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MacK_Attack

Seattle looking to join NHL?

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Seattle is long overdue for an NHL franchise. This is a city with a rich history of hockey including: the first American team to win a Stanley Cup (1917 Seattle Metropolitans), a long running Pacific Coast League team (Seattle Pilots), and a great tradition of junior hockey.

If the NHL would ever get started there in a modern hockey rink, I think that the franchise would blossom. There would be a tremendous rivalry with Vancouver, Denver, and the SoCal teams. It might just be the impetus to push Portland into the league as well. If both came into existence, there would be 8 divisions of 4 teams each. Also, the T-birds (WHL team) draw pretty well too.

Seattle is a natural for the schedule makers. There has always been cries from the West on the travel headaches. By moving Detroit back to the Eastern conf. (which is the way it should be), and putting Seattle into the western mix, it would improve the imbalance in travel between the two divisions.

Bring an NHL franchise to Seattle!!!!!!!!

Edited by Mighty Wings

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How about Winnipeg? *shot*

:D

Don't get me started :ph34r:

Winnipeg is the best choice for a Canadian location. In my opinion, it comes behind (in no particular order) Seattle, Houston, Kansas City, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Portland, and perhaps Cleveland and San Diego as a good location overall. So if the league were to expand to 36 teams....ok, maybe then we should consider Winnipeg :P

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Don't get me started :ph34r:

Winnipeg is the best choice for a Canadian location. In my opinion, it comes behind (in no particular order) Seattle, Houston, Kansas City, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Portland, and perhaps Cleveland and San Diego as a good location overall. So if the league were to expand to 36 teams....ok, maybe then we should consider Winnipeg :P

HAHAHAHA good one dropping my hockey-pathetic hometown in there...of the cities on the list, I think Houston, Seattle and MAYBE Portland (although that would remind me an awful lot of Vancouver with the Canucks and Grizzlies) have the market strength to add another major-league team. The Peg is at worst fourth behind those three, and probably third on my list.

PS. Can someone explain to me how we move to the East if the Preds move to Seattle? For the record, I'd hate to see another Nordiques situation, where a team bails on its fans, only to win the Cup their first year in a new city and get a huge group of abrasive bandwagoners right off the bat.

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The only thing I really know about Seattle comes from Grey's Anatomy but isn't Seattle a little close to Vancouver. Having to teams that close together can't really be a good thing

Sure it can be! Rivalry is the heat that forges great hockey! :D

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The only thing I really know about Seattle comes from Grey's Anatomy but isn't Seattle a little close to Vancouver. Having to teams that close together can't really be a good thing

The two cities are just over 200km apart, for your information.

Washington has 4 junior teams in Everett Silvertips, Tri-City Americans, Spokane Chiefs, and Seattle Thunderbirds, they already have a rivalry with the Vancouver Giants.

Washington residents can either be Canuck fans or fans of some other team, when some other team comes to Vancouver, those fans will make the trip across the border to see that team. BC residents does the same thing going to Seattle to watch NFL, NBA, and baseball. It works both ways.

Would it be a good thing to have 2 teams 200km apart? I think it would be great, no travelling outside a time zone. West Coast teams don't have it easy those days.

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What makes Columbus such a bad market? Averaging nearly 17,000/game with a team that has never even competed for a playoff spot is pretty impressive. I think that's a pretty stable market for the time being.

Do people just assume Columbus is a poor market because the team is bad and it's a recent expansion city?

:) Hands off of Columbus Blue Jackets. I'm moving to Columbus next month, and I want the team to be there for a good long time. I need to line up some tix too, and if Nationwide arena is not being sold out, they should be easier to come by.

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Seattle is an awesome city, I loved it when I was there a couple years ago on business. Great people and they really support their minor league team. Any franchise would be very successful there.

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...Indianapolis...

Unfortunately it will never happen. Conseco Fieldhouse was built with perfect basketball sightlines as the goal and all other sports/events as an afterthought. It's hockey configuration is not adequate for the NHL. And with the huge fight that surrounded Lucas Oil Stadium, Indy won't be getting another sports venue for quite a while.

I think that Seattle would make a great market (probly becuz it's not in a hick state!!11!1! ;) ), so I guess we'll just wait and see if a team emigrates to there someday.

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What makes Columbus such a bad market? Averaging nearly 17,000/game with a team that has never even competed for a playoff spot is pretty impressive. I think that's a pretty stable market for the time being.

Do people just assume Columbus is a poor market because the team is bad and it's a recent expansion city?

I agree they're not, but that's not to say I wouldn't be salivating over a Rick Nash or maybe even the potential of a somewhat slumping Zherdev

Edited by Mudvayneowns91

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I think Seattle would be good. But good call above, would that be a move or a 31st team? Probably a move, especially with several teams still hurting. Wasn't there an article a few days ago about the Preds struggles?

I will also say (though it has been hashed in many other threads) that there are a greeeeat many cities I would choose before Winnepeg. Some folks made a decent arguement for Ontario the other day but sorry Manitoba, ain't gunna happen. Yes you built a new arena, but with what 14,000 seats?

You had your shot and lost it. Why risk it on a market which already failed?

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I will also say (though it has been hashed in many other threads) that there are a greeeeat many cities I would choose before Winnepeg. Some folks made a decent arguement for Ontario the other day but sorry Manitoba, ain't gunna happen. Yes you built a new arena, but with what 14,000 seats?

