spartacat_12

14 hours ago, The_Admiral said:

You're describing anything the Phoenix Coyotes have done or will ever do as a victory for private enterprise and the free market? Do you ever get tired of carrying your balls around in a wheelbarrow?

Look I'm well aware that I've taken the unpopular side of this debate over the years. Part of it is because I've personally seen a couple of my teams get relocated (including one I was working for), and part of it is just playing devil's advocate to try and balance things out. When they lost the Tempe vote I assumed that would be it for them, and I'm still a little confused as to why the league didn't just get the relocation wheels in motion as soon as that happened.

What I'm pointing out is the hypocrisy within the hockey community (not just on here). Any time a new arena/stadium is announced people complain about public funding and talk about how it never actually helps taxpayers, yet there's suddenly all this excitement about Utah having a new publicly funded arena planned. 

5 hours ago, WSU151 said:

Not sure an NBA team has much to say about an NHL team.

 

We already have the Kings in each league

Even if there aren't trademark issues, it just feels like a poor branding strategy to use a name that's already associated with a major pro team. Besides, we already have a bear-based team in the NHL, so Grizzlies wouldn't exactly be original.

Bill Daly has said that there won't be enough time to relocate the team for next season if they wait until after the June 27 auction date, so it seems like there are 3 options here:

1. Yotes win the land auction and stay in Mullett for the next few seasons while the new rink is being built.

2. Yotes are unsuccessful in winning the auction, play one more year in Mullett, then move to SLC for 25-26 season.

3. Yotes sale & move to SLC for next season gets announced prior to the land auction, agreement is made with the league that they will be awarded an expansion franchise if they can get the new arena built

Regardless of which option ends up happening, we'll at least have some sort of finish line to this whole situation by the end of June or sooner. 

18 hours ago, LMU said:

You assume that was always the plan. The Mayor flat out said in his statement that the auction must specify that all utilities come from Phoenix so he’s flat out stating that saving millions of dollars by hooking up across the street is off the table.

 

Also, you can’t just put a major development on a shared road with another city and tell them to pound sand. If that off-ramp isn’t completely upgraded Scottsdale is fully within their rights to take Phoenix to court since their infrastructure will be impacted by the increased traffic.

40 minutes ago, LMU said:

Because the arena is across the street from Scottsdale and the site, being a vacant patch of sand, will need to have nearly two mile-long sewers and water mains built as a result, plus the team will still be on the hook for completely reconfiguring a highway offramp that serves Scottsdale being as how the whole complex is right across the street.

Being across the street from Scottsdale doesn't mean anything. The plan has always been for the Coyotes to develop the land themselves without relying on infrastructure from Scottsdale. The 64th Street off ramp the mayor mentioned is completely within the Phoenix city limits, so that also has nothing to do with Scottsdale. The N Scottsdale road off ramp is fine, and handles plenty of traffic every year during the Waste Management Open.

13 hours ago, ruttep said:

There's been some talk among the Rangers fanbase about whether to wear the navy alternates in the playoffs, since they went 9-1 in them, but I don't see that actually happening.

IMO the Rangers home blues are a top 3 uniform in the league, so this would be awful. But I guess it wouldn't be unprecedented for them to break out an alternate for the playoffs.

16 hours ago, RyanMcD29 said:

Well

Well the arena isn't going to be in Scottsdale, and the Coyotes already planned to use Phoenix infrastructure for the development. Not sure why anyone cares about this guy's opinion.

On 4/5/2024 at 3:36 PM, DustDevil61 said:

And the $68.5 million question remains: 

 

Does Alex Meruelo actually have, or can get, said money to purchase the land and build an arena?

They had to put down a sizable deposit when they committed as a bidder. I'm assuming they also would've had to provide proof that they can actually pay for the land/development in order to get approval to bid.

On 4/5/2024 at 9:49 PM, BBTV said:

I hope a group from QC outbids them in the auction, just out of spite, then buys the team.  Write-off the $100M for the parcel as part of the relo fee.  Let the land rot, or turn it into another strip mall.  Or sell it for a dime on the dollar once they take possession of the team.

