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Not a chance Halifax or Saskatoon get NHL teams. Considering there are cities like Quebec City, Seattle, Las Vegas, Atlanta, Kansas City, etc. without teams why would the NHL move to a small Canadian city? Toronto will get another team and Atlanta would likely get a new team before either of these destinations are considered.
Halifax should try for a CFL team and an ECHL/AHL team before they try to go big.
Halifax has basically said no for the 2nd time to building a stadium that could potentially hosue a CFL team. Its not going to happen. Ever.
both Halifax and Saskatoon should stick to Major Junior, they have a good thing going, NHL is too expensive now, small markets are at a huge disadvantage .. they could be solid AHL franchises but in my opinion AHL would be a downgrade from the Q or WHL
Are we seriously gonna have a thread like this for every tiny Canadian town?
Funny thing is cities like Saskatoon and Halix would by no means be at the bottom pool of the league in revenue.
The guy who mentioned tv revenue hit the hammer. However that can't be too strong of an argument. If we're looking at this seriously, what are the odds of Halifax and Winnipeg both making it to the final in the same season? Now let's say that does happen, what are the odds it repeats itself really?
The Wings and Pens are the only teams that matched up twice in the Cup final in the last 20 years...
They way the current economics are in North America, what the NHL deems an acceptable market size, and the plethora of large markets that are untapped, I don't think the NHL will come to Halifax any time soon.
What about the idea of an alternate league, much like the WHA in a sense? Use large markets that don't have NHL teams. They shouldn't try to compete with the NHL in revenue, but maybe create a pure for the love of hockey league.
Teams could be located in Milwaukee, Las Vegas, Seattle, Portland, Houston, Atlanta, Halifax, Saskatoon, Regina, Toronto, Quebec City, etc...
That is not proof. Not at all. Cities like Halifax and Saskatoon simply don't have the population or corporate power to support a team in the NHL. Years from now things could change, but for the time being these cities will have to wait.
I would like to see how they would do with a CFL team first.
But in theory it could work. As others have mentioned, you need some level of corporate support. I think Saskatchewan is stronger than the Maritimes in that regard, and Sask isnt very strong.
Seems sill to talk about Halifax when Quebec City isnt official yet, and Hamilton/Toronto 2 doesnt have a team yet.
I guess if it was going to have happened it wouldve done so quite some time ago, the Irving Oil family leading the charge. If they combined with the McCain clan got together & the city got its act together then maybe. Long shot sure but absolutely they have the history, fans & geographic criteria thats at least intriguing.
Someone mentioned a "Donut King" up-page, Ron Joyce of Tim Hortons fame who moved to the eastcoast & built a luxury golf resort destination hotel. I doubt very much if he'd be interested, his experiences in going after a team for his hometown of Hamilton in the 80's and early 90's a beyond disappointing adventure. No love lost for the NHL in how they conduct business.
They way the current economics are in North America, what the NHL deems an acceptable market size, and the plethora of large markets that are untapped, I don't think the NHL will come to Halifax any time soon.
What about the idea of an alternate league, much like the WHA in a sense? Use large markets that don't have NHL teams. They shouldn't try to compete with the NHL in revenue, but maybe create a pure for the love of hockey league.
Teams could be located in Milwaukee, Las Vegas, Seattle, Portland, Houston, Atlanta, Halifax, Saskatoon, Regina, Toronto, Quebec City, etc...
Halifax would need an NHL-sized arena, and the city is very lackluster when it comes to supporting these kinds of things (see: lack of a CFL-capable field, despite the league courting them for years, lack of a significant major concert site, lack of support for a soccer field for FIFA, etc...)
Plus the region is more than happy to support the Q league, Halifax and Moncton are preinnially among the leaders in attendance and fan support. This was a strong AHL market for many years before the price got too rich, and I don't think would take well to paying $100-200 a ticket just to see an NHL game when they can support the juniors for a fraction of the cost.
I wouldnt mind seeing the NHL comes here 1-2 rg season games a year as 'event' (see: Touchdown Atlantic, or a similar project they did in the 90s), but the Maritimes wouldn't bear an NHL team....and especially not Halifax (Moncton would be more suitable, but that's not happening either)
They way the current economics are in North America, what the NHL deems an acceptable market size, and the plethora of large markets that are untapped, I don't think the NHL will come to Halifax any time soon.
What about the idea of an alternate league, much like the WHA in a sense? Use large markets that don't have NHL teams. They shouldn't try to compete with the NHL in revenue, but maybe create a pure for the love of hockey league.
Teams could be located in Milwaukee, Las Vegas, Seattle, Portland, Houston, Atlanta, Halifax, Saskatoon, Regina, Toronto, Quebec City, etc...
If you're going for a love of hockey league why would you have half the league in the American south?
As others have laughed at, no.... Saskatoon isn't on anyone's realistic short list, and neither is Halifax.
Truth be told, I do think Halifax would be a better option for the NHL then Saskatoon (if they had an area), but even if both markets had modern arenas they'd still likely be behind a bunch of other cities, Canadian and American, in the NHL's wishlist of markets to target.
If the NHL is planning a two-team expansion any time soon, I wouldn't be at all surprised to see proposals put forward from both Saskatoon and Halifax, but I'm really doubting that either would make the final cut.
Yeah, exactly.
Halifax >> Saskatoon. But I never heard of Saskatoon being on anyone's short-list.
There are plenty of Canadian and American cities that are more viable.
Examples include: Quebec City, Seattle, Houston, Milwaukee, Hamilton, Torontox2, etc.
Halifax and Saskatoon are very viable but the league's right when saying that on a 20 year a team in Las Vegas or Kansas City would make more money. But Halifax and Saskatoon would make more for at least 10 years.
Give it to Moncton. Halifax will rush it, screw the entire structuring of their economic balance up, have the team go under, and ask questions later. It's the story of Halifax and Nova Scotia in general. Stupid city council, government, and very unsupportive people when we don't have a winning team. Look at the Mooseheads for example. Only until we started winning again this year did people start attending games. Much like most cities, but this city in particular makes me almost sick to my stomach sometimes with it's inability to build on anything or take a successful step forward without screwing everything else up around it. Hey, we can always be proud that Stephen Harper let us have that ship building contract. Ships Start Here, but nothing else will for at least 20 more years.
After looking at google maps (distances between cities) and population size.
I feel the Maritimes as a whole could succeed.
There's also 200-300,000 people who live in Labrador, 10% of which I wouldn't be surprised to make the day trek to see an NHL game once a year.
I mean, let's be honest, how are the Maritimes in a negative compared to Winnipeg?
I'm also going to bring up Maine in this too. Certainly not the South-west but it wouldn't surprise me to see people make the 6-7 hour journey from that the U.S. either.
The issue here would be success. I'm not so sure a team in the Maritimes would support a losing franchise for a decade.
I also agree with Moncton, more open space to build an arena and more central to the population area.
Halifax has basically said no for the 2nd time to building a stadium that could potentially hosue a CFL team. Its not going to happen. Ever.
Half-true. They said no to building a stadium for the 2015 women's world cup but will continue to pursue the possibility. Which is for the best, what they were proposing for the WWC wouldn't have been suitable for the CFL anyway.
