Balsillie group accuses Bettman of forcing Preds to break off talks

[Dixie Wingslover 0]

If there was any justice in the NHL...there would be some serious relocation of franchises.

Hamilton Predators

Winnipeg Thrashers (Renamed as the Jets if the Coyotes surrender copyrights to name and logo). So Long Atlanta.

Wisconsin Panthers (Home games played in Milwaukee) Panthers are not native to the Wisconsin region...perhaps call them the Wisconsin Lakers, Bull Moose, or Warriors. I don't know. The Panthers need to leave Miami.

Quebec Coyotes. (Renamed Nordiques if the Avalanche surrender copyrights to name and logo). Bye Phoenix.

Salt Lake City Capitals. (Since SLC is the capital of Utah...the name can stay). Bye Washington, DC.

New Division Re-alignments:

EASTERN CONFERENCE:

Atlantic Division

Boston Bruins

Carolina Hurricanes

New Jersey Devils

New York Islanders

New York Rangers

Philadelphia Flyers

Pittsburgh Penguins

Tampa Bay Lightning

Northeast Division

Buffalo Sabres

Columbus Blue Jackets

Hamilton Predators

Montreal Canadians

Ottawa Senators

Quebec City NHL Team

Toronto Maple Leafs

WESTERN CONFERENCE

Midwest Division

Chicago Black Hawks

Dallas Stars

Detroit Red Wings

Minnesota Wild

St. Louis Blues

Winnipeg NHL Team

Wisconsin NHL Team

Pacific Coast Division

Anaheim Ducks

Calgary Flames

Colorado Avalanche

Edmonton Oilers

Los Angeles Kings

Salt Lake City NHL Team

San Jose Sharks

Vancouver Canucks

BTW..... Detroit is EST time zone..... all the others in your Midwest Division are CST

[Dixie Wingslover 0]

What if Leopold had no intention of selling the team at all? This could just have been a way to get the community and city to fork over some more cash..... make it look like they were gonna lose the team, while Leopold lines his pockets some more. I mean, come on..... as far as B of G goes, he's been Bettmans B**ch for forever...... Voting whichever way that GB tell hims to. I have a hard time believing that he is losing all that money he is crying about..... especially with the revenue sharing now..... and all the other cash streams from that team. Methinks he doth protest too much.

[Legionnaire11 0]

What if Leopold had no intention of selling the team at all? This could just have been a way to get the community and city to fork over some more cash..... make it look like they were gonna lose the team, while Leopold lines his pockets some more. I mean, come on..... as far as B of G goes, he's been Bettmans B**ch for forever...... Voting whichever way that GB tell hims to. I have a hard time believing that he is losing all that money he is crying about..... especially with the revenue sharing now..... and all the other cash streams from that team. Methinks he doth protest too much.

I've thought about that before. I think most of us would really despise him for that. Now I think he could work out a deal with the local group where he stays on as part owner (51% or 49% which ever he wants), and we could live with that and it still ends up beinga really good deal.

But if he doesn't sell at all, that's a bad, bad move.

[Hiei 192]

There have been more and more Recent Rumors of Quebec City getting a new, Bigger arena (that was the big thing with the Colisee Pepsi, as well as what appeared to be a 80's/90's Canadian industrial downsizing.

[Guest jaytan]

Why the hell should Salt Lake City get an NHL team? Hell, I'd almost prefer Nashville keep their team than see a team sprout up in that town.

Without taking the easy route and bashing Utah, I'll just say that SLC is a small town, they already have a major league team that plays during the NHL season, and it's not a hockey city by any means. There are probably ten markets (at least) more deserving of an NHL franchise.

[Kp-Wings 3]

Why the hell should Salt Lake City get an NHL team? Hell, I'd almost prefer Nashville keep their team than see a team sprout up in that town.

Without taking the easy route and bashing Utah, I'll just say that SLC is a small town, they already have a major league team that plays during the NHL season, and it's not a hockey city by any means. There are probably ten markets (at least) more deserving of an NHL franchise.

It's still better than Nashville.

My number one choice is Houston. Second biggest city in Texas behind Dallas, has a few minor league teams already, has a new arena, and a decent hockey following. Plus, I think Texas needs another team, as it's a big enough state to do so, and Houston is a big city. Not to take anything away from the Stars, but another team in Houston would be good for the state in general.

My 2nd choice is Las Vegas. It's one of the biggest cities in the country, has plenty of Canadian and northern transplants, and would be a good place for a team in my opinion.

I'd give 20 cities a team before I give Nashville a team again. It's not a southern bias thing either. Note my two examples are both southern cities. I have my reasons for not liking Nashville.

edited for grammar

Edited July 27, 2007 by Kp-Wings

[drwscc 212]

I think you're wrong on Houston. They have the Texans for cripes sake, and people still go to the games in droves. They (I include myself, even though I don't live there) supported the Oilers for years. The Houston LAstros have always had awesome fan support as well.

I went to an Aeros game (the AHL affiliate of the Wild) game last year against the Griffs, and the place was packed. Maybe not a sellout, but it was pretty close. Houston actually would probably be a pretty good market.

[haroldsnepsts 4,826]

It's still better than Nashville.

My number one choice is Houston. Second biggest city in Texas behind Dallas, has a few minor league teams already, has a new arena, and a decent hockey following. Plus, I think Texas needs another team, as it's a big enough state to do so, and Houston is a big city. Not to take anything away from the Stars, but another team in Houston would be good for the state in general.

My 2nd choice is Las Vegas. It's one of the biggest cities in the country, has plenty of Canadian and northern transplants, and would be a good place for a team in my opinion.

I'd give 20 cities a team before I give Nashville a team again. It's not a southern bias thing either. Note my two examples are both southern cities. I have my reasons for not liking Nashville.

edited for grammar

Actually Houston is the largest city in Texas, and fourth largest in the country.

