Official NHL/hockey thread

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Originally Posted by Firstgear

Yes, Winnipeg is quite small, about 700,000.

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I guess "small" is relative. Helsinki is biggest city in Finland, and it only has about 590,000 inhabitants.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Firstgear

Yes, Winnipeg is quite small, about 700,000.
Can a team here be profitable? I think Mark summed it up pretty acurately a few posts back. I read or heard a few days ago (I wish I remember where) that all the Canadian teams are in the top 10 in the league in profitabitily and Winnipeg, if it got a team should be right up there as well.
Things have changed in the league and in our city since the Jets left. The league now has a salary cap. That, combined with the Canadian dollar being pretty much at par with the US dollar (15 yrs ago it was about .65US and the players contracts are all in US) gives a team here a chance to be competative. Also, the team previously didn't have rights to consession or parking money. The new owners (if the deal goes through) own the new arena (the old one was demolished a few years ago) so they have that going for them as well.
You're right about them usually being a bad team (dump & chase, dump & chase....man that was some boring hockey) but with the factors listed above changing things in their favour, I think they've got a chance here.
Two possible things holding them back are the size of the new arena (16,000?) being quite small by NHL standards, and that Winnipeg is known to be quite a wholesale (read - cheap) town. So will the fans fill the arena every game , paying NHL ticket prices after the initial jubilation wears off? Hard to say. People here have been talking about the return of the Jets for years now, and it's gotten loads of attention lately. There have been new rumours in the local papers here nearly every day for months now. People are getting really excited, but will they put their money into it?
Me? - my boys are Calgary & Montreal fans, so we might go to the occasional game when those teams are in town.
People here loved Teemu, one of I believe 6 players still in the league that played here before the team left. Do you remember Thomas Steen? He's still here and recently was elected one of our city councellors.

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I remember Steen, didn't know he didn't go back to Sweden. Winnipeg Jets is pretty well-known in this country because Selänne was a real superstar over here when he went to the NHL and people and the media followed his first year quite a lot, a lot more than they follow the NHL now. I think they even showed live Winnipeg games over here if I'm not mistaken.

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Originally Posted by Eki

I guess "small" is relative. Helsinki is biggest city in Finland, and it only has about 590,000 inhabitants.

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That's not really the case, as you know. Helsinki is the basically a city of about 1 000 000 people, Espoo and Vantaa are just huge suburbs of Helsinki in reality. They don't even have a centre.

Well, for an NHL city, 700,000 is definately small, especially as there are no other relatively large centers nearby. You could drive 8 hrs east or west before hitting anything with a population over 100,000.

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Originally Posted by DexDexter

That's not really the case, as you know. Helsinki is the basically a city of about 1 000 000 people, Espoo and Vantaa are just huge suburbs of Helsinki in reality. They don't even have a centre.

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It's other way around. Vantaa on Stadin Amerikka.

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Originally Posted by Firstgear

Well, for an NHL city, 700,000 is definately small, especially as there are no other relatively large centers nearby. You could drive 8 hrs east or west before hitting anything with a population over 100,000.

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Yeah, surrounding area is the problem, not the city itself. Most teams are in cities with less than 700k in the cities themselves.

I think Winnipeg would be more successful than the team in Atlanta, at the very least. Still think it should have been the Québec Nordiques getting to debut that new logo they never used (the one with what I guess was a husky or a wolf)...but I don't call the shots. Honestly, hockey's a niche sport. Always going to be. Just cater to the people who want to be catered to. Many of those people are in Canada...

Well, word on the radio is that the deal is done. True North Sports Entertainment (the guys wanting to bring the Thrashers to Winnipeg) have called a news conference for 11am today (just under 3 hours from now) with Bettman flying into town as well.

YouTube - ‪Stompin Tom Connors - The Hockey Song‬‏

Sounds promising :up: .

I'm all for it :up:

( Like it needs my blessing :dozey: )

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Originally Posted by A.F.F.

It's other way around. Vantaa on Stadin Amerikka.

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:D :D

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Originally Posted by Mr. Mister

Yeah, surrounding area is the problem, not the city itself. Most teams are in cities with less than 700k in the cities themselves.

I think Winnipeg would be more successful than the team in Atlanta, at the very least. Still think it should have been the Québec Nordiques getting to debut that new logo they never used (the one with what I guess was a husky or a wolf)...but I don't call the shots. Honestly, hockey's a niche sport. Always going to be. Just cater to the people who want to be catered to. Many of those people are in Canada...

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Let me correct you a bit. Ice hockey is a niche sport in the United States of America, it's not a niche sport in Russia, Canada, Finland, Sweden, the Czech Republic or Slovakia.

So, are the Thrashers, going to stay as the Thrashers - or will they revert to Jets? Was watching NHL On The Fly before, and it seems they are staying in the South West Division.