Atlanta Thrashers moving to Winnipeg

My wacky "Nostradamus" prediction:the Thrashers WILL move to Winnipeg & keep their name(Winnipeg Thrashers),meanwhile............The Coyotes will move to Quebec City & change their name back to the Jets(Quebec City Jets).
 

Yet they get more fans at their stadium than.... the Stars, Avalanche, Devils, Ducks, Blue Jackets, Thrashers, Coyotes and Islanders. I see 4 "traditional" teams on that list. Not to mention MOST hockey fans down here are fans of other teams.

And average only 2,000 less fans than the Bruins that have had a team there for over 80 years.

2010-2011 NHL Attendance - National Hockey League - ESPN
 
salsadancer7 said:
Yet they get more fans at their stadium than.... the Stars, Avalanche, Devils, Ducks, Blue Jackets, Thrashers, Coyotes and Islanders. I see 4 "traditional" teams on that list. Not to mention MOST hockey fans down here are fans of other teams.

And average only 2,000 less fans than the Bruins that have had a team there for over 80 years.

2010-2011 NHL Attendance - National Hockey League - ESPN

Yeah you have a point with the home attendance.

You live there, do they have a following? Do you go to any games?

Maybe I Should of said the islanders, who seem to be a hot stinky mess. 11k per game, that's awful.

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Yeah you have a point with the home attendance.

You live there, do they have a following? Do you go to any games?

Maybe I Should of said the islanders, who seem to be a hot stinky mess. 11k per game, that's awful.

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They have a small following because REAL Floridians do not follow hockey. And those non-Floridian that do, have their favorite team already. IF you think about, considering those factors...it's a miracle they get that many fans there. When the Penguins, Bruins, Canadians, Rangers, Black Hawks, Maple Leafs, Canucks, Red Wings and even San Jose...those game are ALWAYS sold out.
 
They have a small following because REAL Floridians do not follow hockey. And those non-Floridian that do, have their favorite team already. IF you think about, considering those factors...it's a miracle they get that many fans there. When the Penguins, Bruins, Canadians, Rangers, Black Hawks, Maple Leafs, Canucks, Red Wings and even San Jose...those game are ALWAYS sold out.

Really ???
Florida games get sold out when all those teams come to town ?
Or did I read your comment wrong ?
 
Too bad about the Islanders. I mean with all that tradition winning the stanley cups and they are dead last in attendance. Although I believe that the Islanders are going to get a new arena, if that helps.
 
Yes...they do.

But their TV ratings are terrible....

"To give you some perspective on how few people watch the Panthers, consider this: Their .19 local rating was the worst in the NHL among the 22 teams studied by Sports Business Daily (numbers for Carolina, Nashville and Canadian teams were not available).

"That's lower than the rating for a kid's show named Doodlebops at 7 a.m. Sunday on WFOR-4, lower than an AbCoaster exercise equipment infomercial on WFOR last Sunday, and lower than the Ninja Professional Blender, Chopper and Ice Crusher infomercial on WPLG-10."

Florida Panthers Suffer Attendance and Viewership Woes As Ratings Rank Below Children's Shows and Infomercials - NHL - NESN.com
 
Jimbo said:
Wow, that surprises me, I can see the Penguins, Red Wings maybe a few others, but All of them ?

WoW, thats better than I thought hockey was drawing in Miami.

Canadians, Rangers, Maple Leafs, Canucks ???
Why would ANY of them draw in Miami ?

As Ice mention before, there is a huge contingency of "snowbirds" that come down during the winter and the "in the know" hockey fans will go out to see the top clubs when they come down. Its the rest of league that alot of fans really do not make an effort to see. Now if the team was a consistent winner, I assure you their attendance would be in the top ten. But the again you can say that about any professional team in any professional sport....except the Marlins... :-(
 
This is really bad news.

For the USA, and for the NHL, it must make itself a sports that is valid in every part of the country. If the NHL gets run out of the economic capital of the South, then its going to fail elsewhere such as Phoenix, Nashville, Raleigh, etc. Left as a niche sport which national networks have no interest in. If it is a sport that Canada and border USA states ONLY follow, then its not going to be on TV nationally, not going to be covered nationally, not going to be important nationally in the USA.

For Winnipeg, and Canada, this is a problem. As mentioned, Winnipeg and Quebec failed because of a weak C$. Economies are cyclical. Politics change. OK, today the US$ and the C$ are at par, which is the best C$ position ever. Explain to me how you are going to make it 5 or 10 or 15 years from now when its back to 60 cents on, or you are doomed to failure again, and there will not be an Atlanta or a Phoenix waiting to take the teams off your hands. Further, Winnipeg is simply a small market in the middle of farm country. You are asking 690K people to support a team in a major league, with pretty much no regional TV infastructure to supplement it.

The NHL needs to do everything it can to keep its southern and southwestern teams going, and get teams in Houston, Seattle, Kansas City, and Las Vegas.
 
Not really. The NHL is in a unique position in the history of sports, relative to talent dilution. In the bad old days, lots of stars were tied up (almost literally) behind Soviet lines. They are now free to join the NHL. Further western Europeans are likewise coming into the sport, something that never happened previously. In fact the quality of talent in the NHL is better today than it was when it was just Canadians and US borderland players.
 

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