Interesting Article about Bettman's thoughts of expansion

[bruins72]

Check out this article. Bettman is thinking about expanding even though there were low ratings for the latest Stanley Cup finals and the NHL still isn't thriving.

My favorite line of the article was...

"Look, if the league wants to further strangle itself with expansion, why not Chicago? It hasn’t had a team since Bill Wirtz disbanded the Blackhawks in the mid-1990s."

I'm sure Minty will appreciate that one!

[B. Stinson]

My favorite line:

"If this wasn’t the NHL, we’d think it was a joke." I think this can be applied to every single aspect of the NHL.

As for the article... I personally am so against an expansion, that I will make this statement official - right here, right now: If the NHL expands, especially to Las Vegas and Kansas City, I will completely denounce my following of the league. If just one team gets added to the league, I will send out one big "F- You!" to bettman, all of bettman's minions, every team, every owner, and every human whose name is associated with the three letters N, H, and L... and I'll toss every gram of my fandom in the trash, and leave.

I'm already a huge NFL fan, and a big soccer fan... so loosing the NHL will hardly be a dent in my sports entertainment.


P.S. I don't sound bitter about the NHL, do I?

[laskey 16]

Man, Gary Bettman sucks. he's making a mockery of the sport. Is it just me who thinks that only Bettman is the only person as stupid as GW Bush?

[B. Stinson]

Is it just me who thinks that only Bettman is the only person as stupid as GW Bush?

To be honest, I'm gonna say bettman is worse. Simply because his stupidity is coming in such rapid succession. It seems like every week he has some new wacky idea about how to help the league... and his ideas will either do nothing for the league(i.e. new uniform style), or they'll end up hurting the league(i.e. adding more teams for the league to pay for).

By the way, does anyone know why bettman is so dead-set on giving teams to ridiculously obscure U.S. cities, while obvious hardcore cities in Canada are being completely ignored?

[CatchUp]

Awesome article, thanks for posting B72.

Unbelievable really - that Buttman is considering expanding again. So what for 2009-10 Nashville moves to the Hammer and KC and Vegas get teams?

[batdad]

Ariticle is really funny when you consider that in Bettman's State of The League address 2 weeks ago during the Stanley Cup Final he emphatically stated the league was not looking at expanding at all.

However, viritol towards "Bettman" wanting to expand is not necessarily the way to go here. The OWNERS want to expand, and Buttman is just the voice. Through the last 30 years, the NHL owners have always gone for the fast expansion fee over the proper establishment of weak market teams (Atlanta, Nashville, Florida, Tampa, Carolina, and yes Anaheim, LA, Dallas) in proper situations. The league onwers would rather 20 mill in their pockets from expansion in KC, Vegas (if they are markets) than to move a team that is struggling into a market that would work. Not sure if KC or Vegas would work...those are just examples.

Seattle, Portland, Winterpeg, Q-City, may work--but get the house in order and move the teams that are struggling there, not add new ones, which although lines pockets in short term, drags on the league in long term, both in terms of talent level and finances.

NHL OWNERS need to quit trying to make the quick $ grab, and get the house in order and stable.

[B. Stinson]

and Buttman is just the voice.

Which is just one more reason why he's such a moron. ...No leadership at all.

[bruins72]

Man, Gary Bettman sucks. he's making a mockery of the sport. Is it just me who thinks that only Bettman is the only person as stupid as GW Bush?

You know two things that are almost always bound to cause heated arguments? Politics and religion. Why don't we keep our political opinions out of the hockey talk?

[bruins72]

Ariticle is really funny when you consider that in Bettman's State of The League address 2 weeks ago during the Stanley Cup Final he emphatically stated the league was not looking at expanding at all.

However, viritol towards "Bettman" wanting to expand is not necessarily the way to go here. The OWNERS want to expand, and Buttman is just the voice. Through the last 30 years, the NHL owners have always gone for the fast expansion fee over the proper establishment of weak market teams (Atlanta, Nashville, Florida, Tampa, Carolina, and yes Anaheim, LA, Dallas) in proper situations. The league onwers would rather 20 mill in their pockets from expansion in KC, Vegas (if they are markets) than to move a team that is struggling into a market that would work. Not sure if KC or Vegas would work...those are just examples.

