4th Annual 'NHL moves to Kansas City' Thread

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Yes, it's that time of the year again. Phoenix gets the opportunity this year..............

http://www.fannation.com/truth_and_r...-kansas-city?/

Coyotes destined for Kansas City?

07:20 AM ET 09.24

If Glendale fails to secure a new partner for the Coyotes by the end of 2009, the leading contender for relocation is Kansas City, which already has a sparking arena (Sprint Center) clamoring for an anchor tenant.

Arizona Republic

[Dr. Sak]

If Jim Balsillie gets the team...that chance will be about 0.00001% for KC.

[RomaGoth]

Is there a Kansas City, Ontario? If so, then this will indeed happen. Just you watch.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by Dr. Sak

If Jim Balsillie gets the team...that chance will be about 0.00001% for KC.

His main problem is that he's irritated so many people in the league office at this point. He admitted yesterday that he won't be able to move it for this season as he was hoping to avoid a more open bidding process.

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepu...es0923-ON.html

Also, the NHL has made it clear that they intend to open the bidding up and aren't interested in giving Balsillie the upper hand in any way. It seems that, much like previous bids, the NHL front office is trying to make it extremely difficult for Balsillie to land a team.

[Dr. Sak]

Yeah I am aware of that but the fate of the team is in the hands of an arbitrator and his bid (Balsillie's) is $100 million more than the NHL's.

[cartman]

Chan Ho Park should buy the Coyotes

[Fidatelo]

I can't wait to play as the KC Coyotes in the Sony exclusive NHL 11 on my industry-leading PS3 console!

[SackAttack]

Under ordinary circumstances, I would think the league has the right to choose whom they allow into the owner's club.

Don't things change when the club in question is in bankruptcy? Would a judge really allow a bid $100M less to go through just because the league doesn't want Balsillie to have the team?

[claphamsa]

didnt the islanders and someone just play a game there and people said the arena sucked and was only 45% full?

[RomaGoth]

Originally Posted by claphamsa

didnt the islanders and someone just play a game there and people said the arena sucked and was only 45% full?

I believe you are referring to the game in Nassau Coliseum.

[boberot]

I love this idea for the phoenetics alone: Kansas City Coyotes just sounds fantastic.

I'd also love to see a franchise return to Canada, and Hamilton is a decent-sized city [almost 700,000 people in the "metro area"], but talk about a saturated market. Buffalo is only 54 miles away and Toronto is only 41 miles away.

Winnipeg and Quebec City are both bigger and were the only games in town -- and they couldn't hack it.

[claphamsa]

Originally Posted by boberot

I love this idea for the phoenetics alone: Kansas City Coyotes just sounds fantastic.

I'd also love to see a franchise return to Canada, and Hamilton is a decent-sized city [almost 700,000 people in the "metro area"], but talk about a saturated market. Buffalo is only 54 miles away and Toronto is only 41 miles away.

Winnipeg and Quebec City are both bigger and were the only games in town -- and they couldn't hack it.

its not that the coulnt hack it... its they could hack it better elsewhere!

[Fidatelo]

Winnipeg isn't really bigger, when you think about it. The city is around 700-750k, so it sounds close... but we may as well be on an island. Unlike most states or provinces, we have no other cities or towns of consequence for hours and hours in any direction. Brandon is the closest, with 50k, but that's well over 2 hours away. Grand Forks is 2.5 hours, but then there is the border to cross. And no one is driving 2-3 hours each way across the bald prairie to see a random hockey game in the middle of winter when it's -30 Celsius outside in January.

So while the city itself is technically bigger, there is nothing else to draw from. Hamilton can reasonably pull from a much larger group of people, I would think.

[MikeVic]

Originally Posted by Fidatelo

Winnipeg isn't really bigger, when you think about it. The city is around 700-750k, so it sounds close... but we may as well be on an island. Unlike most states or provinces, we have no other cities or towns of consequence for hours and hours in any direction. Brandon is the closest, with 50k, but that's well over 2 hours away. Grand Forks is 2.5 hours, but then there is the border to cross. And no one is driving 2-3 hours each way across the bald prairie to see a random hockey game in the middle of winter when it's -30 Celsius outside in January.

