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Originally Posted by BlackDog204
The Winnipeg Jets only averaged 11,400 people in their lame duck 1995-96 season, when fans knew they were moving to Arizona.
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To say nothing of the dismal crowds the Expos garnered in their final years.
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Originally Posted by esquire
One thing to consider about leagues adding more teams - eventually you get to a point where many teams will have fans living their entire lives without seeing their club win a championship.
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This hasn't really prevented teams like Toronto, Buffalo, Vancouver, and previously the Rangers and Blackhawks from having good fanbases despite not winning championships. The Cubs are another example. There's a fine balance between consumer (fan) expectation and tolerance. Put out a decent product and people will usually flock regardless. Be somewhat competitive and people will still come out.
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Originally Posted by thurmas
Exactly this is why I never understood the sunbelt strategy while there were several pockets in the U.S. which had long traditions of popular AHL, college and junior hockey that the NHL never looked more closely at or just recently started getting into.
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Because many of those markets were either within or overlapped with current NHL markets, or were failed NHL markets in the past. Milwaukee is too close to Chicago, as one obvious example. I don't doubt a team in Milwaukee would do exceptionally well but I can't imagine the Blackhawks being tremendously on-board. Places like Hershey, Rochester, etc. simply aren't going to get NHL teams any time soon, and going directly up against college teams isn't overly wise (as numerous gridiron leagues have tried in the south).
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Originally Posted by isaidso
Can you imagine a scene like that at the University of Toronto? It won't happen in our lifetime because Torontonians just don't care as much as they do about sports or football.
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Perhaps this isn't a Toronto issue and moreso an issue of university sport being nonexistent north of the border.
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