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Originally Posted by Habsfan84
Good that this is a great debate.
I'm in no way saying that hockey in the USA has failed but if you look at it. There are 24 teams in the US. There are 6 in Canada.
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I'll agree with you there, Canada has been given the short end of the stick. Then again, Winnipeg didn't exactly go over too well. It'd be nice to see the NHL branch out to some other Canadian cities, and with teams like Phoenix and Florida doing as they are, it wouldn't be a bad thing to see a few teams relocate.
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Originally Posted by Habsfan84
In the USA they do have Hockey Cities but a few that aren't. Florida doesnt have Great attendance. Nashville is terrible. A few other american teams have low attendance.
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Florida, yes, but Nashville? I seem to remember them having somewhat of a decent turnout at their games. I haven't had the chance to actually visit Nashville in person, but most of their games on Center Ice seemed pretty packed to me. The Stars/Preds game in particular was well-attended.
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Originally Posted by Habsfan84
Now look at Canada. 6 teams running on almost Capacity crowds. Montreal sells out all of there games and isnt even the best team out there like a Nashville. Montreal even has the biggest arena Capacity(21,273). Toronto sells out all of there games. No Canadian team is struggling.
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Wasn't Ottawa the team that was considering filing for bankruptcy at one point?
I do agree that Canada's NHL teams are doing very well, and it'd be great to see some of the less-populated US teams move to better locations, most likely in Canada, but I certainly wouldn't want to see the NHL expand beyond 30 teams to accommodate any of those changes.
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Originally Posted by Habsfan84
The NHL already has enough teams in 30. Canada has proved that they are a good hockey market. I say move a teams like Nashville to Canada. I project Canada getting 8-10 teams in the future. Thats probably not likely to happen. Maybe 10 is a bit much just because of Canada's population compared to the USA. But 8 should be a minimum.
Keep Posting
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I'll agree with 8 in the future, but as I said before, it would have to be at the expense of an existing suffering franchise, not a new one.
Speaking as neither an American nor a Canadian, I do believe there's a bit of a double standard in where the recent moves have been projected. I mean, Kansas City? I thought they'd already tried that once. It does seem as though American cities are given the benefit of a doubt far more than Canadian cities are these days. I still don't believe that the NHL should 'give up' on the US, but I will say that at some point in the not-too-distant future, Canada should be given that same benefit.