NHL Thread Because There Isn't An NHL Thread

Is there even a market for hockey in SLC? I know Seattle probably didn’t seem like one, but this one seems weird.

Canada needs more teams…just saying.

Bettman is going with the premise that the Canadian market is saturated so if any new team gets added, according to this idea, there wouldn't be any more fans but just the splitting of already existing hockey fans towards the new teams. He's hellbent on hitting markets were completely new hockey fans are created, even if it's marginal.

I think it's short-sighted for many reasons.
 
Is there even a market for hockey in SLC? I know Seattle probably didn’t seem like one, but this one seems weird.

Canada needs more teams…just saying.
Actually the hockey roots in Utah run deeper than people might realize. I was curious myself, and did a bit of digging and it turns out they had a minor pro hockey team based in SLC called the Golden Eagles 🦅 from 1969 to 1984 before relocating to Detroit. And of course, the Utah Grizzlies of the ECHL are Utah's premier professional ice hockey club.
 
Actually the hockey roots in Utah run deeper than people might realize. I was curious myself, and did a bit of digging and it turns out they had a minor pro hockey team based in SLC called the Golden Eagles 🦅 from 1969 to 1984 before relocating to Detroit. And of course, the Utah Grizzlies of the ECHL are Utah's premier professional ice hockey club.

So, not zero, but kind of shallow roots then?
 
So, not zero, but kind of shallow roots then?
Shallow or not, it has a hockey history, and that may be enough, along with Ryan Smith's deep pockets, to convince the league and its BOG to approve the relocation of the Coyotes. I mean it can't be worse than the desert 🏜️
 
Shallow or not, it has a hockey history, and that may be enough, along with Ryan Smith's deep pockets, to convince the league and its BOG to approve the relocation of the Coyotes. I mean it can't be worse than the desert 🏜️

Oh they will for sure convince the league. This is completely on par with Gary's M.O. of expanding to markets where there aare not a ton of hockey fans in order to create a new hockey market.

And absolutely, nothing can be worse than Arizona has been over the last 10 years.
 
Yep, that's the whole point I'm making. Gary likes to expand to places where he hopes a new market emerges, so places that don't already have a lot of hockey fans.
Bettman also likes it when an NHL franchise is the first professional sports team to call a 🆕 market home i.e. Vegas.
 
Yep, that's the whole point I'm making. Gary likes to expand to places where he hopes a new market emerges, so places that don't already have a lot of hockey fans.

Except I think there were already a lot of hockey fans here. When I used to go to Wranglers games, I used to sit with some long time hockey fans who would tell me all the time that the NHL wouldn’t work here because of the price of tickets. I also knew people who would bring themselves to support minor league because it wasn’t the “Pros”. Obviously their current success is a huge factor but I would love to see how much the fans here turnout when the success runs out because this city loves a winner.
I’d also like to see the out of town/local ratio.
 
Back
Top