Nashville sale in jeopardy...

[Winged Scooter 0]

Sometimes they crack 10,000 when the fiddle contest is held at "halftime".

**** Insert Deliverance/"Squeal Like a Pig" joke here ****

[NKYWingsFan 4]

Y'all need to lay off Southerners just a bit. It is this kind of "go-play-your-fiddle-you-don't-know-jack-aboot-hockey-like-me-a-purebred-Wings-fan" crap that doesn't help the bigger cause; growing hockey.

Southerners have figured out how to make NASCAR successful in places like New Hampshire, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Why is it that NHL geniuses can't figure out how to make hockey successful in places like North Carolina, Tennessee, and Florida (minus the Lightning that is)?

[auxlepli 17]

OT: Saber-Toothed Cat Had Wimpy Bite http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/200710...cathadwimpybite

That's funny that story was just posted yesterday.

Wimpy bite, wimpy organization.

It's really hard to defend Bettman and his desire to keep the team there now.

[WingsZR2 1]

Instead, he has to watch his masterpiece play in front of 8,000 fans a night while most of the locals are either at a 'fiddle contest' or banjo lessens.

Sometimes they crack 10,000 when the fiddle contest is held at "halftime".

Being a northern transplant I want to point out the misconception of the music scene in Nashville. Country music is prevalent here as it should be but more and more mainstream artists are recording/living/performing here. A couple of weeks ago I saw Bob Dylan play at the historic Ryman Auditorium and Jack White came out and jammed with him. Manchester which is about 60 miles south of Nashville is home to Bonnaroo, the largest music festival in the US. Nashville has a lot to offer music fans outside of country, they just house a s***ty hockey team in a s***ty market.

[Winged Scooter 0]

Y'all need to lay off Southerners just a bit. It is this kind of "go-play-your-fiddle-you-don't-know-jack-aboot-hockey-like-me-a-purebred-Wings-fan" crap that doesn't help the bigger cause; growing hockey.

Southerners have figured out how to make NASCAR successful in places like New Hampshire, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Why is it that NHL geniuses can't figure out how to make hockey successful in places like North Carolina, Tennessee, and Florida (minus the Lightning that is)?

The marketing gurus at NASCAR are geniuses as far as I'm concerned. ( except that Dale Jr's new car is butt ugly...)

The NHL could learn a lot from NASCAR , the NFL, hell even pro wrestling. These are 3 groups that truly know how to market themselves.

And I do hope you realize that I was totally kidding about the deliverance comment. I couldn't help myself.

Edited October 2, 2007 by Winged Scooter

[Hank 0]

Y'all need to lay off Southerners just a bit. It is this kind of "go-play-your-fiddle-you-don't-know-jack-aboot-hockey-like-me-a-purebred-Wings-fan" crap that doesn't help the bigger cause; growing hockey.

Southerners have figured out how to make NASCAR successful in places like New Hampshire, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Why is it that NHL geniuses can't figure out how to make hockey successful in places like North Carolina, Tennessee, and Florida (minus the Lightning that is)?

The difference is that racing has roots in all those places you mentioned. And almost anyone I know has done at least raced on go-carts or bumper cars. Also more people can relate to racing because most people drive.

That's not the case with hockey.

It doesn't take a genius to figure out that most fans of a sport grew up with that sport. It's why soccer, cricket or rugby will always be huge in the UK or India but not in North America. It's the same reason that hockey's popular in certain areas of the states and not in others.

It's very, very hard to jam a sport down people's throats and expect them to like it. Hockey could exist in Nashville for the next 100 years and people still won't care about it. It's not in their social fabric.

I also have some theories on why NASCAR is very popular in some parts and I know some people won't like my opinion, but here goes: The main one is that it's nothing but white good-ole-boys. Hockey is almost all white but nearly 40% of them are European. Hillbilly Jack can't relate to Igor Frogolov, but he can sure relate to someone with 2 first names and ends in Jr.

Edited October 2, 2007 by Hank

[Donaldjr2448 43]

Here is why the NHL decided to come to Nashville in the first place. See in 1990 Saturn moved from Lake Orion to Spring Hill. Now at about that time the Wings were starting to make there turn into a dominate franchise again. Well the people that had moved down here to Tennessee were following hockey and the Wings more, so the NHL and a few locals thought hey we could compete with this and maybe hopefully some of the new locals and others will join us and make Nashville a hockey city and it almost worked until the city and the Predators got greedy and began to panic. this just shows that the cream will always rise to the top. I think Pollite had a great plan, it just blew up in his face because he got greedy and threw all his chips in lastyear and now wants out. It really sucks for me, because now I won't be able to see the Wings live unless I travel to St. Louis or Atlanta.

