A city deserving one particular sport

[DG_ThenNowForever]

I'd be happy to trade the Bucks for NHL Seattle.

[Glover]

I've always wanted Cleveland to have an NHL team. I don't think it will happen with Columbus having a team and Pittsburgh also a fairly short drive away. But I always liked the AHL Cleveland Barons look and thought with some updates it could be a unique identity for a modern NHL franchise. 

 

[The_Admiral]

Cleveland as a hockey town feels like fool's gold, like it should slot right in there with Chicago, Toronto, and Buffalo, but doesn't have the hockey culture on the ground the way you would think it should. Milwaukee is the same way; most of the hockey players from Wisconsin come from Madison or up near the Cities. I'd have been more interested in Cincinnati.

[monkeypower]

On 7/13/2019 at 4:32 PM, Ferdinand Cesarano said:

Anyway, on the general question of the thread: there are at least a half a dozen cities in Canada and the northern part of the U.S. that deserve NHL teams more than f-ing Las Vegas or Phoenix where there's no such thing as ice, or anyplace in Florida or Texas.

 

I'm wondering what you feel these half dozen cities in Canada are? We're pretty tapped out in terms of large enough cities for professional teams.

[dont care]

1 hour ago, the admiral said:

Cleveland as a hockey town feels like fool's gold, like it should slot right in there with Chicago, Toronto, and Buffalo, but doesn't have the hockey culture on the ground the way you would think it should. Milwaukee is the same way; most of the hockey players from Wisconsin come from Madison or up near the Cities. I'd have been more interested in Cincinnati.

Cleveland is too close to Columbus to be a separate market. They’d be canabalizing Columbus’ fans rather than bringing in new ones.

[The_Admiral]

Right, same with Cincinnati. I'm saying that of the three major Ohio cities, if I had to put an expansion team in one of them, I would choose Cincinnati.

[DG_ThenNowForever]

I'm into it.

 

 

[MilSox]

On 8/25/2019 at 8:20 PM, the admiral said:

But "yeah Chicago's just afraid, afraid of how great we are" is big-time Milwaukee mindset, and needs to be chuckled at accordingly. Milwaukee-as-Hawks-territory is a want, not a need!

You can't blame anyone for feeling that way when Butthead Bill fought so hard to assure the NHL never went to Milwaukee.
 

23 hours ago, DG_Now said:

I'd be happy to trade the Bucks for NHL Seattle.

That wasn't such an uncommon sentiment locally, pre-Giannis.
 

1 hour ago, the admiral said:

Cleveland as a hockey town feels like fool's gold, like it should slot right in there with Chicago, Toronto, and Buffalo, but doesn't have the hockey culture on the ground the way you would think it should. Milwaukee is the same way; most of the hockey players from Wisconsin come from Madison or up near the Cities. I'd have been more interested in Cincinnati.

That's a chicken and egg issue.  The college that plays big time hockey is in Madison, so more kids from Madison see the Badgers and feel compelled to play hockey, so more youth and high school programs are in Madison to accommodate them.  Perhaps if UW-Madison didn't have a habit of starving the other UW schools for resources, you would see D1 hockey in Milwaukee and/or Green Bay. 

But even as it is, the Admirals are the 3rd or 4th longest operating non-NHL pro hockey team in North America.  One of Wisconsin's most successful high school programs is University School of Milwaukee. And although the Pettit Center is primarily used to train Olympic speed skaters, it also hosts a rather competitive adult hockey league.  It may not be quite as visible or entrenched as Madison or the Twin Cities, but hockey culture is definitely a thing in Milwaukee/Southeast Wisco.

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

38 minutes ago, monkeypower said:

On 7/13/2019 at 6:32 PM, Ferdinand Cesarano said:

Anyway, on the general question of the thread: there are at least a half a dozen cities in Canada and the northern part of the U.S. that deserve NHL teams more than f-ing Las Vegas or Phoenix where there's no such thing as ice, or anyplace in Florida or Texas.

 

I'm wondering what you feel these half dozen cities in Canada are? We're pretty tapped out in terms of large enough cities for professional teams.

 

I was thinking of Quebec City, Halifax, Regina, and Saskatoon, as well as Hamilton and Windsor, the latter two being second teams for the Toronto and Detroit metro areas.

 

I am of course aware that those first four cities have populations much smaller than the American cities that have received NHL teams. However, the Canadian cities care a lot more about hockey — which explains why a team was moved from a metro area that has more than five million people (Atlanta) to a metro area that has fewer than a million (Winnipeg).

[MilSox]

1 minute ago, Ferdinand Cesarano said:

 

I was thinking of Quebec City, Halifax, Regina, and Saskatoon, as well as Hamilton and Windsor, the latter two being second teams for the Toronto and Detroit metro areas.

