Stadiums & Arenas of Canada, Part 3

[Coldrsx]

Does Halifax have the corporate depth and wealth for the top 10% of seats though.

Honest question.

[bridgeoftea]

Originally Posted by WhipperSnapper

I did say Halifax could fill a 15 to 20,000 seat venue as well. A second playoff bound team in just about any city of Toronto's size should be able to sellout games. The deal is a second GTA team will affect MLSE's valuation.

The nice thing about Halifax is they have places like Moncton 2 hours ish away which would attract ticket sales. Less with Fredericton / Saint John / Charlottetown. But you could see weekend games being popular for out of town fans.

[BlackRedGold]

Originally Posted by blueandgoldguy

To maximize Canada's next tv/streaming deal, Bettman and company will almost assuredly go with 2 networks instead of 1 - TSN and Sportsnet.

I think they go one sports tv network (TSN or Sportsnet) and one streaming service (Netflix, Prime, Apple, etc.)

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by blueandgoldguy

To maximize Canada's next tv/streaming deal, Bettman and company will almost assuredly go with 2 networks instead of 1 - TSN and Sportsnet. My early prediction is the new deal with be worth more annually than the old one.

Note that for the francophone market, TVA Sports was in the deal with Rogers, but then turned around and sold a bunch of games to RDS in a side deal.

TVA Sports kept the prime games for themselves, like Saturday night Habs games and all of their playoff games.

TSN has some weeknight Habs games plus games involving other teams.

One thing is that if the Nordiques were ever to return the value of NHL TV contracts in French would increase considerably.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by WhipperSnapper

I did say Halifax could fill a 15 to 20,000 seat venue as well. A second playoff bound team in just about any city of Toronto's size should be able to sellout games. The deal is a second GTA team will affect MLSE's valuation.

Halifax is a little light in terms of a population base to support an NHL team. The updated CMA population is a little over 500,000, probably with a little over 600,000 within an hour's drive.

The corporate base in Halifax also isn't that great. Sure, there are a lot of office towers in the core, but most offices are regional ones, with not too many corporate HQs. I don't know if these branch offices would feel up to paying the astronomical rates for corporate boxes in an NHL arena.

A Halifax team would be a risk, and Bettman has many other options, all across North America.

[optimusREIM]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Halifax is a little light in terms of a population base to support an NHL team. The updated CMA population is a little over 500,000, probably with a little over 600,000 within an hour's drive.

The corporate base in Halifax also isn't that great. Sure, there are a lot of office towers in the core, but most offices are regional ones, with not too many corporate HQs. I don't know if these branch offices would feel up to paying the astronomical rates for corporate boxes in an NHL arena.

A Halifax team would be a risk, and Bettman has many other options, all across North America.

Including quite a few untapped cities with large populations like Houston, Atlanta, KC, Cincinatti, Cleveland, Hartford, Milwaukee, Portland, SLC, Indianapolis, Charlotte... The point is there are a few larger markets without NHL teams that do not have them in the US. We could make a caveat for viability on some of those as well, but in terms of sheer numbers they could by the simple fact that many are large urban centers support NHL franchises.

[Berklon]

Halifax can't even get a CFL team - and people are wondering if they can get an NHL team?

[Jaws]

Originally Posted by WhipperSnapper

I did say Halifax could fill a 15 to 20,000 seat venue as well. A second playoff bound team in just about any city of Toronto's size should be able to sellout games. The deal is a second GTA team will affect MLSE's valuation.

MLSE can own two NHL teams

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by Berklon

Halifax can't even get a CFL team - and people are wondering if they can get an NHL team?

According to Danielle Smith the Flames might decamp for there at any time. Provided they become a useful enemy of Alberta to fear monger about that is.

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by EpicPonyTime

I've always heard the conspiracy theory that the provincial government favours Calgary over Edmonton when it comes to funding, because Edmonton tends to skewer left. Guess it's not much of a conspiracy theory.

If she wins and Edmonton is solid orange just wait for the pettiness quotient to go off the charts.

[Airboy]

Originally Posted by O-tacular

If she wins and Edmonton is solid orange just wait for the pettiness quotient to go off the charts.

