fire_i fire_i:
Well duh of course if there's an NHL expansion (BAD IDEA) Canadian cities should be considered. There's a problem when you make news of such an evidence.
Teams like the Coyotes, Hurricanes and Predators should never have existed. A healthy NHL would not only have less teams than today (24 seems like a fair number to me), but only a few of those would play down south. As far as I know, the only southern US team that has success comparable to Canadian teams when it comes to attendance is Dallas. The rest just get crappy averages of 11.5k or some such. Even LA... and them having a bad team isn't a good defense - the Habs sucked ass in 2000 and still pulled attendances of 20k like every game. And since the lock-out every single home game was sold out, yet as far as I know the Habs are still far from top-notch (heck they missed the playoffs 4 times in the last 7 years).
You know what's the average attendance in Quebec City for the QJMHL's Remparts? 12+k. A junior team in a 600k inhabitants canadian city brings in more spectators than an NHL team in multiple 1M+ inhabitants southern US cities. And the team is a longshot for any ultimate honor, too... the only advantage the Remps have above any NHL team is cheaper ticket prices.
So really, when I see how little attention the canadian markets receive among NHL top executives while teams like Nashville can't even get an average of 14k spectators during and after a 100+ points season... I just hang my head in shame. And then they talk of expansion in other southern US cities when what the league needs is shrinking and relocalization of teams to the north. Ri-di-cu-lous.
How much do you think tickets cost in LA
