattle
Houston
Las Vegas

Throw in a couple of Canadian expansion bids, perhaps Hamilton and Winnipeg; whether they will be serious bids backed up by real money is another question.

 

[Russeltown]

Hartford

 

[HansH]

Vegas has a booming population and no teams in the major sports (I don't think at least, I don't really follow the other sports). Thats seems like a sure fire win in my book.

No arena. Sports betting. Not happening in the near future.

 

[Squirrel in the Hole]

Kansas City = football/baseball/anything but hockey city.

I agree. Basketball too, I think they'd only seriously pursue an NHL team if there was no chance of landing a NBA one. Ther Scouts couldn't make it there, and the Blades (IHL team) didn't do too crash hot, either.

I'd love to see it, though... I work for a KC based company and get over there once or twice a year.

 

[vcx*]

Damn, some rough proposals in here for the next american expansion. People need to think about some things first, who would've thought the Nashville fan base would be as big as it is today (winning does help)?

Seattle could do well i think, well how well does their WHL franchise do in terms of attendance? It might get overshadowed by basketball & baseball. You'd probably have more canadians coming into seattle to watch the games than locals.

 

[blamebettman*]

Damn, some rough proposals in here for the next american expansion. People need to think about some things first, who would've thought the Nashville fan base would be as big as it is today (winning does help)?QUOTE]

Nashville's fan base is a blip on the radar. They slash ticket prices and have thousands of empty seats for playoff games.

 

[jamiebez]

Or back to winnipeg where when the team was losing couldn't attract flies, yet once the team was about to move they all woke up?

Again, this is the opposite of what happened. The attendance went down when they announced the team would move.

In an attempt to keep this thread on track, I'll eschew the two most likely cities (Houston and KC) with my choice - Hartford. They shouldn't have lost their team to begin with, and would be a great market.

 

[Mace_37]

Does anyone know why Minnesota lost their team in the first place?

And I could see Toronto getting a second team, look at LA and NY. I think that they could support one, even if it isn't the number team in the city I think they'd fare well. Look at Anahiem and the Islanders. Maybe not directly in Toronto, but I think that Ontario could support a third team.
And with the new cap, I think that QC would put up the money for an arena. After that they could support a team, as long as they don't go like Ottawa and build their arena on a highway strip.

 

[I am Jack's Fish]

Regional ratings on TV for Kansas City has been higher than some NHL city regional market ratings.

Kansas is ready for hockey, a great under-appreciated sports market

 

[Brooklyndevil]

I've been to Portland, Oregon once. It's a real nice city with the Columbia river running throught it and it's snow peaked mountain, seems like a hockey town. In addition, no pro football or baseball, only basketball. Could be a good fit.

 

[Whawks33]

We all know you can't use junior numbers to support or debunk the possibility of a pro team.

Having said that, yes, attendance is bad for the Thunderbirds. You also fail to take in to account, though, the hundreds of people that have at least a couple or handful-game packages to the Canucks, not to mention a few season ticket holders, the fans in Tacoma that aren't represented in Seattle numbers, the Silvertip fans whose appetite for competitive hockey has been whetted and might be further surved by a team at a higher competitive level and also large corporations (Boeing, Nintendo, Microsoft, Starbucks, etc.) that won't help or support a no-face junior team but would welcome the national and international exposure that an NHL team would bring.

It's all moot without a new arena, though.

Sorry, but I don't see why you can't. When talking about a "large hockey fan base", that implies hockey in general, not just NHL. The fact that major junior hockey doesn't draw well doesn't suggest a large hockey fan base. Look at areas on the east coast that easily support (and by support I mean attendence) NHL, AHL, and college hockey at the same time. Without even looking it up I can sit here and think of 10+ plus hockey teams, pro and college within a couple hours of Boston. Here in the pacific northwest, all we have is major junior, and attendence isn't outsanding truthfully for any of the US division teams (well Everett may be an exception, but even so, its not the pro level attendence). I don't see that Seattle or Portland has a large enough hockey fan base to support the NHL.

Also, isn't Microsoft a T-Birds sponsor?

 

[Coug555]

I think San Diego could fetch a crowd. I've always thought the Ducks should move to San Diego.

 

[go_leafs_go02]

No arena. Sports betting. Not happening in the near future.

I don't know. for a ECHL team, with a brand new arena (2 years), but this arena looks to not be completely suitable for an NHL team..first of all, there are no seats at one end, and capacity looks to be maybe 11,000-12,000 (bad planning for a city like Las Vegas if you ask me)..edit wikipedia has it a 9,500 capacity.

Maybe you are right.

they also drew 5,100 fans last year

http://www.orleansarena.com/wranglers.html

 

[VanIslander]

Try to avoid talking about it but... there's an elephant in the room: Houston.

One of the major media centres in America, needing only a fraction of the community to be viable, and presenting a natural rivalry with Dallas that will heat up the first time Houston beats Dallas (cover page of the dailies for sure).

I wanna see a Portland/Seattle team though.

 

[Stephen]

Chicago

That might not be a bad idea. I'll bet Chicago would love to see a new, upwardly mobile franchise that has nothing to do with Bill Wirtz.

A natural market would be somewhere cold. I don't see Seattle, Las Vegas, Houston or Kansas being places where hockey could really thrive outside of being a novelty.

 

[McDonald19]

I think San Diego could fetch a crowd. I've always thought the Ducks should move to San Diego.

not gonna happen.

 

[Bear of Bad News]

Seattle = basketball cities

No. Definitely no.

 

[Jazz]

Try to avoid talking about it but... there's an elephant in the room: Houston.

One of the major media centres in America, needing only a fraction of the community to be viable, and presenting a natural rivalry with Dallas that will heat up the first time Houston beats Dallas (cover page of the dailies for sure).

I wanna see a Portland/Seattle team though.

So do I.

 

[Gnashville]

Damn, some rough proposals in here for the next american expansion. People need to think about some things first, who would've thought the Nashville fan base would be as big as it is today (winning does help)?QUOTE]

Nashville's fan base is a blip on the radar. They slash ticket prices and have thousands of empty seats for playoff games.

Thousands of Empty Seats
Game 1 Attendance 17,113 (every seat in the house)
Game 2 Attendance 16,707 (Sunday game starting at noon still only 400 no shows)
Game 5 Attendance 16,016 (team was going to be elimniated it only game around a thousand)
They didn't slash prices either the were raised for the Playoffs, and the only seats the went unsold were around 200 bucks a pop.

But why let facts get in the way of your rant

 

[Bear of Bad News]

But why let facts get in the way of your rant

If it makes you feel better, I think that you're the only one who takes blamebettman seriously.