Fires of Heaven Guild Message Board - View Single Post - [NHL] 07-08 Playoffs

Eomer · 05-30-2008, 09:46 AM

Not playoff related, but: 31% of NHL ticket revenue from Canadian teams

Now, that's good news and bad news. Good news that the NHL is doing quite well financially. Bad news that most of the revenue growth has come from the run up in the Canadian dollar. Good news is that the loonie is expected to stay high for a long time due to Canada's resource wealth. Bad news because the NHL is barely treading water in the US, for the most part.

It's time that Gary Bettman realized that no, you're not going to fucking develop hockey as a major league sport by shoving it down the throats of people in North Carolina or Georgia. It's just not going to work. There's some exceptions of traditional hockey markets embracing teams, like Dallas and San Jose. But those are exceptions. It's time to go back to the bread and butter and realize that the NHL will remain unique amongst major pro sports in North America as a league that gets the majority of it's money from ticket sales, and no endorsements, TV rights etc. There will never be "grassroots" hockey in the South, hockey is about as expensive as you can get for sports due to the equipment and facilities required. Roller hockey is a sad joke.

So start relocating teams, or bringing in new expansion teams in to markets like Hartford, Seattle/Portland, Hamilton, Winnipeg, Quebec City, and Halifax. It'll take a lot of work to get proper arenas built, but if that's what the NHL has to do, that's what it has to do. Give up on this fantasy of the NHL challening the NBA, MLB, or *cackle* the NFL. It's not going to happen. It's time to be realistic. Hockey will probably remain a niche sport in perpetuity, start catering to markets that will embrace it, instead of markets that will largely ignore it.

Fuck, maybe it's time to seriously consider a European/Russian conference. Perhaps work out a deal with the oligarch who's starting the new Russian league in a decade or two to essentially become the European half of the league. There's a ton of hockey fans in Eastern Europe, Germany, and Russia.

Putting a team in Mobile and New Orleans isn't going to magically solve the NHL's problems in the US.

05-30-2008, 09:46 AM	#285 (permalink)
Eomer Registered User Join Date: Feb 2002 Posts: 9,517 +25 Internets	Not playoff related, but: 31% of NHL ticket revenue from Canadian teams Now, that's good news and bad news. Good news that the NHL is doing quite well financially. Bad news that most of the revenue growth has come from the run up in the Canadian dollar. Good news is that the loonie is expected to stay high for a long time due to Canada's resource wealth. Bad news because the NHL is barely treading water in the US, for the most part. It's time that Gary Bettman realized that no, you're not going to fucking develop hockey as a major league sport by shoving it down the throats of people in North Carolina or Georgia. It's just not going to work. There's some exceptions of traditional hockey markets embracing teams, like Dallas and San Jose. But those are exceptions. It's time to go back to the bread and butter and realize that the NHL will remain unique amongst major pro sports in North America as a league that gets the majority of it's money from ticket sales, and no endorsements, TV rights etc. There will never be "grassroots" hockey in the South, hockey is about as expensive as you can get for sports due to the equipment and facilities required. Roller hockey is a sad joke. So start relocating teams, or bringing in new expansion teams in to markets like Hartford, Seattle/Portland, Hamilton, Winnipeg, Quebec City, and Halifax. It'll take a lot of work to get proper arenas built, but if that's what the NHL has to do, that's what it has to do. Give up on this fantasy of the NHL challening the NBA, MLB, or cackle the NFL. It's not going to happen. It's time to be realistic. Hockey will probably remain a niche sport in perpetuity, start catering to markets that will embrace it, instead of markets that will largely ignore it. Fuck, maybe it's time to seriously consider a European/Russian conference. Perhaps work out a deal with the oligarch who's starting the new Russian league in a decade or two to essentially become the European half of the league. There's a ton of hockey fans in Eastern Europe, Germany, and Russia. Putting a team in Mobile and New Orleans isn't going to magically solve the NHL's problems in the US.