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Originally Posted by LakeLocker
The reality is MLSE has an effective monopoly on sports in this country.
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Surely you mean in Toronto.
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Originally Posted by LakeLocker
The CFL will never work in the GTA until there is a another team in the city(ideally Mississauga) with ownership that is aggressively pushing for attention.
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What? No.
Not many things can work in places like Mississauga because they're commuter suburbs with no local identity. A
soccer team is having a difficult time getting crowds out in
York and you think gridiron has a shot in Mississauga? If the Argos can't make it work I doubt a team in the suburbs would have much more hope. London would be a better shout.
Quote:
Originally Posted by djeffrey
Quebecor balked at paying the price 4 or 5 years ago, and thus Seattle is going to take the place that QC would have had.
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I'm pretty sure you have this backwards. I think the NHL BoG doubted Quebecor could provide $400M+ USD for an expansion team in addition to the normal operating costs of the team, in addition to all the others issues that QC would bring to the league and players.
Quote:
Originally Posted by djeffrey
The fact that Edmonton and Ottawa still have teams, Winnipeg got theirs back and QC could have got their backs shows the NHL and Bettman aren't as anti-Canada as the popular opinion seems to be.
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Heyyyy someone that gets it! Bettman/the BoG has gone to bat for Canadian teams just as much as they have for American teams that have had difficulties. The NHL doesn't gain much by moving teams around at will.
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Originally Posted by Mister F
It's pretty common knowledge that NHL teams aren't really located based on demand.
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What does this have to do with how the NHL treats Canadian franchises? Are you suggesting the NHL set up shop in Sudbury or Corner Brook?
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Originally Posted by Mister F
If we had a promotion/relegation system like the Wolfpack play in natural supply and demand would take over and we'd have more teams in Canada and fewer in the US. And, for that matter, we'd have more teams in eastern Canada than the west.
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Firstly, we don't, and likely never will.
Secondly, sure, but you know Canadian teams could presumably be removed from the picture altogether in this scenario, too, right? Canadian teams aren't exactly at a competitive balance when it comes to American competition on a number of fronts, not the least of which being that more people play hockey in the US than in Canada and that the Canadian dollar is valued at 25% less than its American counterpart.
The franchise model actually ensures their place in the league much more than a proposed pro/rel system would.
Quote:
Originally Posted by suburbanite
Whether or not Saskatoon could theoretically put more fans in seats than Tampa Bay or Carolina is irrelevant when they likely can't maintain a $79 million/year payroll or build a 19,000 seat stadium.
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Surely the people of Saskatoon would support a 2nd division hockey side which would occasionally get blown out at the top level of hockey in North America. Surely those same people of Saskatoon also wouldn't mind watching a top tier NHL with two teams in Toronto, Montreal, Boston, Minnesota, and Chicago as well.