EDIT: After looking it up, I see Dallas is considered larger if you're going by "metropolitan area" which would include the DFW and Arlington population, which may have been what you meant.

I'm not sure how well a team would do there, but just by sheer number of northern transplants to the area, it seems like it would have a better shot at success than Nashville. Plus there is a ton of money in Houston.

Vegas is always interesting to me, because as someone mentioned, why haven't any other pro teams gone there? I think there's probably a reason.

Edited July 27, 2007 by haroldsnepsts

[lfd250 1]

Have to say no to houston, been to a couple of AHL games there or what ever they're calling it now, and it has a small following. Ave 6000 ish for the size of the arena (they share the houston rockets bb) and the city it's not enought

[Legionnaire11 0]

I'd give 20 cities a team before I give Nashville a team again.

haha, i'd like to see that list

[Opie 308]

I didn't make the original post and I am not for the moving of the preds, yet.

However I can make a list of cities more deserving than Nashville:

Hartford (the whale leaving was based on building issues not attendance)

Hamilton (especially when you factor in that the US $ and Canadian $ are almost =)

Vegas (I know, the trouble that would cause, etc.)

Portland (Is probably the riskiest on my list, could be another Nashville, but there is interest in Hockey there and has been since the last expansion).

Houston (hockey is big in Dallas, to a stretch to say it would take off in Houston)

Green Bay (Hockey is huge in Wisconsin)

Quebec (Viva la Nordique, sorry I don't speak french)

Kind of rudimentary list but, those are the cities off the top of my head that I would give a team over Nashville IF the were contemplating putting a team there. Seeing as there is already a team there, they should give them a minimum of 15 years to build the franchise.

Edited July 27, 2007 by Opie

[betterREDthandead 58]

Have to say no to houston, been to a couple of AHL games there or what ever they're calling it now, and it has a small following. Ave 6000 ish for the size of the arena (they share the houston rockets bb) and the city it's not enought

6,000 is decent for a minor league team. I wouldn't expect the minors to routinely fill up a major league arena. I used to go to Norfolk Admirals games when I lived there and they probably averaged about half that, and that's with routine promotions like discounts for large military groups and families and such. And that was enough to keep the team running fairly strong.

I'd definitely call Houston the #1 choice for any future expansion or moved team. It's too big a city for the NHL not to have a presence, and from what others have said, they have a very respectable youth hockey program there. I thought we had squashed this Hartford talk once and for all, but I guess not.

Cities I'd rather see an NHL team in, instead of Nashville? Not many. I'm rarely in favor of moving existing teams. I think by virtue of having an established team with established fans (yes, Nashville has fans), you are "more deserving" than a city without a team. And I can also think of a few teams that ought to move instead of the Predators.

[hawkupaloogie 0]

I didn't make the original post and I am not for the moving of the preds, yet.

However I can make a list of cities more deserving than Nashville:

Green Bay (Hockey is huge in Wisconsin)

first off, if a team ended up in wisconsin, it wouldn't be in green bay. it's probably be in milwaukee, maybe madison. secondly, hockey is far from huge in wisconsin. wisconsin is a die hard football state, with baseball coming in second. most of the wisconsinites i've met up here at northern never went to or even watched a hockey game until they went to the wildcat games here. the badgers pull in decent numbers, but even though they've had great success over the past few years (both men's and women's), they're still vastly overshadowed by football and ncaa basketball. the admirals don't get bad attendance, but it's not great, either (last season, they averaged 5700). in short, i doubt an nhl team would do much better in wisconsin than the preds have in nashville.

[Legionnaire11 0]

Kind of rudimentary list but, those are the cities off the top of my head that I would give a team over Nashville IF the were contemplating putting a team there. Seeing as there is already a team there, they should give them a minimum of 15 years to build the franchise.

There are definitely cities that would probably get better attendance than Nashville. But like you say, at least give us our chance to build a fan base. 8 seasons? how is that enough? We've got to have time for the kids to grow up with the franchise and establish themselves to the point where they have disposable income to spend on hockey tickets. It will happen, you just have to give it time. This isn't an area where a lot of long time SEC football fans are going to jump on board right away if ever, but it's an area with tremendous growth and obviously the youth have caught on to hockey and the Predators. Pulling out now would be terrible. If we've already got a base of 12,000 or so fans from the start, imagine what it will be like when the youth grows up and can join in with that ticket buying base. and then another generation after that, and another, and another... exactly what you see in all of the established markets. see, St. Louis and Los Angeles when those teams are good. not exactly traditional hockey markets when they first arrived, but now, everyone accepts them without a second thought.

[Kp-Wings 3]

Green Bay is one of the worst choices I've ever seen. Clearly you're going more by the cities latitude lines on a map rather than if it actually cares about the sport of hockey.

I also don't care much for Quebec City as a possible desitination. Sure, Lindros is a dickhead, but there's a reason he didn't want to play there: hardly anyone in the city speaks english. Unless you can somehow ice a team of all french-speaking canadians, it won't work out, because they won't be able to draw players.

[Opie 308]

Wow my bad on the Wisconsin thing.

I could have sworn I was listening to sports radio during the Frozen four last year or the year before and they were talking about unbelievable hockey support in Wisconsin.

Maybe I misheard them and they were just talking about CCHA, not hockey in general.

So take that one off of my list.

[w00p33 2]

Yeah, I'd love to delude myself into thinking NHL would work in WI, but at best it would have a half-life of about 3 years and you would quickly see it in as bad a state as Nashville. Could it work, yes; would it work, probably not. Statewide support for football is so huge here that it drowns out the (small) areas of the state that truly are hockey hotbeds.