I believe we are already seeing it. No Hospital anytime in the near future.

[TimB09]

Originally Posted by O-tacular

If she wins and Edmonton is solid orange just wait for the pettiness quotient to go off the charts.

Gotta buy those Calgary votes baby!

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by TimB09

Gotta buy those Calgary votes baby!

Yep. It's pathetic to watch. Will be even more pathetic if it works.

[TimB09]

Originally Posted by O-tacular

Yep. It's pathetic to watch. Will be even more pathetic if it works.

So bad. She's just a train wreck.

But the Flames aren't going anywhere. Anyone with half a brain should realize that. She's just saying something stupid again to scare her supporters or people who are on the fence about who to vote for.

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by TimB09

So bad. She's just a train wreck.

But the Flames aren't going anywhere. Anyone with half a brain should realize that. She's just saying something stupid again to scare her supporters or people who are on the fence about who to vote for.

If Gary Bettman couldn't scare us into bankrolling the arena, then Smith certainly won't be able to. I'm more suspicious of her intentions to remediate the creosote contamination in West Village. She was musing about some new technology or solution to deal with it. I can easily see some quid pro quo to one of her financial backers.

[TimB09]

Originally Posted by O-tacular

If Gary Bettman couldn't scare us into bankrolling the arena, then Smith certainly won't be able to. I'm more suspicious of her intentions to remediate the creosote contamination in West Village. She was musing about some new technology or solution to deal with it. I can easily see some quid pro quo to one of her financial backers.

Gotta have some kind of a kick back there if she's pushing for that to happen.

Is the West Village where they proposed the arena and new stadium for the Stamps?

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by TimB09

Gotta have some kind of a kick back there if she's pushing for that to happen.

Is the West Village where they proposed the arena and new stadium for the Stamps?

Exactly! Yes West Village was the proposed location for Calgary Next which was the Flames old proposal from years ago that was rejected due to the high costs of soil remediation as well as infrastructure upgrades. Victoria Park just north of the Saddledome is the current site where an agreement was reached for the new arena before the Flames walked away from the deal. The fact that they are now returning to their original vision (which was a lacklustre back of napkin powerpoint presentation) gives me little hope in any progress in negotiations. With Smith sticking her fat nose into the middle of the process I expect it to be even more chaotic and difficult to resolve.

[Jaws]

Originally Posted by Airboy

I believe we are already seeing it. No Hospital anytime in the near future.

A reminder that the last new one opened in 1989. And the Camsell closed in 1996. Down one hospital since 1990 with a 70% population increase. Sounds like a winning formula.

Calgary's had at least the south hospital and children's hospital open in the last 20 years.

Can't wait for Dani to ply the voters with some arena cash.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by optimusREIM

Including quite a few untapped cities with large populations like Houston, Atlanta, KC, Cincinatti, Cleveland, Hartford, Milwaukee, Portland, SLC, Indianapolis, Charlotte... The point is there are a few larger markets without NHL teams that do not have them in the US. We could make a caveat for viability on some of those as well, but in terms of sheer numbers they could by the simple fact that many are large urban centers support NHL franchises.

It's really not clear that there would be more "hockey demand" in most of those places than in Halifax.

For example take Charlotte. It is a larger market with 4-6x the population, sure. Hockey is less than 1/6 as popular there. They have NFL and NBA teams so NHL would likely be #3 at most.

The changes of the NHL going to Halifax right now are basically 0 but I think they're higher in the long term (10-20 years) than most people imagine (> 10%, maybe > 20%, not ~0%).

[optimusREIM]

Originally Posted by someone123

It's really not clear that there would be more "hockey demand" in most of those places than in Halifax.

For example take Charlotte. It is a larger market with 4-6x the population, sure. Hockey is less than 1/6 as popular there. They have NFL and NBA teams so NHL would likely be #3 at most.

I don't think prospective owners care what position it is in a given city as long as it's profitable. I mean, sure there's a consideration to be had about the fact that hockey is much less popular in some places (which is fair given some of the failures we've seen). I think that no matter what, if you're an owner or the NHL, you'd rather have a lukewarm market that's huge and has a lot of potential and room for losing fans over a small loyal market that has zero room for error in running the team.