OT - The Return of the Winnipeg Jets?
http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/news?slug=dw-winnipeg051010
In this article by Yahoo Sports' Dan Wetzel, The latest bid to buy the Phoenix Coyotes fell through and the NHL might be forced to move them back to Winnipeg. If any NHL fans out there are like me, this is amazing for a couple of reasons:
1. It could be a big slap in the face to Gary Bettman, which is always good and should happen more often.
2. It is awesome to think that the classic franchises that got screwed could be making a comeback like Winnipeg, Quebec, and Hartford (which makes the best line in the whole article the last line...bring back the whale!) and for the record, Minnesota needs to switch back to the North Stars just to bring back those awesome jerseys.
Any thoughts? Anyone else think this is sweet?
Don't tell the haters, they won't listen anyway
The reason why the Wild are so successful in MN and the Stars weren't is because the Wild's pretty much the only team in the city where they play in (Which is NOT Minneapolis!) and nothing else.
When the Stars were in Minnesota, they constantly had to compete with the Vikings and Twins (And a lesser extent, Gopher hockey) for attention. Playoff games were sometimes on tape delay on the local UHF stations. When the Wolves moved in, it sealed the deal for the Stars. They had to compete with a new major league sports franchise in an area with a strong basketball history residing in a new arena in a centralized location while the Stars were miles away from DT MPLS in an aging arena while the center of their market was located 5 miles to the north. The NHL decided not to give MN a franchise until they played in Saint Paul, not Minneapolis for that exact reason; they'd get killed at the gates if they were located in Minneapolis and instantly become a second thought in the TC sports scene.
To add, hockey's more of an East Metro thing than a West Metro thing over here. Minneapolis only has one high school hockey program for all MPLS HSs (And a poor quality HS team at that) compared to having 7 basketball programs, while Saint Paul's high school hockey programs are some of the most dominant in the state while having very weak basketball programs. Another factor too, the East Metro never really supported the North Stars because everybody in the East Metro were Fighting Saints fans and resented the NHL.
IMHO, Winnepeg getting back an NHL team may or may not seem like a good idea. On the one hand, Winnepeg will make sure that arenas are filled and Winnepeg will draw fans from Saskatoon, Regina and even as far away as the Red River Valley (Minnesota Wild territory), but on the other hand, it's only 700K. That's about the population of Minneapolis and Saint Paul combined, with a few suburbs added or Denver proper plus a few large 'burbs. The arena will have to sell out every night and draw fans in from everywhere in that area. It would have to become a regional obsession to the point where it's considered a major taboo if you're not from Thunder Bay, the Red River Valley or SK and not be a die hard Jets fan, sort of like if you're from Wisconsin and you're not a Packers fan, there's something a bit "off" about you. (Sort of like if you're from the East Metro and not a hockey fan, there's something a bit "off" about you)
The NHL needs to get rid of it's delusion that it's a national sports league and concentrate more on the local tastes (Not that the NBA isn't also a regional sports league; The Timberwolves and to a lesser extent, the Bucks struggle and so did the Buffalo Braves, the Kansas City Kings and other cold-weather and Midwestern markets). Hockey will always be a sport played by people from cold areas, much like basketball will always be a sport for coastal and southern cities.
The NHL relocating into northern markets may help the league much like the NBA relocating from places like Vancouver to Memphis and Kansas City to Sacramento helped the league. Tastes in sports are very regionalized, due to differences in climate and culture. You don't find many basketball fans in Buffalo because it's too snowy half the time to play a game of outdoor ball and you don't find too many football fans in places with a high immigrant population because they simply didn't grow up with the game. Baseball is probably the only sport that can be considered pan-regional in this country.
The NHL needs to get rid of it's delusion that it's a national sports league and concentrate more on the local tastes
That's a horribly unhealthy idea. There's no money in regional TV. None. The money is in national TV and if you draw inward and focus regionally, a national TV contract isn't going to be in the offing. That's the way to turn the NHL into a minor league.
The problem that the NHL runs into with its national broadcasting scheme is that it alienates much of its established fanbase for regional (i.e. team specific) markets because the broadcasts are (1) of piss poor broadcast quality, (2) broadcast from an extremely low hockey IQ perspective, and (3) broadcast by broadcast teams that are partial to certain teams because NBC and Versus both pull from the regional broadcast crews of individuals teams (e.g. Emerick does the Devils, Olcyzk does the Hawks, Benanati does the Caps, Elliot does the Trashers, Forslund does the Canes, etc.) and it makes their attempts be "impartial" extremely painful and disingenuous.. I would serious pay A LOT of mone yto purchase a package where I could never have to watch games on NBC or Versus. It is exceedingly frustrating to pay money for Center Ice and then be forced to watch the absolute uneducated crap that is the NBC/Versus broadcast. I guess my biggest issue is that by going the national broadcast route they put out a very low hockey IQ broadcast that is frustrating to watch.
