Two NHL Teams in Toronto?

[2002civic]

Are they that sure the Leafs will never win and would rather start from scratch?

TSN reports there is talk of a second franchise in Toronto.

http://tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=253294&lid=headline&lpos=topStory_main

Personally I think there are other markets that deserve a franchise before Toronto gets a second team, but that's just my opinion.

[Gondi Stylez]

:werd: on other Canadian teams deserve franchises before "Leaf's Nation" get's another team.

:thumbsdow to TO!

[analbumcover]

Originally posted by Gondi Stylez
:werd: on other Canadian teams deserve franchises before "Leaf's Nation" get's another team.

:thumbsdow to TO!

LOL

I'm all for Canadian Expansion, but the only Province that could afford it is Ontario. The owner of Rim is part owner of the Preds, watch for them to be in Canada before you see Winipeg or PQ with an expansion team.

Also its not like because Toronto has a chance of having 2 teams other provinces can't have one. You should be happy, bringing another team to Canada is good. Its our game, sure we may not like the market, but better in Toronto Ontario Canada than Nashville/Atlanta/Anaheim/LA USA

[benyl]

What other markets deserve a team?

[dezmarez]

ya but the market is there to have another team in T.O.
it is already impossible to get tickets in toronto for a leafs game regardless how bad they are doing
the commercial support would be there, so i think it would work better then a new franchise in winnipeg.
sure they all think they are the center of the universe and are douches but it would work, and im all for bringing more teams to canada

[max_boost]

Well the market is definitely there to support another team but I doubt MLSE will let this happen. They basically have a monopoly right now and can charge whatever amount they want lol

[toyboy88]

Would be interesting seeing stuff like "derby matches" in the EPL for soccer.

ie. Man U vs Man City, etc.

[googe]

LA has two teams, why not.

[Mr. Burns]

If Ontario did get another team, it would probably be in Hamilton or something.

As much as the leafs suck, I don't think their fans (who are among the most hardcore in the NHL) would stand for another team with the Toronto label.

[oilerfan4lyfe]

Originally posted by analbumcover


LOL

I'm all for Canadian Expansion, but the only Province that could afford it is Ontario. The owner of Rim is part owner of the Preds, watch for them to be in Canada before you see Winipeg or PQ with an expansion team.

Also its not like because Toronto has a chance of having 2 teams other provinces can't have one. You should be happy, bringing another team to Canada is good. Its our game, sure we may not like the market, but better in Toronto Ontario Canada than Nashville/Atlanta/Anaheim/LA USA

I might be wrong on this, but I'm pretty sure the NHL didn't allow the RIM guy (Balsillie) to purchase any part of the Preds (someone correct me if I'm wrong?). They've pretty much shunned his ass from owning a hockey team because he wants to buy it and move it to Canada.

Agreed though that it's better that Toronto gets another team than fricken Kansas City or Las Vegas.

[88CRX]

The Leafs (Maple Leaf Entertainment crap) will never let another NHL team come to Toronto.... they'd be potentially risking all the future fan's and their money jumping ship to their newer and cooler team.

Won't ever happen.

[Jlude]

Originally posted by 88CRX
The Leafs (Maple Leaf Entertainment crap) will never let another NHL team come to Toronto.... they'd be potentially risking all the future fan's and their money jumping ship to their newer and cooler team.

Won't ever happen.

Exactly, Why fuck with a good thing?

[95EagleAWD]

Originally posted by benyl
What other markets deserve a team?

Winnipeg.

[ekguy]

Originally posted by Jlude


Exactly, Why fuck with a good thing?

The Leafs? A good thing??? Are you sure?

[googe]

Originally posted by 95EagleAWD


Winnipeg.

The town kinda has to have a population larger than the average arena capacity in the league ;)

[malcolmk14]

Originally posted by ekguy


The Leafs? A good thing??? Are you sure?

as far as business goes they are a good thing. They're the most successful franchise in the NHL. The on-ice product, not so much.

[treg50]

Sounds good. The Leafs are boring, I love the heritage and history, but we need a winning team.

NHL should just give the RIM guy the Predators already and move them to Hamilton or Guelph or wherever. A second team called the Toronto-"somethings" would be really wacky... and how close would they be to downtown T.O.?

[malcolmk14]

Originally posted by googe
LA has two teams, why not.

The two LA teams play in different arenas. Putting another franchise in the ACC would be very difficult as they'd have to share with the Leafs and Raptors.