So while the city itself is technically bigger, there is nothing else to draw from. Hamilton can reasonably pull from a much larger group of people, I would think.

What about Saskatchewan? Oh nevermind.

[SnDvls]

400 fans for a preseason game.

The Coyotes are dead here. They have no PR, sales, or marketing dept. left as everyone jumped ship off the SS Coyote long ago. No one is going to invest in season tickets to see them move next year. They were dumb to build an arena on the West side of town to begin with when all of their fan base is in the East Valley. The city of Glendale will be paying for this mistake for a while as will the leadership of Glendale. Even if Jerry R. bought the team it would take lots of time to build up the trust and fan base again.

[RomaGoth]

Originally Posted by SnDvls

400 fans for a preseason game.

The Coyotes are dead here. They have no PR, sales, or marketing dept. left as everyone jumped ship off the SS Coyote long ago. No one is going to invest in season tickets to see them move next year. They were dumb to build an arena on the West side of town to begin with when all of their fan base is in the East Valley. The city of Glendale will be paying for this mistake for a while as will the leadership of Glendale. Even if Jerry R. bought the team it would take lots of time to build up the trust and fan base again.

My father-in-law was commenting on the arena thing last year (he lives in the area).

Sadly, you are correct. The S.S. Coyote is going down, and when it gets put into drydock for some much needed repairs, it won't be in Arizona.

[kcchief19]

Originally Posted by claphamsa

didnt the islanders and someone just play a game there and people said the arena sucked and was only 45% full?

The areana was more than half full. Actually the Islanders beat writers for one of the NY papers tweeted on his arrival at the Sprint Center that the team should cancel their return flight and just relocated to KC now because the arena was great. The Sprint Center is a great venue.

Crowd wasn't what we wanted but I think we have a little preseason jacking-us-around fatigue. Plus, it was the Islanders and the Kings without the Islanders best two players on a Tuesday night in September with Greinke pitching against the Red Sox. It was probably a miracle we got 9,000 there. Despite that, we still drew more than the Islanders drew for the home game the next day against New Jersey.

It's almost shaping into a perfect storm for KC to get a team next year. This season is likely going to be the bottom of the sports recession so a lot of teams are going to have horrible financial years and make relocation more likely for a couple of teams. If we got a team a year or two ago, we'd be hard-pressed to financially support them and it would look like a disaster. But if we get a team as the market is rebounding, it will make KC look even better.

If we get a team, I'm jumping on the season-ticket bandwagon. I would prefer the Coyotes because it's obvious Phoenix doesn't want the team and there isn't any history. Kansas City Islanders doesn't work. You'd need to retire the franchise's history. It may not be much of a history but still ...

[Fidatelo]

Originally Posted by kcchief19

Crowd wasn't what we wanted but I think we have a little preseason jacking-us-around fatigue. P

If the NHL is treating KC like they have done to Winnipeg in recent years, you are likely very correct. They've been charging ridiculous prices for bestowing upon us the opportunity to witness scrubs compete for a spot. The townsfolk have started to get wise and I'm guessing attendance will be mediocre to tonight's game between the Lightning and Oilers at the MTS Centre.

[RomaGoth]

Originally Posted by Fidatelo

If the NHL is treating KC like they have done to Winnipeg in recent years, you are likely very correct. They've been charging ridiculous prices for bestowing upon us the opportunity to witness scrubs compete for a spot. The townsfolk have started to get wise and I'm guessing attendance will be mediocre to tonight's game between the Lightning and Oilers at the MTS Centre.

Out of curiosity, how does this translate into an NFL preseason game? I know the MLB spring training games are super cheap, and not sure about the NBA. I always thought that NFL preseason games were just as expensive as NHL preseason games.

[Fidatelo]

Originally Posted by RomaGoth

Out of curiosity, how does this translate into an NFL preseason game? I know the MLB spring training games are super cheap, and not sure about the NBA. I always thought that NFL preseason games were just as expensive as NHL preseason games.

