A plea to sports news reporters

[CC97]

(US Teams only cause I can't say what teams are followed most in Canada or England other than Man U and Aresenal are all over here, you could probably throw Celtic and Rangers in there too)

I guess up here you throw away NBA and MLB since we only have one team, but for hockey I would say the Leafs and the Habs are the only two to really have a national following.

[BBTV]

Proud member of 'Nova Nation.

Hey, Texas:

What 'cha gonna do, when the 'Nova Nation runs wild on you????

I think it is appropriate for teams that have significant followings in cities outside of where they play. Red Sox nation, Yankee nation, Steeler nation, Cowboy nation, Eagle nation, Raider nation, etc. etc.

Actually, now that I think about it, it is kind of annoying.

[Jigga]

There are only two sports "nations." Red Sox and Raiders and hate both of them.

But "The Evil Empire" is the best moniker in sports. Yankee fans and haters alike have embraced the term.

[sj32]

in an unrelated story It may also be helpful for reporters not to keep their celphone on when going to Packers pressers.

Heck, when we do Colts pressers, we're not allowed to even have our celphones in the complex.

[Stampman]

At least there's no Wild Nation

How about a Wild Party?

Rah Rah Ole!

[Jigga]

While we're at it, can we stop with the battle references and calling athletes heroes and warriors and stupid plop like that?

[CC97]

While we're at it, can we stop with the battle references and calling athletes heroes and warriors and stupid plop like that?

Now you know why I can never watch U.S. coverage of sports... they gotta turn every single game into some majestic story. Especially the olympics!

[Grandmaster C]

Did someone say, the Nation?

[Phil]

Stop calling the leigon of fans that follow a team a "nation." Red Sox Nation. Steelers Nation. Leafs Nation. There are many other ways to refer to these fans without making you sound like an idiot.

Thank you.

You're just upset cause there is no "Penguins Nation"... well not until they head north anyways

A excerpt from Stan Fichler's "Bluelines" article from 2 weeks ago.

Those who believe the new Salary-Capped CBA paves the way for an NHL return to Winnipeg and Quebec City should forgedaboutit. Not a chance!

http://msgnetwork.com/content_news.jsp?art...orts=ice-hockey

Even with the new CBA there is no reason why the NHL to go to those cities. They are still 2 small canadian markets, meaning if a team moves there he league would get even less for a US tv deal.

...if it's a non-issue, then why does the issue keep coming up? People want it to happen, and where there's a will, there's a way.

Moving a team out of the Carolinas, Florida, or Tennessee is not significantly going to impact the NHL's ability to get a major (read: NBA/MLB-sized) US TV deal in the relatively near future (not for another decade or so).

In the meantime, they might as well get some gate revenue out of those teams, instead of having them drag you down through revenue sharing.

In the NHL, a third of the league is drawing 15,000 fans or fewer per game, with five of those teams drawing well under 14,000 per game.

Those numbers are also notoriously buoyed by promotions that blow out tickets at half price and by fans that come dressed up as empty seats.

This doesn't even take into account the fact that the teams are paying for excess capacity they aren't filling... only 2 of the bottom ten teams in attendance are breaking 80% (four teams teams are at or below 73% capacity).

Winnipeg could essentially guarantee a sellout (15,015 fans) in a state-of-the-art facility with full-price tickets for the first two years of the team's existence. If you ask me, that would be more important to the league than the TV revenues that moving the Jets to Phoenix promised 10 years ago (and which came in the form of a major TV revenue precipitous decline).

[CFSize24]

Falcons?

I've seen Falcons Jerseys in Duluth, Norcross, Dunwoody, Peachtree Corners.

THEY'RE EVERYWHERE!

Even on Mexico!