Quote:
Originally Posted by Franco401
Much like the NHL sailed on Winnipeg in 1996, the Bay Area in 1974 and Ohio in 1976?
|
The Bay Area (California Golden Seals) lost their team in 1976, and Ohio (Cleveland Barons) lost their team in 1978. Having said that, I would love to see Hamilton get an NHL franchise, but the likelihood of that happening is not good. There is just too much money in the GTA, and potential ownership groups, who want a second team in the suburbs of Toronto, and have the money to build a 18,000 seat arena (i.e. Markham or Vaughan), that will prevent that from happening.
Winnipeg was extremely lucky that we had an ownership group that did their due diligence, and played by the NHL rules, as Atlanta and Phoenix were without local ownership, and in the Atlanta case, were without a home. The sad thing is that if Balsillie had acted like Chipman, and not rubbed the NHL owners the wrong way, the Hamilton area would ahve had an NHL team by 2009 at the latest.
Threaded Mode