Gothamite

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.

Empire Strikes Back is NOT the best Star Wars movie.

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.

No matter what your tastes in design may be, you can't deny that the 90's were a very creative era in sports uniform history.

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

NHL ownership, extant and prospective, sucks.

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.

I'd love to see the Expos back (build Parc Labatt, move the Rays to Montreal and you don't even have to realign the divisions!), but I doubt it. Selig would be unwilling to admit that he made a mistake by placing a team in the Tampa Bay area and then murdering the burgeoning baseball fanbase in Montreal.

Selig is no Bettman. He didn't kill off the Montreal fanbase, Montreal did. Bud would make the move you describe if it made any financial sense.

Fund a stadium, and the Rays will start learning French. Until then, they'll remain the closest thing baseball has to the Coyotes.

Le Hornets de Montréal! Good idea keeping the French theme going.

Allez les Frelons!

Wow. That's pathetic.

Last night when the Phoenix Coyotes hosted the Los Angeles Kings, the attendance was 7,128. That's probably been inflated by the league though. I thought the Coyotes said they had record number of ST holders this year?

Last season, the Coyotes had a Thursday home game against the Kings in October and drew something like 6,400. Movin' on up!

One of the biggest sport leagues in the world and one of it's teams is drawing less than 8,000.... Even some CJHL teams get more than 6,400.

Ten years ago, we were watching to see when the Vermont Expos would draw more than the Montreal parent club.

Now, I guess we'll wait to see if the Portland Pirates can outdraw the Coyotes on any given night.

I do know that the Blue Jackets report the exact attendance that's in the building. They're one of the few struggling teams who don't exaggerate their attendance numbers ala Phoenix.

Are you sure? That's usually a league decision. At least it was with MLB and the NFL.

I know that a bad start can kill a team, but I fear that in Columbus, that could be literal this time around.

Wisconsin has a long and glorious Civil War history.

Hey, I'm still upset about Lloyd Petit dropping his bid for an expansion franchise in 1990.

Is this new? I thought the Stars were one of the sunbelt success stories.

Or is it just a "we only support winners" thing?

Cardinals-you-were-always-our-favorite-anyway Boulevard?

Westgate is a nice area to go to if you are wanting to get away on a Saturday night, of course there is Tempe/Mill and Downtown Phoenix, but it is a good place to go to. Not defending the team, but the area is a booming place on the weekends.

Not enough to keep the mall out of bankruptcy, though.

At least raising the debt ceiling is legitimate economic theory to correct the business cycle in hard times.

Keynes would plotz if he saw what Bettman was trying to do with the Coyotes.

Toronto regularly sell out Air Canada Centre, another team in GTA/Southern Ontario could possibly give the fans another team to cheer for, instead of waiting for the most demanded tickets in the NHL. There is obviously market for another team in that region

I don't think that follows at all.

There is great demand for Maple Leafs tickets. That doesn't necessarily mean that any other team in the area would be able to capitalize on the unmet demand.

Yeah, at least they're trending in the right direction.

Help me out - could that be a function of slashing payroll? What's their labor situation?

Two teams?

Operating income is income minus expenses, right? Or what we mortals usually call a profit? So unless there are expenses not accounted for in that chart, then it appears a dozen teams turned a profit last year.

Which, by the way, doesn't make it any less pathetic. Look at all that orange and red, especially the coyotes. OITGDNHL.

How cool would it be to have Toronto and Montreal in the same division?

Broadcast territory only matters when teams claim media markets outside their city but without teams of their own. Case in point the Orioles and Washington. Local clubs share without problem: Dodgers/Angels in LA, Cubs/White Sox in Chicago, Yankees/Mets/Rays in New York.

Keep in mind, I wasn't seriously suggesting that the Rays could, should or will be moved to Brooklyn. I was responding to the notion that they could be moved to Connecticut.

New Jersey would make more sense than Brooklyn if they are going to invade the Mets and Yankees territory.

Jersey makes even less sense than Connecticut.

Yeah, if MLB was going to plunk a team down in the middle of other teams' territory, it wouldn't be Connecticut. Not enough upside. It would have to be some place like... oh, I don't know...

It's right there on the tip of my tongue...

Some major sports-crazy metropolitan area. A place with its own civic identity and a booming population...

A major media outlet that could easily absorb another team...

I'll have to get back to you.