Seattle, Portland, Winterpeg, Q-City, may work--but get the house in order and move the teams that are struggling there, not add new ones, which although lines pockets in short term, drags on the league in long term, both in terms of talent level and finances.

NHL OWNERS need to quit trying to make the quick $ grab, and get the house in order and stable.

I was all for Pittsburgh moving to one of those two markets the article mentioned. That being said, I'm not for expansion ANYWHERE! The league is already suffering from a serious dilution of the talent pool. There just aren't enough players of the right caliber to have the teams as good as they should be. The quality of hockey isn't what it should be. Back when they had the year the league was shutdown, I was actually hoping that they would contract. I think it would've been much better for the league if they had cut out a couple of the teams that really weren't finding a following in their market, particularly teams in warm climates. Do we really need 3 teams in California? Do we need two in Florida? No, we don't. Geographically, there may be a decent distance between the teams but those communities just don't love hockey like some others.

[laskey 16]

Sorry, guess I shouldnt have brought politics into this. Won't happen again!

Like B. Stinston says, why not move the failing US teams to Canada where they're bound to have financial success? Instead of trying to get new audiences and failing, why not just use the existing, hungry hockey markets that are there waiting without as team? In my opinion I can see the NHL moving to Europe or Asia in 10 or 20 years time, and this is a question I last week posed to thehockeynews.com 's Adam Proteau, who disagrees to a degree. If Bettman or the league brass do want to get new audiences then they will probably move there, as hockey is much more popular in Sweden, Russia and Germany than it is in Nashville or other southern US cities. And whilst a move outside North America would be a slap in the face to NHL tradition, Bettman's done that before.

[bruins72]

I agree that the NHL style and quality of hockey would do quite well in some hockey hotbeds outside of North America. The only fault I find in that plan is that because of travel distances, it would be like to separate leagues. You'd have NHL North America and NHL World. The teams might have a short road trip where they travel to play the other league but for the most part they'd be separate. Plus, with time zone differences, you might not people to even watch the other teams on TV. If the North American fans can't be bothered to watch hockey at normal times, I highly doubt they'll watch a game at 3AM. I just don't know if it could work. Sure, the fans would be there for those teams but I don't see how it would work as part of a league.

[laskey 16]

True. I agree that it would be tough to implement and I dont thnik it should happen, but if there's money in it I'm sure Bettman will consider it.

[jackknife77]

There is no reset button for this league?

There is my list of USA teams I would keep.. the other teams.. byebye.
New Jersey
Boston
New york Islanders and Rangers
Buffalo
Philadephia
Pittsburgh
Washington
Chicago
Colorado
Columbus
Minnesota
Dallas
Detroit
LA Kings
St-Louis
San Jose

[Minstrel]

"Look, if the league wants to further strangle itself with expansion, why not Chicago? It hasn’t had a team since Bill Wirtz disbanded the Blackhawks in the mid-1990s."

Yeah except it was actually the mid-80's but who's counting

I'm not surprised by this stupid talk from Bettman as voice of the league office, remember he thinks the NBA is the world's greatest league and is the best example to follow and tries to make the NHL more like it. Don't bother emulating a successful league like the NFL, go after the one with the on and off court problems, waning attendance, game that even people that love the game have abandoned, has major image problems etc. Blinded by dollar signs... Buttman's NHL is the league that does everything wrong. So of course they'll expand and of course it will be Kansas City and Vegas.

I think Vegas would be an interesting relocation spot for the league to trailblaze into, but adding teams? Hmm I guess this all goes back to the article leaked from the league (that they claimed never existed) saying they were going to re-align the league TBL Thread and there was a mysterious unblance between the Conferences, with one needing two teams to balance it out So, yes this is probably already a done deal.

[bruins72]

Now that I think of it, expansion could help some teams in one way. They can leave some of their overpaid and underachieving players unprotected and hope they get taken in the expansion draft. Can you say "across the board salary dumps"?