See What You've Done Bettman and Goodenow?

[slapshot]

Stop, take a deep breath, and punctuate.

[oz615]

Stop, take a deep breath, and punctuate.

ok i will ,sorry

[gojetsgo]

Frankly, I don't care about the game losing popularity in the U.S. or anywhere where its not wanted.  Here's a question:  Why does the game NEED to grow?  Why do we care whether hockey is liked by people in Tennesee?

ok im kinda offended on that on,being from Tennessee,Nashville to be exact,im sick of hearind all this stuff about how Nashville doesn't deserve a NHL team,in fact i was talking about this particular topic w/ my dad the other dayand we have something that the other sunbelt clubs doesn't and that is snow i was sitting here frezzing my @$$ off the other day in 20 degree weather so if y'all gotta use somebody for an example use Atlanta because i know for a fact that the fans there are fair weathered one,and as far as marketing i think the problem is they haven't been trying hard enough to sell the game to minorities(im afro american by the way),i mean granted they are about (and i may be wrong) 10 minorities played in the league last season,and if the league have had any thought of this concept,that league wouldn't have all these problems,that's just my opinion

yep. but why "sell" hockey to people you have to convince when there are people that love hockey that dont have it. Winnipeg, Hartford, and Quebec all moved south. There are tons of hockey fans in these and other cities already.

Coming back to Minnesota was a good move by the NHL. They need to do more of that.

Look, if you had a company that sold ice, would you concentrate your efforts on trying to sell it to the Eskimos in Nunavut, or to the people in Florida? You gotta sell to people who want to buy your product.

[Suigi]

Well, despite the expansion efforts into the south, I say it was an error.

The NHL should cut its losses, and pack most of its teams up or to former cities.

I'm thinking something like the CFL and its US expansion plans, with the best teams (actually just the Stallions) moved to former cities.

And maybe the NHL might consider moving into new markets.

Let's see:

Seattle has every other major sports. Howsabout the Seattle Totems playing out of the Sonic's arena?

Halifax could be the best-supported team in Canada, as they have all of Atlantic Canada pulling for them. I say the IceBreakers or the Nor'easters.

Las Vegas? Don't sell them short. An arena's a nice cool place to be in the middle of the desert, and they won't have ANY competition from other pro sports. True, there's the casinos, but for those unfortunate to live there, heck, I think they'd catch the Las Vegas Ramblers. (instead of Gamblers)

While we're at it, how come nobody's considered a Saskatchewan team. Alberta's got two, Manitoba had one, let's give the other prairie province a little loving! Hey it's the Saskatoon Sasquatch!

Just some thoughts. I've been batting around a ESPNHL-style rewrite of the league.