15,500, I think....with the space to expand a couple thousand seats. However, they have enough private boxes in that thing to even it out. Just a matter of selling them.

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Unfortunately it will never happen. Conseco Fieldhouse was built with perfect basketball sightlines as the goal and all other sports/events as an afterthought. It's hockey configuration is not adequate for the NHL.

Agreed.

Even the Indy minor league team doesn't play but a handful of games there.

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15,500, I think....with the space to expand a couple thousand seats. However, they have enough private boxes in that thing to even it out. Just a matter of selling them.

Winnipeg failed to support a team once. Raleigh is considered a very small market, and guess what? It's TWICE the size of Winnipeg. Columbus, another 'small' market is even larger. Pittsburgh is four times as big, and still struggles.

The only cities in the NHL with population bases as small as Winnipeg? Edmonton and Nashville. One of those cities came together to save their team from being moved after suffering severe financial woes. Nashville is the other.

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The only thing I really know about Seattle comes from Grey's Anatomy but isn't Seattle a little close to Vancouver. Having to teams that close together can't really be a good thing

Believe me, the hockey in Vancouver has absolutely no impact on Seattle. I used to live in Detroit and then I moved to Seattle, I told people at my school that I was into hockey and they only had a vague idea of what it was. It took me a really long time to find a league I could play in, too. And it didn't turn up being anything fancy either.

I think the potential for a team in the Northwest is great. There just hasn't been enough exposure to the sport. Portland is a great city too and could be good for an NHL team. I actually think hockey is a bit more popular in Portland, but what I know is only anecdotal.

EDIT: My comment about there being "no impact" on Seattle was relating to the popular culture. The people who follow the minors would of course be aware and very much into what's going on in BC. I doubt there are many casual fans, though.

Edited by The Nephilim

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I'm guessing most of the people who have posted in this thread have never spent any time in Seattle. The city absolutely would NOT support an NHL team. They've never had good support for the Thunderbirds. The most frustrating thing about my time living in Seattle was that there is very little interest in hockey. People assume that because a city has teams in three of four "major" sports, they'd be a good fit for a team in the fourth. That's not the case with Seattle.

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I really don't think you can judge how a city will support an NHL team by how they support a junior team. Juniors are several steps down from the bigs. In a town like Kelowna or Medicine Hat, the junior team is the biggest thing in town, so it has lots of local support. In a huge metropolis like Seattle, there's so much else going on, why pay attention to the tiny little WHL team? An AHL team might be a better gauge of interest, but there's none in Seattle.

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HAHAHAHA good one dropping my hockey-pathetic hometown in there...of the cities on the list, I think Houston, Seattle and MAYBE Portland (although that would remind me an awful lot of Vancouver with the Canucks and Grizzlies) have the market strength to add another major-league team. The Peg is at worst fourth behind those three, and probably third on my list.

PS. Can someone explain to me how we move to the East if the Preds move to Seattle? For the record, I'd hate to see another Nordiques situation, where a team bails on its fans, only to win the Cup their first year in a new city and get a huge group of abrasive bandwagoners right off the bat.

Nashville has fans?

Seriously, the Nordiques were a much different situation. They had true fans. Anyone who goes to Predators game are more than likely transplats from northern citites that go to watch because it's a hockey and they like hockey. I honestly doubt that a Nashville native is really in to the Predators at all. And I like to add a message to SouthernWingsFan: This is not a knock on the south, or the city of Nashville. But you can't compare the fan support of Quebec City to the fan support of Nashville. The only reason the Nordiques left in the first place is because they didn't have the corperate support, and up until their final season in 1994-1995, they were awful on the ice in all ways imaginable. If the Predators won the cup, or actually won a playoff series, then that might change fan wise. But their current attendance struggles say something about the situation right now.

Edit: And just to prove a point that I'm not knocking the south, Dallas and Tampa Bay are southern teams and do great in all aspects. They sell out all the time, and their both good teams. The reason why I'm so critical of Nashville is that they are so good, yet the fans are being so fickle about going to the games. I will never understand why they don't go.

Edited by Kp-Wings

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It would certainly be an interesting market, that's for sure.

Or it could be a fantastic thing for rivalries.

That's what I was thinking to. It would become a Toronto-Buffalo type rivalry which would be good for the Canucks actually too.

Heck, Seattle already has had a Stanley Cup championship team in its history. The Seattle Metropolitans were the first American team to win the Stanley Cup back in 1917. I remember hearing about a Seattle team as a kid in the 70's, so did a quick google on them and came up with this:

http://www.seattlehockey.net/metropolitans/metropolitans.htm

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From KING 5 News:

SEATTLE -- Multiple sources confirmed Tuesday that the NHL commissioner and deputy commissioner made a personal visit to Seattle last week and met with its top two elected officials.

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly flew to Seattle last week and met privately with King County Executive Dow Constantine and Seattle Mayor Ed Murray. Bettman has publicly stated the league has interest in placing a franchise in the Seattle market, but that "building issues" have gotten in the way.

Constantine spokesman Frank Abe described the meeting between Bettman and Constantine as a "meet and greet" and that "nothing was really brewing right now."

NHL Spokesman Frank Brown confirmed the meeting Tuesday, and said "Commissioner Bettman met with the Mayor while on the West Coast for playoff games. The purpose of the meeting was solely to obtain a status report on the new arena."

What...Uncle Gary can't phone?

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