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Thursday, June 18, 2009

Moving an American team to Hamilton is a no-brainer to everyone...except Americans

By Brendan Hall
Fan Fanatic Sports Staff


On Monday, an Arizona bankruptcy court blocked the sale of the Phoenix Coyotes to billionaire and BlackBerry CEO Jim Balsillie, a man Hell-bent on bringing a seventh NHL team back to Canada. For the umpteenth time, this is going end up a lose-lose situation for the league.

At this point, nothing should surprise us with these clowns. This is the same league that has a 15-year contract on an unproven, raw goalie from Winthrop; a Director of Hockey Operations job to a 25-year-old kid whose previous job was covering the Red Sox for the Globe; and just two years ago -- at the same time Balsillie was trying to move the Nashville Predators to the Kitchener/Waterloo area -- was contemplating expansion into Las Vegas and Kansas City (you obviously didn't see how that worked the first time, knuckleheads).

(Quick side-note...my favorite sports conspiracy theory has to be this: In the early 90's, when the NHL was beating out the NBA in ratings, hockey was looking for a new commissioner. David Stern recommended his worst assistant -- Gary Bettman -- for the job, and the rest is history.)

Make no buts about it. Even in these times of recession, Bettman is firmly enveloped in his idea of making hockey an "American" sport. Even as these southern "hotbed" markets show no interest in a sport they can't play in the winter time. No matter that south Florida and southern California have more teams with minimal fanfare than a hockey hotbed like Wisconsin -- which is dying for a professional hockey team -- Bettman is fixaded on keeping square pegs in round holes. Even if the said peg has lost $60 million in the last two years.

Americans can sweat all they want about how "devoted" and "passionate" they are about their team, but at the end of the day they will never hold a stick to Canada’s hockey culture. Other parts of the world have "futbol". Canada has one sport among all others, and it is treated with religious zeal -- hockey. Unlike Nashville, Atlanta, or Phoenix, Canada has the world’s best grassroots system.

If and when the Coyotes move, about seven people will cry. Do you know how many Winnipeg fans are still pissed-off about the Jets' move?

(Another side-note…came across a column on About.com a few weeks back claiming the AHL's Hamilton Bulldogs only selling 5-6,000 seats a night means an NHL team wouldn’t sell well there. This is akin to saying Los Angeles isn't a football town because the Avengers don't sell out; and for all intents and purposes we’re going to pretend there aren’t humans on Earth this stupid, and ignore this argument. On a related note, I'm never going to About.com again.)

The Toronto Maple Leafs haven't made the playoffs in five seasons, yet they sell out every game at the Air Canada Centre. If you were to put a team back in Quebec City, Quebec-Montreal would be the most intense rivalry in hockey -- think Celtic-Rangers, not Red Sox-Yankees.

Bettman ignores all this because he wants to appeal to large demographics like Phoenix. First off, Arizona is Suns country, followed by Arizona State football and U of A basketball. The Cardinals are catching up, now that they're operating like professionals, as are the Diamondbacks, if not for simply its (you guessed it) grassroots baseball culture. Coyotes tickets invokes the same reaction as Clippers tickets -- "who they playing?"

Secondly, if market size is what he's going for, let's look at population. Phoenix has a metro of roughly 4.5 million. Southern Ontario, over a larger landscape, has a collective population of seven million.

But how many people would be willing to travel a great distance to see a professional hockey team? A good chunk, as it turns out. A few months ago, Balsillie canvassed deposits of between $50-150 on season tickets for a potential NHL team in Hamilton, and within days had 12,000 deposits. That's just based on RUMORS.

Even in these times of recession and the Flying Loon, Bettman ignores a gold mine in an effort to stay true to his mission of "Americanizing" hockey. At this point, that's just plain wrong.

Something tells me Balsillie will eventually get his way. Hopefully by then, Bettman will be out of office.