Quote:
Originally Posted by RMc
Well, maybe the Sabres will move to Philly!
Hockey in Philadelphia has an interesting history. The old Montreal Maroons, dormant since 1938, attempted to move to Philly after WW2; per wiki:
The Flyers, of course, came to town in 1967, so the Spectrum was built for them. But no Flyers, no Spectrum? Well, the 76ers had been in town since 1963 and playing at Convention Hall (built 1931, capacity 9,690) and would've probably wanted a new arena before long. And hockey wasn't an impossibility at the Convo: the WHA Blazers played there in 1972-73!
Then again, Philadelphia is a city famous for corruption and infighting, so it's quite possible that Philly's warring political factions would've kept a new arena from being built well into the 1970s. Ya never know!
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Not sure how I missed adding Philly. I haven't touched this in awhile and may have deleted the save.
Wiki actually has some errors based on some otherwise good books.
The NHL gave Peto until 1948 (they extended it in 47 for another year) to get his arena and revive the Maroons franchise. When that failed they advised him he would have to apply as an expansion franchise and returned the Maroons to the previous owners and it was then cancelled.
Peto kept trying into the 50's and then sued the NHL alleging a conspiracy to keep him out of the NHL. There is some evidence MSG / NYR did do that (to try and control the large arena business on the east coast) but Peto's lawsuits failed.
I can dig up the reference for the above later but don't have access to the books now.
Hockey Capital: Commerce, Capital and the National Hockey League 1917-1967 - James Andrew Ross its a PDF available on line - most of it up to 1945 was turned into a book Joining the Clubs: The Business of the National Hockey League to 1945. However since the Peto story is after 1945 it won't be in the book, just the PDF.