OT: Phoenix Coyotes to.....Seattle?
Bettman has had discussion with the mayor of Seattle on relocating the team.
Quebec City deserves a hockey team more than Seattle. Although, the Islanders look to be next with the Nordique fans invading their arena.
The 8,000 Red Wing fans in Arizona that usually go to the game when Wings are in town will.
So once a year?
The Wings are in the Eastern Conference now so it will be a rare occasion.
because we've already lost Atlanta. Both of those arenas were effectively home games when the Wings were in town
the taxpayers of Glendale will though. Big empty expensive ice palace to pay for. Phoenix sports suck, with occasional exceptions that never last.
And we'll finally be done with the assmunchers who call the Coyotes the "'yotes" because they're all hip and stuff like on the ESPN.
I will notice. I have been to every Coyote vs. Red Wings game in Phoenix since 2006. :(
I go to Coyotes games regularly, and they are my son's favorite team. I also have friends/colleagues who work for the Coyotes.
So ... yes. Granted, it might not be a LOT of people relative to, say, if the Wings were to leave Detroit (I'm still a Wings fan at heart, BTW), but there are plenty of Coyotes fans out here.
Supersonic creates too much heat. They'd turn into a swimming team pretty quickly.
I guess that's why the Calgary Flames are kind of terrible.
Well the Saddledome is flooding right now.
Hopefully they bring back the classic jerseys sweaters too.
I would destroy that guy in a hockey fight
It'll be the Pilots. /s
Quebec may indeed deserve a team more than Seattle, but Seattle is certainly a much better city for an NHL team that Phoenix. Nothing against Phoenix, I've spent a good amount of time there, but...a hockey town it is not.
I'm not sure of the specifics, but didn't Quebec already lose a team because they didn't support it?
If that's the case, I have a hard time saying that Quebec would deserve a team before another city. Granted, the other city in this particular discussion has lost a basketball team because those citizens wouldn't support it, so forget it all.
CONTRACTION!!!
is a pretty small town. Their biggest problem was the unfavorable exchange rate against the US Dollar back then. It's much better now and has been for a while.
Exactly. Quebec supported the Nordiques very well, but the exchange rate was brutal for all Canadian teams at that time, and they also lacked a quality arena at the time. The exchange rate is much better now and they're building a new arena, so those problems are resolved.
I want Quebec to get a franchise back, but I do agree that Seattle's not a bad place if you're looking for a new market. Seattle's problem, incidentally, was not that they wouldn't support the Sonics. They just got taken for a ride by a new owner who never wanted to keep them there.
The exchange rate in the '90s was unusually bad for Canada - it's not normal for the two dollars to diverge that much. It had to do in part with Canada going through difficult structural reforms. But anyway, I believe the NHL has adapted its revenue sharing (which hardly existed back then) to take the exchange rate into account.
Also, didn't the NHL institute revenue sharing in the last lockout, with one of the goals to keep Canada's small market teams more financially viable in the event the loonie tanked again?
Don't forget that Shultz tried to buy the team back after it'd been shown that Bennett lied.
The city is starving for a winter pro sport. We're talking about a city that averages 35,000 for soccer.
Having just done realignment, I doubt the NHL would let a team as far west as Phoenix to move to Quebec City.
Moving a team from Phoenix to Seattle is easy for alignment. Phoenix to QC screws it all up again
Are they supposed to start playing at Barclay's?
Yes, in 2015, IIRC.
Why not? The Nordiques and Habs had a great rivalry. If "Montreal is enough," why do the people of Quebec want a new franchise so badly? They're building an arena at the moment, even though it has no tenant.
Seattle isn't ready. If they played at KeyArena until a new venue was built, it would be like when the Coyotes played at America West Arena.
The floor isn't the right size for hockey, the scoreboard is above the blueline and the seats on the other side are unusable. This is what it will look like if a team plays at KeyArena.
It was so much better to have a rink downtown. Lots of bars to choose from for pre and post game libations. It was so close to my house....
I liked the location of America West so much that I didn't even notice how screwed up it was inside.
You're probably right, and I don't care. I want a team here. I don't give a rat's ass if the NBA ever comes back, but I want the NHL here.
Quebec couldn't support a team. Why do they "deserve" another one? Just because they're Canadian?
And Miami can? Phoenix can?
Because the Nords fans invade buildings just to try to convince the NHL they want hockey back.
Faulty logic. Whether Miami and Phoenix "deserve" a team is totally irrelevant to whether Quebec "deserves" one. A case can be made for putting a team in Quebec, but claiming they deserve a team is specious at best. It's kind of a privilege, not a right.
As I think is evident from Winnipeg's comeback, it is much better for the NHL to have an extremely passionate small town hockey fanbase than a disinterested big market fanbase. It just looks better, at least in my opinion.
Quebec has the fanbase. In fact, its junior hockey club (Quebec Remparts) drew over 11,000 fans per game this past season:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Hockey_League#Attendance
The Nordiques' problem was the horrid exchange rate in the mid-90s, which was also what caused Winnipeg to lose the Jets around the same time. They had to pay their players in U.S. dollars while their revenue was in Canadian dollars, which were worth around 60-65 cents back then.
the team would have to suffer for the first two years of losing money because Key Arena is dog poo. Once the new arena is built, money will flow in. Fan base here will support it...4 milly + potential fan base.
I will buy season tickets if they come here, too bad the Wings moved to the east will be once in a while when I get to see them play.
Go Wings!
Not exactly. Read this: http://nhltoseattle.com/2013/06/20/potential-gate-revenues-in-keyarena/.
The franchise would do okay. Actually more than okay, due to the excitement around the team. Ticket prices would be a bit high (due to supply and demand), but it'd be awesome.
GOD I WANT A HOCKEY TEAM IN SEATTLE SOOOOOOOOOOOOO BADLY.
And I could root for both the Wings and the Mets (i.e. Metropolitans).
I am praying this happens. I think hockey would do well here, been playing in leagues on and off since I moved here form Farmington Hills in 97...there is a solid hockey scene here.
Sounds like you are from Seattle, first brew on me if we run into eachother at the Key.
I live 7 blocks from Key. You got yourself a goddamn deal. I'll bring some other legal stuff to share.
We'll be the two season ticket holders who wear Mets jerseys year round. Except when the Wings come visit. And then everybody sitting around us hates our guts.
the team would have to suffer for the first two years of losing money because Key Arena is dog poo
What is so bad about Key Arena? It was renovated in the mid-'90s. (There's an amusing YouTube video out there of David Stern raving about it, only a decade before the Sonics moved.) Surely, with no NBA tenant, they can configure it properly for hockey, right?
its just too hard to get there. There is no parking and teams/bands always complain about how hard it is to load and unload equipment. For me its the parking, to support a larger crowd it just gets ridiculous down there.