 

I am of course aware that those first four cities have populations much smaller than the American cities that have received NHL teams. However, the Canadian cities care a lot more about hockey — which explains why a team was moved from a metro area that has more than five million people (Atlanta) to a metro area that has fewer than a million (Winnipeg).

Quebec City and Hamilton are the only ones I can see as realistic.  Halifax is too much of a pain in the ass to get to.  The Saskatchewan population is too spread out to attend games on any regular basis.  And Windsor doesn't have the history of rooting against Detroit like Hamilton does with Toronto in the CFL.  

[monkeypower]

29 minutes ago, Ferdinand Cesarano said:

 

I was thinking of Quebec City, Halifax, Regina, and Saskatoon, as well as Hamilton and Windsor, the latter two being second teams for the Toronto and Detroit metro areas.

 

I am of course aware that those first four cities have populations much smaller than the American cities that have received NHL teams. However, the Canadian cities care a lot more about hockey — which explains why a team was moved from a metro area that has more than five million people (Atlanta) to a metro area that has fewer than a million (Winnipeg).

 

Yeah, @NicDB is right, it's really only Quebec City and Hamilton (and I'm personally not too hot on Hamilton, though not vehemently against it) out of all those. The others just aren't viable.

 

The only ones I can speak on with some authority on are Saskatoon and Regina. Both places are just too small to support an NHL team. The Roughriders and the NLL's Rush work because they only play once a week on the weekends in shorter seasons (both teams have ~10 home games a season depending on playoffs) so people from across the province can drive into Regina for the Riders or Saskatoon for the Rush on a weekend. There are season ticket holders for both teams that live all over the province that go into town for the games.

 

An NHL team that has to fill 41 games a year isn't going to work in either city because they would be limited to only their own greater area.

[DG_ThenNowForever]

14 hours ago, NicDB said:

That wasn't such an uncommon sentiment locally, pre-Giannis.
 

 

There is a non-zero chance Giannis leaves in a couple of years, or is traded next season anyway, especially when you look at the recent hauls for AD and Paul George.

 

We'd still take the Bucks anyway. We're going to have a beautiful arena here in Seattle that will be begging for an NBA team with a non-zero chance of not coming because it'll always be the second tenant.

 

Basketball for Seattle, hockey for Milwaukee and everyone is happy.

[B-Rich]

On 8/26/2019 at 10:34 AM, selby56 said:

I've always wanted Cleveland to have an NHL team. I don't think it will happen with Columbus having a team and Pittsburgh also a fairly short drive away. But I always liked the AHL Cleveland Barons look and thought with some updates it could be a unique identity for a modern NHL franchise. 

 

 

You do know they had an NHL Cleveland Barons for a hot minute in the 70s, right?

The Cleveland Barons' NHL Existence was a Short and Spectacular Disaster

[Glover]

2 minutes ago, B-Rich said:

 

You do know they had an NHL Cleveland Barons for a hot minute in the 70s, right?

The Cleveland Barons' NHL Existence was a Short and Spectacular Disaster

Oh yes, I'm well aware. I wasn't particularly big on that look, which is why I mentioned the AHL Barons and their identity. If the NHL decided to give Cleveland another chance at an NHL team that is the direction I'd want them to go.

 

I think an argument can be made the NHL Barons would have done better if they actually played in Cleveland instead of Richfield. But on the other hand, there is also a case to be made that Cleveland just can't support 4 major pro sports teams, especially in the 70's when the city was in decline. Not to mention that Barons franchise was just a complete mess.

[MilSox]

The Richfield Coliseum was one of many goofy ideas we can thank the interstate system for. They seriously thought that people from Cleveland and Akron wouldn't mind driving to the middle of nowhere on a weeknight because it's on a fancy new highway where the land could be bought for next to nothing. 

 

It's actually kind of amazing that the Cavs lasted long enough for the Gund Arena to become a thing.

[Discrim]

On 8/25/2019 at 8:20 PM, the admiral said:

This would mean SE Wisconsin cable systems would have to pick up NBC Sports Chicago. This would be great for people along Highway 50 and points south, which are considered Cubs/Sox/Brewers territory and I think also Bulls/Bucks, and have lots of Chicago fans there anyway. This would be less great for Racine and points north, where the Chicago territories run out and cable companies would be asking subscribers to pay for a channel where Bulls and White Sox games are blacked out. People nowadays don't even like to pay for RSNs that can carry games.

Partially agree, now that Time Warner...er, Spectrum no longer carries WGN here.  Still got channels 2, 5, 7 and Fox 32, though with the Cubs starting their network next year, that'll leave the Bears as the lone Chicago team whose games will regularly be shown on any of the aforementioned channels.  Honestly, as much as I hate to say it, this might be a boon for the Brewers...if not for the distinct possibility that a lot of Cubs games on ESPN and Fox would make up for the loss of local broadcasts.

 

  We used to get some Fire games on Spectrum Sports, but that's no longer the case since they discontinued that in favor of a 24 hour news format.