Why is Bettman so opposed to Canada getting another NHL team?

Question

Doesn't he know where his butter comes from?

It has little to do with the size of the cities nor the exchange rate.

It has more to do with the amount of passion for the game.

If a 'small market' like Green Bay can support one of the most successful NFL teams, why can't Canada support more teams? Of course we can.

But thats not the question. Why is Bettman standing in the way?

Answer 1

Awesome Bill-what economics make it difficult? Just wondering............. me thinks I might disagree and Bettman does, to me, and most Canadians, seem anti-Canadian.

Answer 2

Actually, I think you are mistaken about a couple of things:

"It has little to do with the size of the cities nor the exchange rate."

Oh yes it does! It is ALL about the money. That is the only reason that idiot Bettman is talking about expansion: the owners for whom he works get paid by new teams, and the more established teams get to feed off poor expansion teams. When you're dealing with greedy team owners, exchange rate and population are still factors, too. They don't care if new teams are successful. They care if THEIR teams are successful.

"It has more to do with the amount of passion for the game."

Yeah. Tell that to the owners of the Winnipeg Jets and Quebec Nordiques. They couldn't fill their arenas until everyone found out there were leaving. It has more to do with team success than passion for the game. If your team sucks, few people will go unless they live in Toronto or Montreal. Look at Edmonton. They've struggled at the gate for 20 years since Gretzky and Mess left. Only last minute deals and a desire by the league to actually keep them there has saved them from becoming the Houston Oilers or something instead.

"If a 'small market' like Green Bay can support one of the most successful NFL teams, why can't Canada support more teams? Of course we can."

For every Green Bay there are dozens of teams in other sports that failed because of being in a small market. Green Bay succeeds in part because they are nationally loved. A team in Hamilton or Winnipeg or somewhere else is never going to get the national love it deserves, because of Toronto and Montreal. In fact, the Maple Leafs front office is a bigger opponent to Canadian teams than Bettman. They don't want another team on their doorstep, and they have blocked several attempts to get a new team in Ontario.

Although I agree 100% that there should be more teams in Canada, Bettman is only a small part of the problem.

Answer 3

Awesome-bIll you have no idea what you're talking about.

The most profitable teams in the NHL are the Canadian teams and since the new CBA has been put in place, all 6 Canadian teams make up for more than 30% of the league's revenue.

Bettman doesn't want another team in Canada because he wants to grow the sport in the US. Adding another Canadian team would not necessarily be good for the league due to the fact that the sport is already popular as it is in Canada.

He is trying to do what Stern did with the NBA but it won't work. The talent pool for hockey is not as wide as it is for basketball. With 30 teams we've already diluted much of the talent. We have players making 3-4 millions per season scoring 15-20 goals, which is totally absurd.

Cut the number of teams by 6 and we weed out some of the players who don't belong in the NHL, the ones who cause the hooking, tripping and such because they can't keep up with the likes of Lecavalier, Crosby, Ovechkin, Heatly, Spezza etc...

Bettman has too big a vision for hockey and in the end he will fail. Teams in places like Nashville, Atlanta and Phoenix already have a hard time surviving, we are seeing a reversal in roles before and after CBA.

In the end, Nashville will end up Balsillie's team which will move to Hamilton where the fan base is large enough even though the Leafs are less than 100km away and Bettman will be replaced because of overstepping his boundaries in the whole deal.

Answer 4

Bettman wants to saturate the U.S. with teams in every heavily populated area because he's chasing the big TV network dollars, which I doubt will ever come.

Having said that, I think there has to be a serious economic update here. This isn't 1999. The difference between the Canadian and U.S. dollars is just a few cents, and there's a chance over the next few years that the Canadian buck will pass the U.S. greenback, largely because the U.S. has gone so far into debt. And as far as I know, under the new system, all Canadian teams are paying into the equalization fund, not taking out of it.

It's hard to explain to people from other areas the enormity of the Leafs' cash flow in southern Ontario. The revenue generated by the Leafs dwarfs every other team in the NHL. They have a waiting list of tens of thousands (I've heard 60,000) for seasons tickets. The team could come close to selling out games just on corporate ticket purchases alone. People leave Leafs season tickets to their kids in their wills. They can pretty much charge whatever they want for a game. Last March, as the Leafs were edging toward playoffs, scalpers were talking about charging $1,000 for a single seat.

Toronto alone probably carries half dozen U.S. teams with its equalization payments.

The demand is enormous. The area around Toronto is extremely prosperous - with 8 million people or so - and could easily handle another NHL club, possibly two more, that would make buckets of cash. An in case you weren't paying attention to the exact geography, Hamilton is just 30 miles from downtown Toronto.

Why would anyone want a shaky team in Kansas when they have an automatic goldmine in southern Ontario?

