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There’s also a couple factors I didn’t see mentioned, at least on this page. The USD to CAD conversion rate heavily favors the former. Also, the players themselves seem to heavily favor living in the states, especially the Sunbelt. For that same reason, my local team (the Blue Jackets) have had trouble retaining free agents due to local weather and size of the city. I’d expect clubs in Hamilton & QC would suffer similar fates.
I can agree with you on that. I was simply answering the question of "which is the nation in National Hockey League?" And as the expert notes, it is Canada.
Regardless, the NHL is now American, for all intents and purposes. Headquartered in New York and run by American business interests, it might as well be American.
Interesting indeed. I was in Florence, Italy in 1983, and the International Herald Tribune, published out of New York and printed in Paris, did not have a US Sports section, but it did have a "North American Sports" section, and still reported that the Toronto Argos won the Grey Cup over the BC Lions. As I recall, it was three columns wide by six inches deep. Neither an American flag nor a Canadian one, just a sports story in the sports section.
For that matter, I was in Perth, Australia in June of 1995, when the New Jersey Devils won the Stanley Cup. My news came from the West Australian newspaper, which had NHL scores. Buried among the AFL scores, and the pro golf scores, was the Stanley Cup final results. No mention of American flags or "American sports."
What newspaper were you reading overseas in 1989?
I was a bit of a global nomad back then, but thinking of when the Stanley Cup final would have been taking place, I was probably somewhere in Australia.
The newspaper would have likely been the Sydney Morning Herald, the Melbourne Age, or The Australian (kinda Australia's version of the Globe and Mail).
Well, not to change topic but at least the CFL remains undisputedly Canadian these days. I don't see the US or anyone else taking that league away from Canada. But with the NHL (and perhaps to a lesser extent the NBA and MLB), perhaps a name change to "North American Hockey Association" would make better sense. I just don't see the NHL departing entirely from Canada even if it does not expand again in Canada so a North American Hockey League would be an appropriate term.
The newspaper would have likely been the Sydney Morning Herald, the Melbourne Age, or The Australian (kinda Australia's version of the Globe and Mail).
Thanks. Having read all three while in Australia, I can see where each might have a "US Sports" section that makes no distinction between US and Canadian sports.
I was in Perth for extended periods, and got into the habit of heading off to the State Library of Western Australia (the Alexander Library) at least once a week. It had subscriptions to the Globe and Mail and the Toronto Star, so I could keep up on news from home. This was early-Internet, and while my hosts had Internet access, it was back in the day when access was measured in hours/minutes, and hours/minutes cost money, and I wasn't about to abuse my hosts' hospitality by hogging all their Internet time. So I'd hit the library when I was in downtown, and read the paper copies of the Globe and the Star.
The governor of Connecticut is actively lobbying for the NHL to return to Hartford even though they don't have an NHL arena ready and attendance for the Whalers was low prior to them relocating to Carolina back in the 90's. There's an active discussion about it in the CT forum. Quebec City has an NHL ready arena, so that made me think of this topic here in the Canada forum with the Cayotes franchise moving out of Arizona and up for grabs. It would be weird if the team ended up in a bayou city like Houston. But if I were betting on the mentality of the powers that be, it will likely be Salt Lake City.
The Maples Leafs are valued at 2,000,000,000 $US, the second-most valuable NHL franchise (after the Rangers). Montreal clocks in at #3, down to Winnipeg at 27th (out of 32 teams). Winnipeg is by far the smallest metropolitan area in the NHL*, and are valued at 650,000,000 $US - quadrupled from their 2011 purchase price. These are businesses and their purpose is to make money.
I think a lot of Americans simply fail to understand hockey's popularity , and corresponding revenue potential, north of the border. Sure, Winnipeg is small, but more than 50% of its population are hard-core hockey fans. Sure, the Bay Area has 7x as many people, but maybe 5% of them are puckheads. Do the math.
The NHL is fine in Canada, and making bucketloads of money.
*And, I believe, the 2nd-smallest market behind Green Bay (Packers) in the big four North American sports leagues. This, of course, is only true if one pretends that Milwaukee is not just as much part of the Packers' market (which it is).
