Believe it or not, hockey is experiencing a bit of a renaissance in America.
Even with its inaccessibility for many children in many parts of the country, its strong presence and stigma as Canada’s sport, and a staggering lack of diversity in an increasingly diverse and inter-connected world, hockey television ratings have never been higher for both the regular season and the Stanley Cup, and attendance is booming.
For the ADHD generation, hockey is a natural fit. Take soccer and basketball, put them together, shorten the playing surface, speed things up, put everyone on skates, through in goal horns and goal songs and rocking arenas, and you have something.
There’s just one problem. He’s named Gary Bettman.
Now, I don’t loathe Bettman like many, many hockey fans do. I don’t think he’s a bad guy, and I don’t think he’s out to hurt the sport. Despite the three lockouts he has overseen, the second of which was absolutely crippling, hockey has arguably never been healthier.
But Bettman has his foibles – namely, his insatiable appetite for expansion.
The list of sins committed by Bettman is long and you could certainly find more than a few people willing to reel it off, but every list includes Bettman’s Southeastern expansion and general eagerness for new teams in new markets that has made the league’s standard of play more mediocre and given us some of the only true clunker franchises in hockey.
So because the NHL is doing so well, Bettman once again wants to expand – by four teams, which would bring the league’s total to a staggering 34 – more than any other American professional sports league.
It’s too much. 32 teams, sure. But 34? The talent pool gets stretched at 34, there’s no denying it – but that’s not even the problem. It’s where Bettman wants to expand.
Last week, multiple outlets reported that the NHL is looking to move to 34 teams by 2017, with the surest bet in, wait for it … Las Vegas!
According to Dan Patrick, the deal is done. It appears that the NHL will become the first major American sports league to venture into Las Vegas, which by all accounts, is a town with a deep-rooted love for hockey, passionate local fans, and a strong tradition.
Except not. Las Vegas, with the gambling and the tourists and the fact that many local people work at night anyway, is not set up whatsoever to support a pro hockey team. There’s no history with the sport in the city, and to make it worst, Five Thirty Eight estimates that there are 91,000 hockey fans in the city – more than 40% less than the current city with the least fans, Nashville.
They are building an arena in Vegas, and potential owners are milling. The franchise, if it happens, will of course be a disaster much like other Bettman specials like the Florida Panthers, Arizona Coyotes, and Columbus Blue Jackets.
So Bettman will probably do it.
Furthermore, the NHL wants, according to these reports, to put a second team in Toronto.
Because, no one even likes the Maple Leafs there.
Yes, a second franchise in Toronto would make money. But where are they going to find fans?
In arguably the most hockey-mad city in the world, are more than 200,000 people – a number of fans you need to guarantee success according to that same Five Thirty Eight report, going to pack their bags, say goodbye to the Leafs, and support the new guys?
There’s no owner, and a recent attempt to get a second arena financed was rejected heavily by voters. Does the league really want a team that will be the Maple Leafs’ opening act at best, ugly stepsister at worst?
There are real, honest-to-god, deserving cities out there. Toronto has a team already.
The other two reported cities do make since. Quebec City never deserved to have their franchise stripped from them in the first place, it was a move necessitated by financial problems.
Now, there’s a billionaire owner, an NHL-ready arena that will be ready for business in 2015, and a natural rival for Montreal ready and waiting.
Calling it quits in Atlanta – another hot Bettman expansion – and going back to Winnipeg has gone fantastically, opening the door for Quebec City. This should be a slam-dunk.
If Seattle can get an owner and a new arena – no sure thing – that move should work too. The hockey team in Seattle would fill a void created by the departure of the SuperSonics, and Seattle has a long history not getting interested until the major leagues come calling – which is what this would be – and then getting very interested in a hurry.
A Seattle team would give Vancouver a rival, and with the NHL trying to balance out the conferences with more teams on the West Coast, the location works.
That’s where the only other obvious expansion candidate – Portland – comes in. The Cascadia three that have worked so well for MLS; Vancouver, Seattle, and Portland is something the NHL could tap into.
Portland simply makes too much sense. There is league-leading support for the minor league Winterhawks, a building that would be ready for the NHL tomorrow, and an owner with deep pockets who is more than willing to buy.
Problem is, Bettman has priced Paul Allen out of an expansion team.
The bottom line is, Allen wants a team but only at the right price. This isn’t the labor of love football or basketball is for him. It may be in time, but for now, the exorbitant and frankly ridiculous $350 million dollar price tag for an expansion team has Allen saying no thanks.
It costs less, however, to relocate a team, and thanks to Bettman’s previous expansion strategies, there’s no shortage of teams in need of relocation.
Arizona – perpetually in trouble, and the team Allen came within a whisker of prying away to Portland last summer – isn’t a viable long-term market, and neither is Florida, where there are no fans and there is no traction.
Portland also has Chris McGowan, who had a big role with the LA Kings and is well known and respected in NHL circles in its corner.
It’s pretty simple. Give expansion teams to Quebec City, and when they have an arena solution, Seattle, and relocate a distressed franchise to Portland.
That’s a manageable 32 teams with three new big hockey fan-bases, rivalry, and a continuation of the momentum of the past few years.
It’s going to require a little patience, and a little common sense – something that the NHL has been found to lack up to this point. So while they figure things out, the rest of us will just have to cross our fingers, and pray to Lord Stanley that Bettman gets this one right.
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