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NHL Expansion?

Valadius Jun 08 2007 09:35 PM

[url=http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/news;_ylt=An_FSHWGC10ENAO4tGYjRlB7vLYF?slug=dw-nhlexpansion060807&prov=yhoo&type=lgns]NHL considering expansion to Las Vegas and Kansas City[/url] You've gotta be freaking kidding me. I already considered Gary Bettman the worst commissioner of any North American sport in history, but this takes the cake. EXPANSION??? The NHL is dying thanks to Bonehead Bettman. With abysmal TV ratings and a shrinking American fan base, what does he come up with? Even more teams! Personally, I love expansion. But not for the NHL, not now. It needs to contract, and fast, to build itself up again. This could be the final nail in the coffin of the NHL. I sure hope not.

Willets Point Jun 08 2007 09:39 PM

NHL would benefit from a European Football relegation/promotion system. Take the best 20 teams and put them in the top division and then the rest of the teams + expansion teams + the best AHL teams for the lower division.

metirish Jun 08 2007 09:42 PM

I really think the relagation/promotion system would be a very tough sell to North American fans,they are just not used to such a thing,expansion is a terrible idea.

OlerudOwned Jun 08 2007 09:50 PM

Expansion will be great. After the Preds move to Hamilton, Ontario, and the Thrashers, Panthers, and Coyotes are contracted. And fuck no to Vegas. Worst idea ever. Put the Thrashers in KC, Preds in Hamilton, and goodbye Panthers and 'Yotes.

OlerudOwned Jun 08 2007 09:50 PM

Curse of the double post.

DocTee Jun 09 2007 08:08 AM

Bad idea. Two of the most viable cities for NHL franchises are a pair that once had them: Winnipeg and Seattle. Move two of the current teams there (and maybe a third to KC?) but that's as far as you can take this commodity.

Elster88 Jun 09 2007 08:57 AM

Willets Point wrote: NHL would benefit from a European Football relegation/promotion system. Take the best 20 teams and put them in the top division and then the rest of the teams + expansion teams + the best AHL teams for the lower division. I don't think Americans would like this, especially any cities that found their teams in the lower division.

Johnny Dickshot Jun 09 2007 09:25 AM

I think it's time we tested Americans on that theory and hockey is just the sport to do it in.

Edgy DC Jun 09 2007 10:56 AM

I think it'd have a great chance of succeeding. You don't think Buffalo --- who has been claiming for years that they're a major-league city --- would love a system that allows them to prove it on the field? Pittsburgh and Kansas City would initially hate the notion of fighting to maintain their status, but then might appreciate a chance to win a championship in a lesser division and return to the bigs as victors.

metirish Jun 09 2007 11:08 AM

You know it's not the worst idea,the possability of last day games deciding what three teams go down and go up would add excitment and a whole new bit of intrique to the sport.

Frayed Knot Jun 09 2007 11:32 AM

Johnny Dickshot wrote: I think it's time we tested Americans on that theory and hockey is just the sport to do it in. Yeah but if it fails the whole sport may wind up marginalized both in the box office and via TV coverage. Oh wait. The teams that are going to fight any semblence of that system are the big ones: Rangers, Montreal, Chicago, etc., several of which are or have been at the bottom in recent years. Cablevision isn't paying all that money to run MSG in order to stage minor league events there. Regardless of what they do, expansion is a really, really, really lousy idea.

Edgy DC Jun 09 2007 11:50 AM

It's short-term thinking I guess. Expansion brings in fees. It's not like teams that fold would get their money back.

seawolf17 Jun 09 2007 04:39 PM

Expansion is a terrible idea, but I love the European promotion/demotion idea. Honestly, who cares if "Americans will like it"? Nobody watches hockey anyway! I say go for it.

Willets Point Jun 09 2007 07:59 PM

seawolf17 wrote: Expansion is a terrible idea, but I love the European promotion/demotion idea. Honestly, who cares if "Americans will like it"? Nobody watches hockey anyway! I say go for it. Depends on whether you consider Canadians to be (North) Americans or not. Thanks to Dickshot for backing me up.

Valadius Jun 09 2007 09:50 PM

I like the idea of the relegation/promotion system, but it would suck once New York teams were forced into the lesser division. So I dunno, it could work, but fans of big-city (and Original Six) teams would really gripe when forced to deal with that.

Edgy DC Jun 09 2007 10:03 PM

Let 'em.

Willets Point Jun 09 2007 10:19 PM

Maybe it would make teams like the Bruins, Blackhawks, and Rangers do something crazy like...oh, I don't know...put a good team on the ice!

Frayed Knot Jun 10 2007 09:06 PM

btw, a Larry Brooks column in Sunday's NYPost (he's their reg hockey columnist and generally an anti-owner curmudgeon type) suggests that the timing of expansion idea is so to beat some deadline whereby the entrance fee money would NOT count towards the total amount of revenue from which the per/team salary cap is derived.