Yeah, that's not how it works. In order to bid on the land you have to already have a proposal in place for how you plan to develop it. 

But sure, let's dump all over a privately financed arena plan and advocate for the team to play in a building that rinsed taxpayers out of hundreds of millions of dollars. 

2 hours ago, tigerslionspistonshabs said:

I think Owls would be cool. 

SLC Screech Owls has a nice ring to it, but maybe I'm blinded by my nostalgia for this book series as a kid.

On 4/5/2024 at 9:34 AM, zubazpirate said:

I'm not that familiar with the Chase Center... was it actually built with hockey in mind, or is it a basketball-first venue like Barclays Center where hockey would require massive compromises?

 

I guess the same questions could be asked about the post renovation Oakland Arena, for that matter.

While it does have an ice plant in order to host events like Disney on Ice, the arena is similar to Barclays in that you'd have a ton of obstructed views. They've said that it isn't capable of being an NHL rink.

3 hours ago, tigerslionspistonshabs said:

The Salt Lake Utahs 

I'd hold onto them as long as you can. I grew up getting to wear some of my dad's old jerseys, so there's a good chance your son gets to an age where he can appreciate them. If he ends up not caring you can always sell some of them. Any jersey that's gone up in value by now should only keep getting more valuable as time goes on.

If you have the space to hang any of them up I would say you should try and frame some of your favourites that you don't expect to wear often.

Ryan Smith has just shared a survey asking people to submit name suggestions for a potential Utah NHL franchise:

Among the names being mentioned in the replies, not very many catch my attention. Blizzards seems like the best option, but of course most of the people suggesting it seem to just want to use the singular 'Blizzard'. 

36 minutes ago, Silver_Star said:

Once again, I stated how generic it is putting a mascot head on a helmet just like how the Baltimore Ravens had to do that in 1999 and decided a raven's head works for a logo, It was very silly to me and it could of been done differently if I had my way.

The gradient goofy stuff was not my cup of tea, sir. I never was into that 1990's goofy designs similar how the NBA did theirs in the 1990's which is why I do not cherish 1990's designs or the culture.

But you seem like you are confused as to what I said.

And once again, not a single person has suggested putting a ram head logo on the helmet, so I'm not sure why you keep bringing up the Ravens.

Someone suggested the Rams should go back to using the horned helmet as the primary logo, which they did in the '80s up until they moved to St. Louis. You seemed to interpret this as them suggesting that the team should use their primary logo on the helmet instead of the horns.

20 hours ago, Silver_Star said:

I did not say that either. I am just saying using a Ram's head is as generic as how the Ravens had to ditch the shield due to legal reasons and couldn't make anything interest that could include another shield with the bird using some Old English stuff?
 

But looking at the Rams, the horns on the helmet is very unique and is a mainstay since 1948.

You still seem confused. No one is suggesting taking the horns off the helmets and replacing them with a logo.

You say a ram head is generic, but it would be miles better than the gradient-filled L@ logo that's currently used as the primary logo. The Rams just need to pull a Chicago and swap the designations of their two logos so that the head is the primary and the LA monogram is the secondary.

Seems pretty premature to make this announcement before they've actually won the bid for the land. They must be confident that their won't be any other bidders, otherwise they're just asking to be dunked on.

They at least seem to be putting some effort into the PR campaign, which is what cost them the vote on the Tempe plot. These quotes from Meruelo are really emphasizing the lack of tax dollars being used on the project. If only they had made sure this got communicated properly with the previous arena project.

Quote

“My family and I are committed to winning this land auction and building a transformative entertainment district that will not require taxpayer funding for the first time in Arizona history,” said Arizona Coyotes Chairman & Governor Alex Meruelo. “We will buy this land, build this development and finish a project that will incur the cost of more than $100 million in infrastructure improvements with no burden placed on taxpayers.”

19 hours ago, FrutigerAero said:

Will they connect with Toronto or all of Canada?

