History of NHL Expansion to Canada, Part One: The Background

Having written my first article on CFL expansion, I'd like to follow up by writing about NHL expansion to Canada. 

This has been big news for the last two years, because Jim Balsillie has been trying to get another franchise for southern Ontario.  I would like to examine the feasibility and myths about NHL expansion to Canada, going back over its history from 1967 to the present day. 

This topic is too big for one article, so I shall write a series of them.  This first one, I shall entitle "The Background."

One of the common themes (myths) today is that NHL expansion to Canada has/is being thwarted by Gary Bettman and "the Americans". 

While not rejecting this thesis entirely, my view is that Canadians are mostly to blame for the domination of the NHL by Americans and the lack of Canadian franchises.

The truth is that Canadians have had an unquenchable thirst for American money and American glory.  This occurs in almost all aspects of Canadian life—but for these articles, I shall confine myself to sports.

No better example of Canadian desire for American money currently exists than the fact that the most sacredly Canadian of franchises, the Montreal Canadians, is owned by an American.  The ill-fated Ottawa Renegades were twice-owned by Americans—and who can forget the US CFL expansion in the 1990s?

Even more pertinent is the 2010 Vancouver Olympic games.  A huge chunk of the costs is met by selling TV rights to the Americans. (This is true of all countries, not just Canada.) 

We all boo boorish American chants of "USA" at the Olympics but the fact is the Americans have paid for that privilege.  Vancouver would not have dared bid for the Olympics if they had not been confident of getting American television money.  Canadians are willing to sell almost anything for American dollars.

As far as the NHL goes, this shows in the pay scale of the players.  The NHL wants to be one of the "big four" in American sports.  Thus the pay rate is on US terms.  There could be more Canadian franchises if there were smaller salaries for the players but the NHL will not accept such a drop in status even though their American TV revenue and audience is pitiful compared to the other three major sports.  And Canadians are willing to accept it.

Canadians also have a drug-craving for American praise and glory.  We want all the hype we see them bestow on their own teams when we tune in to American TV channels. 

For example, when the Toronto Blue Jays won the World Series, Torontonians began thinking, "Now that we have won the big one in baseball, we want to win the big one in football too."  Attendance at Toronto Argonaut football games fell, and politicians like Paul Godfrey (even to this day) committed themselves to bringing an NFL franchise to Toronto.  So much for having a national football league like the CFL.

I have never heard an American announcer speak of the CFL except in terms of utmost respect.  But when I was a guest-commentator on a sports phone-in show on a local cable tv station in Ajax, I would hear lots of sneering comments about the "bush league" CFL which no American would ever dare make.

Ask yourselves, when the Vancouver Olympics begin, how many of you (and you know who you are) are going to turn on the American channel to hear some American commentator praise the outstanding facilities, Vancouver, and Canada. 

And if you don't get that praise from them, you're going to be pretty ticked off.  Just ask poor Bob Costas, who made some mildly-critical remark during a Toronto Blue Jay playoff game.  Howard Cosell fared better.

So American control of the NHL at the expense of Canada?  We are willing to give it to them on a platter.