[NKYWingsFan 4]

I realize most are joking when it comes to the Deliverance/fiddlin'/tabaccy comments and that it is all in good fun.

What concerns me is the idea that hockey is a 'northern' sport, and that our non-ice hockey nut southern bretheren are never going to take hockey into their hearts quite the same way that the northern bretheren have. My comparison to NASCAR was an attempt to get people to think in a different direction.

Alexander Cartwright (of New York) started baseball in Manhattan.

James Naismith (of Ontario, Canada) started basketball in Massachusetts.

Football got started in the Ivy Leauge.

Ice hockey got started in Canada (Nova Scotia? Ontario?). It sucks that Nashvegas may lose their team, but it is only one of several down this-a-way (Atlanta, Florida, Tampa, Carolina). The ECHL has teams all over the southeast. Hockey will do just fine in the south.

[Hank 0]

I realize most are joking when it comes to the Deliverance/fiddlin'/tabaccy comments and that it is all in good fun.

What concerns me is the idea that hockey is a 'northern' sport, and that our non-ice hockey nut southern bretheren are never going to take hockey into their hearts quite the same way that the northern bretheren have. My comparison to NASCAR was an attempt to get people to think in a different direction.

Alexander Cartwright (of New York) started baseball in Manhattan.

James Naismith (of Ontario, Canada) started basketball in Massachusetts.

Football got started in the Ivy Leauge.

Ice hockey got started in Canada (Nova Scotia? Ontario?). It sucks that Nashvegas may lose their team, but it is only one of several down this-a-way (Atlanta, Florida, Tampa, Carolina). The ECHL has teams all over the southeast. Hockey will do just fine in the south.

I'm glad you realise that we're just joking around with the stereotypes. It's all in jest.

It's true that there are plenty of minor league, semi-pro teams in the south that are doing fine. But those leagues are a different bird compared to NHL hockey. First, the tickets are much, much cheaper. You can bring the whole family down, have a few pops and hotdogs and it probably won't cost more than $40.

Secondly, the hockey is much different too. Lots more fights, no defensive systems (well, not as much) so the hockey is a little more sloppy and results in more goals,more hits, and again, more fights.

This line of thinking even transcends into Canada where you have NHL cities, AHL cities and CHL cities. I live close to Windsor and it's a junior city through-and-through. The Spitfires do very well, but if the AHL came, it wouldn't do so hot.

In the end, trying to force pro hockey into the south hasn't worked the way the NHL had liked. Some teams were received pretty well (Lightning, Stars) and some not so well (Thrashers, Preds, Panthers).

This is why I hope the BOG and NHL Brass take this into consideration when they expand. Don't go to a market that doesn't have any strong ties to minor hockey (as in kids). There should be some grassroots programs already in place and a general love of the sport. That's why I'll always trumpet the push to states like the Dakota's, Wisconsin or Maine before KC or Nevada.

[Guest GordieSid&Ted]

I realize most are joking when it comes to the Deliverance/fiddlin'/tabaccy comments and that it is all in good fun.

What concerns me is the idea that hockey is a 'northern' sport, and that our non-ice hockey nut southern bretheren are never going to take hockey into their hearts quite the same way that the northern bretheren have. My comparison to NASCAR was an attempt to get people to think in a different direction.

Alexander Cartwright (of New York) started baseball in Manhattan.

James Naismith (of Ontario, Canada) started basketball in Massachusetts.

Football got started in the Ivy Leauge.

Ice hockey got started in Canada (Nova Scotia? Ontario?). It sucks that Nashvegas may lose their team, but it is only one of several down this-a-way (Atlanta, Florida, Tampa, Carolina). The ECHL has teams all over the southeast. Hockey will do just fine in the south.

Yeah, hockey can do just fine in the south I suppose. But lets not get carried away. Hockey is a northern sport. Its a european sport. Moreso than anything its a cold weather sport. Run your finger through Nevada across the country to the southern tip of Ohio. How many rinks are there north of that line and through Canada versus how many are south. how many teams are their north of that line versus south. There's a reason why tabaccy stereotypes and nascar jokes exist. Because there's truth in them. There's a reason why Nashville can't get 14,000 people on average to games but they can get 100,000+ people to watch cars go around in a circle.

I'm all for growing hockey into every nook and cranny of the US. But let's be honest about it. It's like saying soccer in the us is doing just fine. I guess depending on how you look at things maybe any glass can look half full.