It's Speculation Time!

[Esquire 324]

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=343627

Okey dokey! Well, it appears as if the Teacher's Pension Plan Board is 'interested in selling its share of MLSE' and that Rogers Communications has been rumored to be the most vocal about wanting said shares.

Just for fun, do you see this as a new lease on life for the Jim Balsillie attempt to bring a second team into the Greater Toronto Area? OR perhaps...getting SOLD the Leafs???

A huge hurdle for the Balsillie camp was the apparent 'veto' that a team like the Leafs were speculated to have. I don't recall if such a think exists, but I'm quite sure that current Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment head honcho Richard Peddie has pull on this issue with Bettman and the NHL.

Although, now Peddie has just announced he's stepping down...

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/teams/story/?id=343495&hubname=nhl-maple_leafs

So, with a new leader and possibly new owners for MLSE, can this be a golden opportunity for Jim Balsillie to realize his dream? Rogers and RIM have an existing relationship and if Rogers owns the Leafs, do they allow Jim to bring another team in the market or maybe even sell him the Leafs?

[T-Ruff 47]

I would love to see it happen (another team in Toronto) and Jimmy Balsillie certainly deserves a team... Your hypothetical situation does make some logical sense, of course it's just speculation, but an interesting thought. I personally think a 2nd Toronto team is inevitable and will happen within 20 years or less though.

[Konnan511 1,736]

Hamilton needs a team, that's about it.

[cusimano_brothers 1,655]

Will not happen. But, because of the Peddie announcement, if I were part of the dance team of Burke & Wilson, I would be very nervous.

[eva unit zero 271]

Hamilton needs a team, that's about it.

Ann Arbor needs one just as much as Hamilton. Both are in areas capable of supporting a team that have a population which is highly interested in hockey.

Ann Arbor is too close to Detroit, you say? You say that Ann Arbor shouldn't get an NHL team for this reason?

Hamilton is about the same distance from Buffalo, and only half that from Toronto. Guess that should apply there too shouldn't it?

The Detroit metro area has roughly the same population as the GTA. Detroit metro doesn't even include Ann Arbor, and we haven't even started talk places which are within an hour's drive of Ann Arbor such as Toledo, Flint, and Lansing.

But one of the real problems with this is this fact; Buffalo draws a lot of their attendance from across the border. If Hamilton gets a team, that goes away and so do the Sabres. Is it worth it to put a team in Hamilton if you know going in that you are killing another existing team by doing it? It would be as if the Bruins had joined the league ten years after the Whalers. The Whalers would have drawn a large portion of their fan base from Boston, and then lost a large part of it when the Bruins joined.

Put a team in Hamilton and Buffalo takes is hard up the ass, and probably ends up in Quebec or Winnipeg - if the Yotes aren't back in town as the Jets again.

[Konnan511 1,736]

Ann Arbor needs one just as much as Hamilton. Both are in areas capable of supporting a team that have a population which is highly interested in hockey.

Ann Arbor is too close to Detroit, you say? You say that Ann Arbor shouldn't get an NHL team for this reason?

Hamilton is about the same distance from Buffalo, and only half that from Toronto. Guess that should apply there too shouldn't it?

The Detroit metro area has roughly the same population as the GTA. Detroit metro doesn't even include Ann Arbor, and we haven't even started talk places which are within an hour's drive of Ann Arbor such as Toledo, Flint, and Lansing.

But one of the real problems with this is this fact; Buffalo draws a lot of their attendance from across the border. If Hamilton gets a team, that goes away and so do the Sabres. Is it worth it to put a team in Hamilton if you know going in that you are killing another existing team by doing it? It would be as if the Bruins had joined the league ten years after the Whalers. The Whalers would have drawn a large portion of their fan base from Boston, and then lost a large part of it when the Bruins joined.

Put a team in Hamilton and Buffalo takes is hard up the ass, and probably ends up in Quebec or Winnipeg - if the Yotes aren't back in town as the Jets again.

Anti-trust laws won't let another team in Michigan.

[eva unit zero 271]

Anti-trust laws won't let another team in Michigan.

I don't think you understand what an antitrust law is.

[Konnan511 1,736]

I don't think you understand what an antitrust law is.

I don't think you understand what sports anti-trust laws are.

[PavelValerievichDatsyuk 1,935]

As someone from London, Ontario I always thought they could support a team. I mean people are crazy about the Knights. It's almost directly in between Toronto, Buffalo, and Detroit so it wouldn't interfere with any market as much as Hamilton.

Edited December 2, 2010 by PavelValerievichDatsyuk

[selkie 10]

I don't think you understand what sports anti-trust laws are.

Territory rights are something like 100km in the NHL. Go Grand Rapids would be a live relocation option if they could expand Van Andel to 17K seats (and honestly if they could, the demographics of that market for NHL play are actually better than a number of the usual suspects like Winnipeg); Milwaukee is kind of iffy depending on your measuring points re: chicago, and I don't remember the Hamilton geography.

Disney paid a pretty good chunk of change to the Kings when Anaheim entered the league, and the talk in the 90s of moving the Whale or Lightning to the Palace was pretty much killed because Illich could demand enough of a territory infringement fee to make the whole thing cost-prohibitive.

[Wombat 26]

It's not just pure population that determines which cities can support teams, but the number of people that want to and can afford to support professional hockey. In that way, even though the population numbers might be similar, I would argue that Toronto could support 3 NHL teams before Detroit could support 2. As it is, I would like to see Toronto metro get a 2nd team. I don't like the idea of Hamilton getting a team as it would impact the Sabres and Hamilton, from what I've seen, is sort of a downsizing post-industrial town. I'd like to see another team in the northern Toronto suburbs, such as Vaughn.