The Maples Leafs are valued at 2,000,000,000 $US, the second-most valuable NHL franchise (after the Rangers). Montreal clocks in at #3, down to Winnipeg at 27th (out of 32 teams). Winnipeg is by far the smallest metropolitan area in the NHL*, and are valued at 650,000,000 $US - quadrupled from their 2011 purchase price. These are businesses and their purpose is to make money.
I think a lot of Americans simply fail to understand hockey's popularity , and corresponding revenue potential, north of the border. Sure, Winnipeg is small, but more than 50% of its population are hard-core hockey fans. Sure, the Bay Area has 7x as many people, but maybe 5% of them are puckheads. Do the math.
The NHL is fine in Canada, and making bucketloads of money.
*And, I believe, the 2nd-smallest market behind Green Bay (Packers) in the big four North American sports leagues. This, of course, is only true if one pretends that Milwaukee is not just as much part of the Packers' market (which it is).
If you only count NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB then yes. If you broaden the scope to cities with major league sports teams, then the CFL can be counted upon which Regina, Saskatchewan is the second smallest or maybe even the smallest major league sports market in North America.
There’s also a couple factors I didn’t see mentioned, at least on this page. The USD to CAD conversion rate heavily favors the former. Also, the players themselves seem to heavily favor living in the states, especially the Sunbelt. For that same reason, my local team (the Blue Jackets) have had trouble retaining free agents due to local weather and size of the city. I’d expect clubs in Hamilton & QC would suffer similar fates.
Looks like McJesus will be staying for the foreseeable future. Matthews is hoping to stay as well. Caufield just signed an 8 year extension.
There are benefits to not living in the US like not having to deal with all the cray cray people. Plus cities like Toronto, and Montreal are great places to live.
Looks like McJesus will be staying for the foreseeable future. Matthews is hoping to stay as well. Caufield just signed an 8 year extension.
There are benefits to not living in the US like not having to deal with all the cray cray people. Plus cities like Toronto, and Montreal are great places to live.
I get that but when you're a wealthy star athlete you can more of than not exempt yourself from most of that.
Plus even NHLers based in Canada are literally in the US for much of the season as there are more teams based there that they play against.
Montreal and Toronto also have an intense media microscope focused on the Habs and Leafs that you don't have in any US city regarding their local hockey team.
Montreal in particular can transition between heaven and hell. It's probably the best place to play in the league when things are going well for you (and ideally the team too), but it can also be the worst because of all the pressure if you're going through a rough patch.
The governor of Connecticut is actively lobbying for the NHL to return to Hartford even though they don't have an NHL arena ready and attendance for the Whalers was low prior to them relocating to Carolina back in the 90's. There's an active discussion about it in the CT forum.
While I'd love to see the Hartford Whalers come back for nostalgia reasons (the Whalers should've never left CT, in my honest opinion), it's never going to happen unless the city of Hartford and the state of CT builds a modern arena for ice hockey and basketball. The only way Hartford gets a team back is if one of the teams (Carolina, Columbus, etc.) fails in their market. Good luck with that and I really mean that!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Champ le monstre du lac
Quebec City has an NHL ready arena, so that made me think of this topic here in the Canada forum with the Cayotes franchise moving out of Arizona and up for grabs. It would be weird if the team ended up in a bayou city like Houston. But if I were betting on the mentality of the powers that be, it will likely be Salt Lake City.
Exactly my train of thought here. Not impossible since the Atlanta Thrashers moved out and the Winnipeg Jets were reincarnated. Thanks for bringing life to the discussion Chevy You've pretty much covered all the angles I was pondering. Congrats on your winnings!
Locales like Salt Lake City & San Antonio does well since those cities are one team cities. Since SLC is a cold weather city, a hockey team might do better than in a city like Phoenix, but I expect a lot of Canadian (especially Quebec) fans to pull towards getting a professional ice hockey team ASAP since all of Canada loves hockey.
Houston and KC are better locales to place a hockey team than SLC in my book, but the sentiment in Quebec is the strongest due to not just the Nordiques playing in Quebec for 23 seasons, but their predecessors, the Quebec Bulldogs winning the Stanley Cup in 1912 and 1913 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_Bulldogs). In other words, there's a hockey legacy in Quebec City the same way that Canadian cities such as Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, and even Winnipeg had a chance to win the Stanley Cup before the NHL was formed.
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You've pretty much covered all the angles I was pondering. Congrats on your winnings!