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NHL floats notion of second team in Toronto


SC Devs Fan

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So they can have 2 sucky teams in one city?

i was going to make a similar comment........ maybe the second one will be somewhat good!

This Basille guy really wants to get his hands on an NHL team. He's got too much money...

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Is this news story just designed to infuriate Jim Balsillie? Why they aren't letting him move a failing southern franchise to Hamilton is insane to me.

maxpower detailed this quite well - i'd suggest searching for his posts on Balsille. Basically he didn't want to listen to any of the other owners.

Edited by Triumph
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31 teams would just make things suck.

And why not Quebec if you're going to move a team? I would assume that they would have a decent market.

They didn't have a decent market but it may be workable in the salary cap era.

In regards to doing a new franchise or relocation to Toronto, financially an expansion team makes more sense. The Leafs could probably demand a ridiculous amount of revenue percentage from the new team, and get it, and the league could charge a ridiculous new franchise fee to put a team there, and get it, because everyone knows the potential for money making that team would have.

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They didn't have a decent market but it may be workable in the salary cap era.

In regards to doing a new franchise or relocation to Toronto, financially an expansion team makes more sense. The Leafs could probably demand a ridiculous amount of revenue percentage from the new team, and get it, and the league could charge a ridiculous new franchise fee to put a team there, and get it, because everyone knows the potential for money making that team would have.

No, The Nords left Quebec city because the arena was not big enough and the local government refused to fund a larger building, not because of lack of fan supports. right now, with a brand new building, the revenue should be able to solve all the payroll problems. As well, Winnipeg also should deserve another franchise.

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No, The Nords left Quebec city because the arena was not big enough and the local government refused to fund a larger building, not because of lack of fan supports. right now, with a brand new building, the revenue should be able to solve all the payroll problems. As well, Winnipeg also should deserve another franchise.

From Wiki:

Quebec City was by far the smallest market in the NHL, and the second-smallest market in North America to host a major league team (behind only Green Bay, Wisconsin). It didn't help that even in their best years, they were unable to escape the long shadow of the Canadiens. Additionally, Quebec City is a virtually unilingual Francophone city. Unlike in Montreal, nearly all public address announcements were only given in French. Then as now, there were no privately-owned English-language radio stations, and the only English-language newspaper was a weekly. All of these factors severely limited the Nords' marketability, and made free agents and draftees (most notably Lindros) skeptical about playing for them.

Aubut asked for a bailout from Quebec's provincial government. It didn't go through, and in May 1995, shortly after the Nordiques were eliminated from the playoffs, Aubut explained that he had no other choice but to sell the team to a group of investors in Denver, Colorado. The franchise was moved to Denver where it was renamed the Colorado Avalanche. The Avalanche would win the Stanley Cup in their first season after the move, and add another in 2001.

I don't know, that's a pretty hard market to run a sports franchise in, but with the salary cap it may be doable. I think they'd still have major problems whenever the US dollar was strong vs. the Canadian dollar.

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In regards to doing a new franchise or relocation to Toronto, financially an expansion team makes more sense. The Leafs could probably demand a ridiculous amount of revenue percentage from the new team, and get it, and the league could charge a ridiculous new franchise fee to put a team there, and get it, because everyone knows the potential for money making that team would have.

I'm sure you are aware that this is basically a pyramid scheme.

It could work with the Leafs being on a permanent downturn, but I much more like the idea of a Hamilton team - at least it would have an identity as Not-Toronto. Offhand I can't think of an expansion team that was placed in the same exact city as a another team except for the New York Mets, and they were already filling a void left by 2 teams exiting town.

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I'm sure you are aware that this is basically a pyramid scheme.

It could work with the Leafs being on a permanent downturn, but I much more like the idea of a Hamilton team - at least it would have an identity as Not-Toronto. Offhand I can't think of an expansion team that was placed in the same exact city as a another team except for the New York Mets, and they were already filling a void left by 2 teams exiting town.

Of course it is, but the other owners in the NHL want the huge expansion fee that would generate, they could care less about the long term gain in revenues, which would be minimal. Of course moving an existing team to Toronto would have a net negative affect on revenues, so if you want to put a team in Toronto an expansion team still makes the most sense when compared to a relocation

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why not move the islanders outa here. they draw half the fans we do and are so unsuceessful since their heydays that its laughable. Moving them to Toronto/Hamilton would solve a few problems. It would allow balsille to have his team it would allow for the thousands of people from the Toronto area that cant get the 500 dallar tickets that the leafs sellout of every game, it would give new life to a team with a lot of good history, and it would help out both the rangers and the devils by taking one of the teams out of this overcrowded market.

why not? :noclue:

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why not move the islanders outa here. they draw half the fans we do and are so unsuceessful since their heydays that its laughable. Moving them to Toronto/Hamilton would solve a few problems. It would allow balsille to have his team it would allow for the thousands of people from the Toronto area that cant get the 500 dallar tickets that the leafs sellout of every game, it would give new life to a team with a lot of good history, and it would help out both the rangers and the devils by taking one of the teams out of this overcrowded market.

why not? :noclue:

I don't think it's a safe assumption that Islanders fans would become Devils or Rangers fans. Plus even if every Islanders fan became a fan of either team, five more fans isn't going to make a significant impact.

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why not move the islanders outa here. they draw half the fans we do and are so unsuceessful since their heydays that its laughable. Moving them to Toronto/Hamilton would solve a few problems. It would allow balsille to have his team it would allow for the thousands of people from the Toronto area that cant get the 500 dallar tickets that the leafs sellout of every game, it would give new life to a team with a lot of good history, and it would help out both the rangers and the devils by taking one of the teams out of this overcrowded market.

why not? :noclue:

You answered your own question:

The Islanders are a team with A LONG STORIED HISTORY, that have been mostly weak for almost a decade, and draw poorly.

The Devils are a team with LESS HISTORY, that have been extremely competitive for a decade, and draw POORLY.

The obvious answer would be a southern team....but....

In most non-NYC-area fans minds, there is equal, if not more, substantial points to move the Devils as is the Islanders. This is a bad can of worms to open.

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I'd like to see the Isles in Hartford and then move southern teams to Winnipeg, Hamilton and Quebec City. I wouldn't move the Coyotes though, because they have a fairly new arena and their fanbase is growing. If the Coyotes were any good, they would get much better attendance. They averaged about 15k last yr which isn't bad at all. They are building a massive mixed-use development around Glendale Arena called Westgate that is very nice. When they built the arena, all there was were farms surrounding it (they didn't even have a paved parking lot) and now thousands of houses are being built around it so more people will have easy access to go to games. Hockey is actually getting very popular in the Valley. Lots of kids are getting into it. So if they get good, they have serious potential.

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From Wiki:

I don't know, that's a pretty hard market to run a sports franchise in, but with the salary cap it may be doable. I think they'd still have major problems whenever the US dollar was strong vs. the Canadian dollar.

It's true that QC has a small market, but receiving good fan support. Florida is a huge market but lack of fan support. As I mentioned, their arena was too small so even they sell out every home games, the revenues are not enough to cover the payroll though.

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