Gothamite

True enough. It doesn't really matter what the situations with other teams are. Every team is an island here.

Yeah, that doesn't exactly speak to a healthy league.

No pics yet, but a description of the Cardinals' World Championship rings:

Damn. That's nice. Do we have an emoticon for envy? If you ever want to sell it, you know where to find me.

Vuke? Really? Holy ! Tell me that's a salesman sample.

My unpopular opinion is that the Packers' roads look awful and they need to bring these back tomorrow.

Obviously the press has received the memo.

Maybe for some, but all the soccer fans I know in Seattle were soccer fans before MLS came to town. And I doubt that resentment could have sustained an interest in the sport even as long as it took for them to field a team. MLS is staggeringly successful in cities like Seattle and Portland because the league put teams in markets already hungry for the sport. They could have played the "find the biggest TV market" game, but saw the folly there. Build on the markets you already have one foot in, even if they're not the largest. For that, MLS has been rewarded with devoted fanbases and a tremendous energy behind the growing sport. I don't doubt that it has also resulted in increased revenues through ticket sales, merchandise in the like. Ask them if they'd trade that for apathy in the largest geographic footprint possible.

That's a really good point, and one I hadn't considered. Attendance figures from any more than 15 years ago were arrived at by very different methods.

An "interested ownership group" is only one part of the equation, and not the most significant at that. More important is a place to play and a fanbase receptive to the sport. If you've got those, and the market shows it can handle hockey, they'll have owners coming out of the woodwork.

I have more faith in the US economy than I do the NHL.

The NHL has never considered any of their "final deadlines" for the Coyotes to be anything close to that. Still, I believe the runaway success in Winnipeg must be making them take a closer look at Quebec City. If nothing else, we've leaned that a smaller market that is already crazy about the sport can trump a large market that couldn't care less.

It's a good thing for Bettman that, with a few notable exceptions, NHL teams can't draw top-level owners. That's the only way he can keep his job.

I think his point is valid - unique by itself is neutral, neither good nor bad. It's entirely up to what they do with it. Myself, I loved the graphite cap but hated everything else about that set. Dark gray is a sadly underused color in sports. Or maybe I'm just sad that my Admirals traded their gorgeous gray sweaters for yet another black sweater.

I know, she's hideous. Like some bizarre parody of a woman created by an alien who had never seen one but only read about them online. Nice Whalers shirt, though.

I don't know if it was part of any agenda - seems more likely that they were riding the fad that sprung about then, as the NHL finally got merchandising rights.

The Whalers name was owned by the State of Connecticut after the team moved south. That's why the NHL couldn't merchandise it until recently. Don't know who owns it now - possibly still the state, or possibly the guy who owns the local minor league franchise and who holds Whaler events every year.

With that, I shall have to ask you to step outside, sir.

I don't know. Sandwiched 90 miles from Boston and 120 from New York, with two other franchises sitting in the same area, the deal in Hartford would have to be outstanding before they'd get an NHL franchise back. I mean Winnipeg-level outstanding. The only way I see it happening is if Hartford becomes the new home of the Islanders.

Did you see that Denver Zephyrs ring on eBay?

Agreed on the striping elements, but I think those wordmarks are close to the very definition of "cluster ". Too clever by half, and very ugly to boot.

One man's "creative" is another's "what the ing ity were they thinking?"

We've known that for years. With very few exceptions, NHL teams cannot attract top-tier ownership groups.

And yet Bettman's still giving him a run for his money.

Yes, when MLB took over the die was cast. But the Expos had been on life support for five years at that point. MLB had to step in, because the Expos were the walking dead. Again, Montreal knew the score. Build a new stadium or lose the team to a city that will. Been that way for half a century. They couldn't get it done, so if we are to assign "fault" then the city fathers get far and away the lion's share.