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Originally Posted by JHikka
I think a lot of it ties in to the current issues revolving around HC. Not only have they been negligent on items such as SA and other internal matters but they've also been stagnant in attempting to grow the game or build the game in any meaningful fashion, or even attempting to maintain the game in a way to ensure its future. When was the last time the CHL net-added a new team that wasn't a relocation? 15 years ago? They have nearly no presence in some of this country's largest cities and show no signs of returning there. A lack of proper leadership at HC is one root cause of this. At this point there's no reason to believe that hockey isn't moving in the same direction as other sports in this country - university in the US proving a more viable option than that of junior in Canada. The more schools the US adds the more spots there'll be, whether they're in Minnesota, Missouri, or Arizona.
At this point I think it's safe to say that the CHL could probably cut a few teams and not really see any immediate downside, but that's another discussion.
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In some respects, NCAA hockey is not that different from the CHL in terms of where it does best. It tends to thrive in places without NHL teams. There are certain exceptions in both cases, but by and large this is true. The big advantage that the NCAA has is that there are way more population centres in the US without NHL teams.
The CHL is already in all the large Canadian markets, St. John's is the only top-20 metro without a team and that's just because of the travel costs associated with their isolation. On the whole, the large market western teams (including Vancouver) do reasonably well in terms of attendance, team profile, etc., especially considering the pros have centre stage. Ottawa-Gatineau is similar. It's really just Toronto and Montreal where you have CHL teams being afterthoughts in the market, and I don't know how you can really pin that on the CHL.
Ultimately I think junior hockey is about places like Sherbrooke and Lethbridge. That's their bread and butter, much like how the NCAA's hockey strongholds are places like Grand Forks and Madison.
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