[dezmarez]

Originally posted by 95EagleAWD


Winnipeg.


ya but they dont have the commercial support which is needed more than the fans

[88CRX]

Originally posted by dezmarez



ya but they dont have the commercial support which is needed more than the fans

They also don't have an arena.

[kertejud2]

Toronto doesn't necessarily need another team, but the Golden Triangle could easily support 3 teams nevermind just 2. MLSE is definitely the biggest hurdle, but considering there's about 8 Million people in southern Ontario the fanbase is there.

I believe that when Hamilton was rumoured to get a team in one of the expansion heavy times (the Ottawa/San Jose/Anaheim/Tampa/Florida years) they got something like 10,000 requests for season tickets before a bid was even made.

[Eleanor]

Originally posted by googe
The town kinda has to have a population larger than the average arena capacity in the league ;)
Winnipeg is much larger than most people think. People think it's as big as Regina when in reality, it's much larger.


Originally posted by 88CRX
They also don't have an arena.
The MTS center is nicer than the Saddledome :confused:


Originally posted by dezmarez
ya but they dont have the commercial support which is needed more than the fans
Bingo, that's why they can't support a team. Not enough corporate dollars.

Back on topic: Shouldn't Toronto get one good team before they got another? :rofl:

[Quizzes]

Originally posted by 88CRX


They also don't have an arena.

Winnipeg has a new arena (MTS Centre) that's able to house an NHL franchise.
Do they have the fanbase? ...maybe.
Do they have the financial support? ...probably not. The NHL left before, it's not gonna go back.

GTA has the fanbase to support another team... but as mentioned, MLSE won't let that happen. They're probably hating the Buffalo Sabres cuz they're only an hour away.

[treg50]

^ The MLSE has that kind of power? How? That would suck.

I heard that a team in Hamilton would have to pay the Leafs and Sabres $700 000 000 to start up there... and I thought WTF is this, an organized crime ring? The new team is on their 'turf'?!? Is this how the NHL operates?

[n1zm0]

Originally posted by 95EagleAWD
Winnipeg.

i say something in saskatchewan, then we'll have a perfect tri-province rivalry (well for us and Edmonton) : Calgary vs. Vancouver, Edmonton, Regina/Saskatoon, then again, that province has the same population as our city, i doubt they'll have enough interest as a whole to keep a team in business.

aren't there alot of NHL players from Sask (T. Fleury, G. Howe)? i'm sure they have some hockey heritage there.

[88CRX]

Originally posted by Quizzes


Winnipeg has a new arena (MTS Centre) that's able to house an NHL franchise.


The MTS Center only holds 15,000 people.

In comparison the Saddledome holds over 20,000 and most other average around 18-19,000 with the smallest of NHL arena still being over 17,000.

:dunno:

[Quizzes]

Originally posted by 88CRX


The MTS Center only holds 15,000 people.

In comparison the Saddledome holds over 20,000 and most other average around 18-19,000 with the smallest of NHL arena still being over 17,000.

:dunno:

Yes, you're right. The potential's not as great as other arenas. But when you see teams averaging under 14,000 in attendance and is still able to hang onto their franchise, it doesn't make much difference. Winnipeg will only make it if and only IF they can sell out all home games, which I can't see happening.

[rmk]

They have been talking about doing this for many, many years.

[95EagleAWD]

The MTS Center can be reno'd to up capacity.

Someone asked who deserved a team. Winnipeg does. They just probably can't support one.

[Godfuader]

Thats a great idea. I'm all for another Canadian team. Whats wrong with having 2 teams in the same district. On the West coast you have LA and Anaheim relatively close, and in the East you have 4 teams within 2hrs of driving to each other; Rangers, Islanders, Devils & Flyers. Despite having 4 teams so close to each other, I am always hard pressed to find tix for any arena. If the population exists, it will be successful.

[Idratherbsidewayz]

Hamilton should definitely have a hockey team. These people have nothing to live for...

[dezmarez]

Originally posted by Idratherbsidewayz
Hamilton should definitely have a hockey team. These people have nothing to live for...


haha what about the ti-cats?

[BerserkerCatSplat]

Bring back the Jets!

[Barlow]

I honestly don't think it will be an expansion team that is created.

They would move a team

(this has been discussed in many other threads)

The NHL is finally making money, why create another team to share the revenue...

It will be itneresting to see if the Players wanna play in the olympics...


