I like (sarcastically) how much respect Kansas City is getting for being a legitimate city to have an NHL team. There are insults going from the people of Canada, upset with the thoughts of another American NHL team, before Canada gets one.
I'm not making this a border war with Canada, I just want to clarify the realization of Kansas City's opportunity to have a great NHL organization.
I know its not so much a popularity contest, but a population presence is there.
Winnipeg's population is about 700,000,while Halifax has one of roughly 270,000—the Kansas City metro is 2 million.
You are telling me we can't fill up 18,500 seats & bring enough popularity and money to support a team?
We have the Sprint Center which is newly built, and will be hosting an NHL exhibition game next preseason. I know Winnipeg has a fairly new arena as well, but the Sprint Center is a state-of-the-art facility and right in the middle of the newly remodeled and increasingly popular downtown Kansas City.
Kansas City isn't near any of the current NHL franchises, and hockey fans in the area should finally have a team. I know the area, and thousands of people for years have wanted an NHL team.
- B/R Ticket Guide
However, the doubters may bring up the Kansas City Scouts of the 70's and make a comparison to the Scouts.
They may say, "If they didn't make it back than, how are they going to make it now?"
But what about the Colorado Avalanche?
The Scouts moved to Colorado and became the original Colorado Rockies in the late seventies and had a very short tenure before moving to New Jersey to become the Devils we know today.
Yet, ever since moving from Quebec City to Colorado, the Avalanche have been one of the most popular and successful franchises in the NHL.
People stress the importance of, "Location, Location, Location," and what better location than Kansas City?
We are far enough away from other franchises to have our own strong fan base in the area, but close enough to make traveling for friends, enemies, and casual fans for hundreds of miles worthwhile, especially for those who wouldn't have gotten to see an NHL game before a new franchise in Kansas City.
What about developing rich, entrhalling rivalries? Not a problem, especially with the closest franchise being the St. Louis Blues, who have to share the state.
The cities already have bad blood in many other sports, and the sparks have already started to fly, even before the i's are dotted and the t's crossed.
Winnipeg and Halifax are in the middle of nowhere and we talk about "spreading the market". But with those two cities being so far away, why would the NHL want to go that far, especially when teams are forced to play back-to-back games on consecutive nights?
I have never claimed Halifax and Winnipeg don't deserve teams, but I am just saying when compared to Kansas City, Kansas City is certainly worthy of a team and definitely not deserving of the criticism is being dumped upon it.
Most the teams are in America, and adding another won't make the world spin off of it's axis or anything.
Please take a better look at the NHL and Kansas City before you jump to conclusions on our inferiority.
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7 months ago
Good article, I can feel comfortable saying that with the Pens deciding to stay in the Burgh for another 30 years. But, I don't know if this has been done yet, or if you know of anything of the sort: Kansas City-ians, or people that live in the suburbs/surrounding areas should put together some sort of petition, maybe get it sponsored by some big shot at the Sprint Center, get a few thousand signatures on it, then try to get it into the commissioner's office somehow. Even getting it to someone who knows someone who knows someone who knows Bettman would be better than nothing. If it gets big enough, some media coverage develops, and maybe people think you guys have a legitimate point. I don't know what this would do, if anything, in the way of deterring the expansion team being granted to a Canadian city (which I'm not sure it shouldn't be in Canada, this is their sport after all), but it would definitley get some people talking. Just a thought.
6 months ago
Interesting. You have some strong arguments.
Just as a question for somebody to answer though, is the NHL planning to expand in the near future? And theyd have to add 2 to get to an even 32... right?
6 months ago
This is an extremely well written article, and I loved it. But regardless of the population in Kansas City, I do not think that it is the league's fault so much. In fact, I think it is America's fault (that sounds crazy). But we've proven that few American cities can support a hockey team, and adding one in an extremely small market where hockey has already failed in the recent past is a big risk for a multi billion dollar corporation (the NHL) to take. Hence the reason I don't think we should go back to Winnipeg, because it failed there too. We shouldn't even be expanding.
from 6 months ago
Like I said, with the failure in the past. Look at the Colorado Avalanche and how well they are doing in Colorado and Nationwide, one of the most succesful franchises in the NHL, despite the failure of the Colorado Rockies in the 1970's. We can't judge a teams ability to survive upon what happened over 30 years ago.
6 months ago
Halifax and Winnipeg are far from the middle of nowhere. Geographically, the California teams are more isolated than either locale. Winnipeg could be placed in the Central, moving Nashville to the Southeast so that they play 8 games a year in neighbouring Georgia, North Carolina and DC, as opposed to sending them on the road to Detroit, Ohio and Chicago , this would undoubtedly cut down their travel expenses as they are one of the teams in financial distress. You could also put Winnipeg in the Northwest (which I call the Great Wide Open) to play against Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton, and let truly isolated Colorado join the Pacific to play neighbouring Phoenix instead of having to travel the farthest of current NHL teams for division games. As far as population goes, they would easily attract fans from Northwestern Ontario and Saskatchewan.
As far as Halifax goes, geographically, it could join the Northeast division with minimal fuss or muss by putting Boston in the Atlantic division where they should be anyhow, and population wise, would draw crowds from all of the Maritimes in addition to Metro Halifax.
Hockey is Canada's sport that has been severely bastardized by corporate America, to have two franchises in the state of Missouri while deserving Canadian fans are left with no team to cheer for is unfathomable. What needs to be kept in mind is that it is fans and local interest that make a franchise viable, and you will get more dedicated fans in any Canadian city, regardless of size, than you will in Kansas City Missouri, or Las Vegas, Nevada.
Anyone who thinks otherwise has bought into the Bettman Agenda, and in my opinion, are exactly what is wrong with the NHL today.
6 months ago
Kansas City deserves a team! People were dying to have the Pens move their but that deal fell through. Growing up i saw the Blades play, and they did quite well fan wise. I think an NHL would fit in nicely in KC. But i doubt ill ever see it.
6 months ago
Let's put a team in Fargo while we're at it.
6 months ago
I would say that Fargo, North Dakota, or Seattle, Washington would deserve a franchise long before KC. Traditional hockey markets deserve franchises before 'novelty' markets, which is not meant to slight the Kansas City fans or businesses, but the NHL is in far too tenuous of a state to be experimenting with new markets as it did back in the early 90's with San Jose, Anaheim and Tampa Bay.
I would say that in 10-15 years, once the NHL rebounds from the lockout and the league can secure better broadcast contracts than it currently has, expansion into new markets could be viable, but until then, focusing on Canadian cities and border states are the only way to offer any sort of surety regarding fan interest.
6 months ago
Andrew, I respect your opinion but I was being sarcastic about Fargo...
6 months ago
Andrew, I respect your opinion but I was being sarcastic about Fargo...
6 months ago
Andrew, I respect your opinion but I was being sarcastic about Fargo...
6 months ago
I wasn't, North Dakota is a viable hockey market, UND is testament to that. Population should not be a mitigating factor in city selection, rather projected per capita appeal. Why move to a city of 2 million, when MAYBE 4% of the populace would pay to see a game, as opposed to a city of 750,000 where 25-30% of the populace would pay to see a game? If it's going to be about numbers, at least make it the right numbers.
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