I'm guessing that they go with something Canada-related, especially since I'm pretty sure the red Canada Day jerseys aren't being used anymore. The whole idea of the CC series seems to be coming up with something that would sell to a person who wouldn't otherwise buy your team's jersey. 

It's looking like Rogers is considering selling off part of their Canadian NHL broadcasting rights to Amazon. The report is that Monday night national games will be moved to Prime up here for the next couple of years before Rogers's contract is up. Amazon already had plans in place for a documentary series next year following a select group of players, so it isn't a huge surprise, but it looks like the beginning of the end of the sports media Bell/Rogers duopoly up here.

23 hours ago, floydnimrod said:

More of an overall question: not considering the new template, are there any teams whose road grays are better, or at least on par with the home whites? I can't think of a single team where the road gray isn't just a worse uniform design than the home uniform

I like how the white inline trim on the name & numbers pops off the grey background, and it's the only jersey that actually says TORONTO.

The Rockies actually look like a purple team on the road, as opposed to the home jerseys which just look like White Sox rip-offs unless you're close enough to notice that the pinstripes are purple.

20 hours ago, Nordiks_19 said:

I remember seeing this concept on the nhluniforms Facebook page and was really hoping it would be that instead of the lame and ugly one they ended up with

This is basically Chicago's road jersey with red numbers and the black stripes extended to the end of the sleeves/hem.

On 3/23/2024 at 1:21 AM, Kevin W. said:

The Adidas red jersey is miles ahead of the pre-Edge or Edge reds and if they'd just used a matching white version, the Hurricanes would've had their best set by far with the caveat that they should've changed the font. A non-italic version of the original font would be best.

The Adidas jersey was a big improvement over the Team Canada rip offs they had before, but the lack of silver & the barely noticeable flag pattern make it worse than the originals. 

15 hours ago, ZapRowsdower8 said:

I don’t know anything about Phoenix, but just from fooling around on Google Maps, this seems like a terrible spot for an arena. This is still far from the population center, just in a different direction now. 
 

(Yes, I know there is basically no chance anything happens with this attempt either.)

It seems like it's worse than the proposed Tempe site, but not as bad as Glendale. For most of the fanbase that's in the East Valley they'd still have a decent drive, but they at least wouldn't have to drive through central Phoenix. North Scottsdale is also one of the richest areas of Phoenix, which doesn't hurt.

On 3/2/2024 at 11:21 PM, Echo said:

That atrocity is everybody's wrong uniform.  Actually makes the Sens' Edge mess look decent by comparison.

Matt Duchene is probably the only notable Avalanche player who I'd associate with that uniform first. It looks strange to see him in the Adidas set.

15 hours ago, tBBP said:

And also, not that this next part really means anything in the grand scheme of things, considering past uniform designs, but the total lack of a single semblance of anything "H-Town Blue" in these leaks now really has me wondering a/ if it will show up on the home sets and/or b/ exactly how it will show up period.

The leaked description of the full set did mention that not every uniform incorporated the luv ya blue, so this lines up with that. 

Ottawa has unveiled their 10th anniversary logo, and has also announced that a new jersey is going to be released in May. The team president has hinted at the jersey being "retro inspired", so my guess would be a modern version of the classic Rough Riders look to match the alternate helmet they've worn.

On 3/8/2024 at 10:38 PM, FrutigerAero said:

-unfortunately, no map of Canada, It would be interesting to see Montreal.

As someone who was raised as an Expos fan until they left, I didn't really fully commit to becoming a Jays fan until I moved to Toronto ~8 years ago. Ottawa was home to the Expos AAA affiliate, and they managed to stick around for a few more years after Montreal lost the team, so I briefly tried following some new teams based on who Ottawa was farming for (Baltimore for a couple years, Philly for one season). 2015 felt like the time people outside of Southern Ontario started getting more invested in the team (ending a 21 year playoff drought will do that). 

I think the Jays having Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has helped bridge the gap a bit. I'm too young to remember the Expos ever being good, but Vladdy Sr. was the biggest name they had towards the end.