Barlow

[civiclvr]

Originally posted by Godfuader
Thats a great idea. I'm all for another Canadian team. Whats wrong with having 2 teams in the same district. On the East coast you have LA and Anaheim relatively close, and in the West you have 4 teams within 2hrs of driving to each other; Rangers, Islanders, Devils & Flyers. Despite having 4 teams so close to each other, I am always hard pressed to find tix for any arena. If the population exists, it will be successful.

Lol.. me thinks you got your lefts and rights mixed up...

Seriously though. Another team in Canada would be good. We had the Nordiques and Canadiens in Quebec before. Yes, I know the Nordiques left for greener pastures, but I think Ontario could support another team. I'd probably prefer it if it were in Winnipeg, to spread stuff out, but that likely won't happen.

The MTS could be expansed but why? make it a smaller venue and sell the tickets. have a cheapish team and sell some seats. that's the important part. There's no point in having more seats if you can't fill them.

All this talk and no real research. It remains to be seen what can happen. Sure there's enough people, but will they buy the tickets? If they are embraced, it'll flourish (a la rapters in toronto) if not.. it'll fail and move (a la Grizzlies in Vancouver)

[jonnycat]

I'd like to see the coyotes back in Winnipeg and they could move the Predators to Quebec. What NHL Player would honestly see Saskatchewan and "say, ooh I'd like to play there!" Never going to happen.

[Godfuader]

Originally posted by civiclvr


Lol.. me thinks you got your lefts and rights mixed up...


:nut: Too much back and forth between the coasts for me.

[sputnik]

The new team should be called the "Toronto Winnipeg Jets". Appease both sides.

Games can be played in Toronto since 99% of Winnipeggers are too cheap to pay for tickets anyways.

[Idratherbsidewayz]

Originally posted by sputnik
The new team should be called the "Toronto Winnipeg Jets". Appease both sides.

Games can be played in Toronto since 99% of Winnipeggers are too cheap to pay for tickets anyways.

Or too busy killing people... :dunno:

[jonnycat]

Their cars may be stolen before they could make it to ticket master?

[oilerfan4lyfe]

Originally posted by 88CRX


The MTS Center only holds 15,000 people.

In comparison the Saddledome holds over 20,000 and most other average around 18-19,000 with the smallest of NHL arena still being over 17,000.

:dunno:

Rexall in Edmonton is 16,839 - unless they've added seats this year that I don't know about - and that number includes about 100 standing room tickets too I think.

The difference is that Edmonton can charge $40+ for nosebleeds and have people buy them - in Winnipeg that wouldn't be the case. It's not only the number of seats that screws Winnipeg over, but that in order to sell out the prices would have to be affordable...which means less revenue.

People might miss the Jets...but I honestly think that putting another team in Winnipeg would just lead to another failure. Much better off putting one in southern Ontario. As much as I hate expansion to stupid US cities like KC or Vegas, those cities would have the corporate backing that would make up for the fact that they'd probably sell only half their tickets.

IIRC, the guy who partially owns the Kings has an arena in KC ready to go for an NHL team and he's also got some connections within the board of governors...as in I think he's in there. I'd have to do a bit more research before I can say for sure though.

[phatfx]

I don't know if any of you watched the Oilers vs Blackhawks game the other night, but Gene Principe, the Oiler reporter interviewed the commissioner of the NHL during the game. At first he was asking about the GM meeting that was going to take place the next day and then proceeded to ask about the possibility of two teams in Toronto.

The Commissioner himself said it all occurred because of one article that surfaced. He said that he or any other executives do not plan any sort of expansion or any relocation of any teams.

[PGTze]

Originally posted by phatfx
I don't know if any of you watched the Oilers vs Blackhawks game the other night, but Gene Principe, the Oiler reporter interviewed the commissioner of the NHL during the game. At first he was asking about the GM meeting that was going to take place the next day and then proceeded to ask about the possibility of two teams in Toronto.

The Commissioner himself said it all occurred because of one article that surfaced. He said that he or any other executives do not plan any sort of expansion or any relocation of any teams.

Pretty much half the stuff that comes out of Betmans mouth turns out to be the exact oppisite within 5 years.

[dino_martini]

Originally posted by malcolmk14


The two LA teams play in different arenas. Putting another franchise in the ACC would be very difficult as they'd have to share with the Leafs and Raptors.

Actually the Lakers, Clippers and Kings all play from the Staples Center.