Answer 5

It's widely known that a big chunk of NHL revenue comes from Canada, despite Canada only having 6 NHL teams. Sure, everyone quickly points out that the Canadian dollar is less than the American dollar, so the Canadian franchises are taking a 5% hit right off the bat, but the fact of the matter is that ever since the dollar moved up from 63 cents into the 80 cent range, all 6 Canadian teams have been making money, despite their higher taxes and the lower dollar. Yes, players must be paid in US dollars, but arena costs, team staff, equipment purchases are all in Canadian dollars. Simple math can show just how profitable they are. Canadian teams sell out all their home games, while American teams are averaging maybe 14,000- 16,000 paid attendance as a whole. Some teams were reported to wallowing down in the 6,000 to 7,000 range last year in terms of actual paid attendance. This doesn't even begin to address the fact all six Canadian teams are in the top 12 or so in average NHL ticket prices and the merchandise they sell is waaaaay more than the typical American franchise. The ESPN TV deal used to be better for the NHL than the CBC and TSN national ones, but as of now the Canadian networks pay way more than the American ones.

As of right now, Canadian franchises are single handedly supporting all the teams in the sun belt, struggling to break even. There is absolutely no reason not to move them north and make them into profitable businesses, except for the fact that Bettman would have egg on his face, because he sold the owners on growing the game down south and said that his plan would work.

Answer 6

He isn't and you know it.

The economics make it difficult to operate a team competitively in Canada, not nationalism. The owners don't want to be the runt at the money trough. That's why they instituted profit sharing. Why establish another team that has the potential of drawing away your teams profits when there are other cities that can contribute money?

That's all it comes down to. Blaming Bettman makes you seem vindictive, petty, and uneducated. Yes, I agree that the NHL is turning into a laughingstock, and that there are Canadian cities that should have teams while some don't belong below the Mason-Dixon line. But the truth is the truth. The greedy, idiotic owners are to blame for this. Bettman is just a face for them.

Bob Loblaw: The user named "needingajob" pretty much sums up my opinion. That is, despite economic equalization measures, there are still 'haves" and "have not's" among the teams. It's like deciding where to build a Burger King. In the center of Philly or the center of Death Valley? I say Philly because the economic performance will achieve a greater R.O.I. for the investor than the Death Valley location.

That was a simple example for a complex issue. I can't really say any more without repeating the first part of my answer. What I would like to say is that I find it extremely difficult to believe that one man can single-handedly decide what franchises belong where. He was hired to do what the NHL team owners want him to do, not much different than Bud Selig in MLB.

Although the Jets and Nords relocated prior to the lockout, the economic conditions were less than friendly toward staying put than they are today. The lockout can explain the stupidity and greed of the powers that be, but is only indirectly associated with teams moving. I wish it was a league that had more Canadian teams, but even if the situation was one that made it possible to operate at a great profit and remain competitive with Toronto and New York in the accounting department, there is one thing that no one can ignore. There are far more populous cities in America than Canada at this time. So there will always be a greater number of American teams. It didn't hurt the original six, so it can't be of any particular negative consequence now.

And whether Bettman has it out for Canada or not, I think it is asinine for someone to state that his moves have everything to do with being American. I know you are above such nonsense, but in the absence of any proof that suggests that Bettman is acting alone and 30 owners are powerless to do anything about his agenda, then my economic explanation is one that I have to go with.

Answer 7

Because Bettman is a retard, and I would think he knows where to make money, and that would be canada. I hope if canada gets another team its winipeg, still love the Jets, now the Wild.

Answer 8

I'm getting tired of all this conspiracy talk about how the league is out to get Canada, you are all starting to sound like 7 year old children worried about an ax murder from a movie coming after them. The fact is the Canadian dollar is not as strong as the US dollar (the gap is getting smaller but still there is a gap). The NHL and NHL teams are a business and if a team were making enough money in a location they would stay, clearly they were not as such teams have left Winnipeg and Hartford and relocated to the USA. Has the league grown too large? Yes in fact i think the fact the league grew so fast is why the NHL bombed in comparison to the other sports, too many roster spots had to be filled with AHL level talent watering down the game and leading to the hook and hold 90's. I blame Bettman for this and I blame Bettman for the state of the current TV contract but to honestly think he is out to sabotage Canada is illogical. If Canada wants more teams raise the value of your currency, increase your population density and prove you can keep all the teams you have.

Answer 9

Small markets. Big cities in Canada have 700k- 1.5 million people (other than Toronto and Montreal). Small markets in the US have 2 million people. Sure people will go but people don't buy all those luxury boxes.

Answer 10

when presenting the cup to the mighty quacks he stated that this is the first west coast team to win the cup wrong vancouver victoria and seattle all have one the stanley cup he does not want canadian teams unless there areanas that have nba or adjoing mlb complex owened by major corprate america both florida bteams to canada and he still does not know that the stanley cup belongs to the city of new westminister who loaned it in 1913 to the pacfic coast hockey leage it has been contested twice once 1947 supreme cort canada early 80s american supreme court both times it did not make it to court wrong sport for bettman

Answer 11

Money. If he gets a team in Vegas instead he'll make millions on ratings and every game would be sold out because of people gambling on the games.