As for marginalizing the game, your comments seem to echo the approach that the NHL is taking. They approach they are taking is based upon the idea that they have to make it national or they put themselves in a really bad spot if their goal is to grow the game in the US.. However, an interesting (unanswered) question is whether the NHL actually needs a national broadcast to grow the game in the U.S. Almost every RSN broadcasts the game of the team in the "local market" (used loosely since some of the RSN markets are quite large). I would argue that the NHL would be better to grow the game in strong regions by building local team identity rather than trying to make the game, itself, popular nationwide. That strategy has strong support from the ratings numbers. Almost all of the RSNs do very well with ratings (and some EXTREMELY well, such as Buffalo, Pittsburgh and Detroit), yet those same markets don't perform as well when the national broadcast is shown in those same markets. Most likely because the average fan in Buffalo (for example) doesn't give two craps about a game that Buffalo isn't playing in. My personal belief is that the NHL's plan is based upon the fundamentally flawed premise that many hockey fans will tune in for a game that doesn't involve their team.
You really think there's a big difference between having a team in Minneapolis and a team in St. Paul? That seems like a stretch. Are there really fans who come to games now who wouldn't when the Stars played in Minneapolis? Unless there is some kind of issue with safety in the neighborhood around the Target Center, I find this line of reasoning rather implausible.
Also, I'm not so sure the Grizzlies relocating from Vancouver to Memphis was such a good thing for the NBA. Neither the Grizzlies nor the NBA are doing well financially right now.
The reason why the Wild are so successful in MN and the Stars weren't is because the Wild's pretty much the only team in the city where they play in (Which is NOT Minneapolis!) and nothing else.
When the Stars were in Minnesota, they constantly had to compete with the Vikings and Twins (And a lesser extent, Gopher hockey) for attention. Playoff games were sometimes on tape delay on the local UHF stations. When the Wolves moved in, it sealed the deal for the Stars. They had to compete with a new major league sports franchise in an area with a strong basketball history residing in a new arena in a centralized location while the Stars were miles away from DT MPLS in an aging arena while the center of their market was located 5 miles to the north. The NHL decided not to give MN a franchise until they played in Saint Paul, not Minneapolis for that exact reason; they'd get killed at the gates if they were located in Minneapolis and instantly become a second thought in the TC sports scene.
To add, hockey's more of an East Metro thing than a West Metro thing over here. Minneapolis only has one high school hockey program for all MPLS HSs (And a poor quality HS team at that) compared to having 7 basketball programs, while Saint Paul's high school hockey programs are some of the most dominant in the state while having very weak basketball programs. Another factor too, the East Metro never really supported the North Stars because everybody in the East Metro were Fighting Saints fans and resented the NHL.
IMHO, Winnepeg getting back an NHL team may or may not seem like a good idea. On the one hand, Winnepeg will make sure that arenas are filled and Winnepeg will draw fans from Saskatoon, Regina and even as far away as the Red River Valley (Minnesota Wild territory), but on the other hand, it's only 700K. That's about the population of Minneapolis and Saint Paul combined, with a few suburbs added or Denver proper plus a few large 'burbs. The arena will have to sell out every night and draw fans in from everywhere in that area. It would have to become a regional obsession to the point where it's considered a major taboo if you're not from Thunder Bay, the Red River Valley or SK and not be a die hard Jets fan, sort of like if you're from Wisconsin and you're not a Packers fan, there's something a bit "off" about you. (Sort of like if you're from the East Metro and not a hockey fan, there's something a bit "off" about you)
The NHL needs to get rid of it's delusion that it's a national sports league and concentrate more on the local tastes (Not that the NBA isn't also a regional sports league; The Timberwolves and to a lesser extent, the Bucks struggle and so did the Buffalo Braves, the Kansas City Kings and other cold-weather and Midwestern markets). Hockey will always be a sport played by people from cold areas, much like basketball will always be a sport for coastal and southern cities.
The NHL relocating into northern markets may help the league much like the NBA relocating from places like Vancouver to Memphis and Kansas City to Sacramento helped the league. Tastes in sports are very regionalized, due to differences in climate and culture. You don't find many basketball fans in Buffalo because it's too snowy half the time to play a game of outdoor ball and you don't find too many football fans in places with a high immigrant population because they simply didn't grow up with the game. Baseball is probably the only sport that can be considered pan-regional in this country.