I don't know, the NFL couldn't pick Manitoba out on a map. Football in general is, and should be, more expensive than other sports for everything, so I wouldn't be surprised if they have expensive pre-season games.

Expensive NHL pre-season exhibitions in Winnipeg don't make sense for a lot of reasons, but the biggest is that we have the Manitoba Moose, so if we want to get our fill of second-rate hockey we can do it in the same arena for half the price.

[RomaGoth]

Originally Posted by Fidatelo

I don't know, the NFL couldn't pick Manitoba out on a map. Football in general is, and should be, more expensive than other sports for everything, so I wouldn't be surprised if they have expensive pre-season games.

Expensive NHL pre-season exhibitions in Winnipeg don't make sense for a lot of reasons, but the biggest is that we have the Manitoba Moose, so if we want to get our fill of second-rate hockey we can do it in the same arena for half the price.

This is actually true in a lot of NHL cities, if not all of them. Minor league hockey, at some level, is always near an NHL team.

As far as the NFL goes though, I have never attended a preseason game. I would not pay full price for a game that only played the good players for a few series, or a half at best. Just my take on it.

[Logan]

Originally Posted by SackAttack

Under ordinary circumstances, I would think the league has the right to choose whom they allow into the owner's club.

Don't things change when the club in question is in bankruptcy?

Nope.

Would a judge really allow a bid $100M less to go through just because the league doesn't want Balsillie to have the team?

Yep.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by RomaGoth

I know the MLB spring training games are super cheap, and not sure about the NBA.

You could actually watch the Braves in Atlanta cheaper this year than you could see them in Orlando.

Cheapest spring training tickets for the Braves were $13 on the lawn, $18 in the upper deck or the bleachers, $21 in the lower deck.

Regular season upper deck goes $6 to $22 at Turner Field, and those darned decent seats we bought earlier this year to take my mother-in-law were $6 for essentially club level height down the left field line.

[Arles]

Yeah, I used to have season tickets with my dad when they were downtown. Now, I haven't watched them play in two seasons. No one is going to drive from Tempe/Chandler/Mesa/Scottsdale (75% of the old Coyotes fans) 50 miles to West Glendale on a Wednesday night to watch a hockey game (esp one with a subpar team).

They could have survived if they chose the Los Arcos site near Scottsdale, but they got greedy and wanted the free land. Now, they are pretty much done in the city.

[bbor]

[quote=SnDvls;2126276]400 fans for a preseason game.

[quote]

Seriously?...400 people???

[JonInMiddleGA]

Hell, even the Thrashers drew 500 to an exhibition game in Atlanta this week.
Of course, that was during the flooding, most of them probably just couldn't get home

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by Fidatelo

Expensive NHL pre-season exhibitions in Winnipeg don't make sense for a lot of reasons, but the biggest is that we have the Manitoba Moose, so if we want to get our fill of second-rate hockey we can do it in the same arena for half the price.

This is much like the situation in KC. We've got a new minor league team in one of our subarbs in a brand new 6,000 seat arena where you can get tickets for cheap and sit close to the action. I'm sure the hockey base will be migrating to that until we actually get a NHL hockey team. I've been to the preseason NHL game here before and it's just not as good for obvious reasons. One of the main reasons for bringing in the minor leage team was to have a minor league affiliate already in place for a NHL team when they move to KC.

People make this a KC vs. Hamilton situation, but I'm not really sure that it's a factor. I think there's going to be teams for both cities in the very near future. I did find it amusing that the Islanders' players were commenting that the visitor's locker room in the Sprint Center was nicer than the home team locker room in Nassau. That's pretty bad.

[Dr. Sak]

The Nassau Coliseum opened in 1972, I'd hope something built recently has nicer locker rooms.

[SnDvls]

[quote=bbor;2126673][quote=SnDvls;2126276]400 fans for a preseason game.

Seriously?...400 people???

that's how many showed up..not sold...they (local sports talk guys) are guessing the season ticket base is between 2-3 thousand