Quote:
Originally Posted by RchW
With all due respect to hockey fans in false markets, the 3-4 millon that live west and south of Toronto are a slam dunk market for hockey. The reason Bettman opposes Ballsille is that he considers the Canadian market captive and he wants to place an expansion franchise there so that it will generate income for the current owners in the NHL.
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I agree that would be the smartest play now, but you make it sound like that's been his plan for a long while now. If that really was the case I think it would have happened years ago. I think Bettman is just stubborn and if that's his only good move now then he very well may take it, but I don't think it's what he wants to do. I think he really does want to stick it out in the states even if it hurts the league in the short-run because he can't bear to think he could actually possibly be wrong about the long-run.
Frankly, I think the bankruptcy judge should do what's best for the creditors and, unless the city of Glendale is a major creditor, it sounds like what's best for them is to take Balsillie's money and say sayonara to the team. I feel like I should maybe feel bad for Phoenix fans (I'm still sore over the Grizzlies and Sonics), but they got their team from Winnipeg which supported the Jets quite well from what I can remember so they'll only get what they took away from others. Granted, most fans didn't steal the team from Winnipeg, they only welcomed it, but they did gain from the loss of others.
Besides, in this day and age with our current system I think it's too idealistic to feel a team should just stick it out forever wherever it is, especially when there is an apparently much better market elsewhere. If you can make more elsewhere then fine, go there. I just wish we had an open system up promotion and relegation where teams didn't move, they just feel from grace as others ascended to glory.