Bring the NHL to Portland instead. You only have an NBA team here and not the competition for attention from MLB and the NFL. Plus there's already a great arena in place with NHL quality facilities (The Rose Garden).

SnarfVader: Bring the NHL to Portland instead. You only have an NBA team here and not the competition for attention from MLB and the NFL. Plus there's already a great arena in place with NHL quality facilities (The Rose Garden).

Ideally, you'd want MLB and NHL teams in one geographical location as those sports' seasons overlap the least. Something for winter, something for summer.

NBA or NFL with NHL would be the lamest as they line up almost perfectly leaving your market with nothing in the summer.

One more thing, the NFL should switch to a spring to fall schedule with the Superbowl occurring before the first snow fall.

Tell me, Mr Levin, what good is a hockey team if you are unable to play?

Bob_Laublaw: They'll need to find a new name for the Oilers when they move to the coast. Anyway, back to making the effigy of Daryl Katz. It's gonna burn real good.

Well you still have the rest of the CFL season going. You an enjoy the firepower of the Eskimo's offence..

HAHAHHAHAHAHAHAH

Your ginger babysitting touching GM only trades for running backs. How's that working out for you?

/Rider fan

SnarfVader: Bring the NHL to Portland instead. You only have an NBA team here and not the competition for attention from MLB and the NFL. Plus there's already a great arena in place with NHL quality facilities (The Rose Garden).

i'd prefer to see the coyotes move to portland. it would be really cool

Introitus: One more thing, the NFL should switch to a spring to fall schedule with the Superbowl occurring before the first snow fall.

The body count would be staggering.

animesucks: SnarfVader: Bring the NHL to Portland instead. You only have an NBA team here and not the competition for attention from MLB and the NFL. Plus there's already a great arena in place with NHL quality facilities (The Rose Garden).

i'd prefer to see the coyotes move to portland. it would be really cool

Fark off! (though if this lockout lasts too long, you'd might as well kill off the Coyotes organization along with 2 or 3 more as they'll never recover)

Frankly, I'd rather they move franchises instead of expanding the league. The talent pool is thin enough.

germ78: Frankly, I'd rather they move franchises instead of expanding the league. The talent pool is thin enough.

Yup. Florida, and all the other states which have no ice outside a freezer, have no business hosting ice hockey.

SnarfVader: Bring the NHL to Portland instead. You only have an NBA team here and not the competition for attention from MLB and the NFL. Plus there's already a great arena in place with NHL quality facilities (The Rose Garden).

The problem with this being that Portland sucks.

fark that shiat!

As much as I'd love to see a franchise in Seattle, or Portland if they think they can swing it, there's no way the league can survive by expanding, based on the current talent pool.

Put a bullet in the head of hockey in Glendale, move that team to the northwest, and move either Columbus, Nashville, or one of the 2 Florida teams to either Quebec (not likely) or the GTA (slightly better odds but the Leafs would probably be dickish about it).

Representative of the unwashed masses: Bob_Laublaw: They'll need to find a new name for the Oilers when they move to the coast. Anyway, back to making the effigy of Daryl Katz. It's gonna burn real good.

Well you still have the rest of the CFL season going. You an enjoy the firepower of the Eskimo's offence..

HAHAHHAHAHAHAHAH

Your ginger babysitting touching GM only trades for running backs. How's that working out for you?

/Rider fan

Oh yeah? How's being .500 feel? Congrats you suck exactly as much as you don't suck!

Hard living in Moose Jaw and being an Als fan. I have to ITG because I'd be be overwhelmed my hordes in green if I tried it in real lie.

So remind me who had the great idea to try to put the eastern Canada and Florida teams in the same divisions so they could play more against each other ?
The only fact that came out of this attempt was that the only people who went to see hockey in Florida were canadian tourists.

Oh and btw, if it all goes to plan, every Montreal Canadian player will probably pay at least an extra 100k$ in taxes once the lockout is over. New provincial government doing everything wrong, how do they even expect to get a team in Quebec City...

ReluctantPaladin: Representative of the unwashed masses: Bob_Laublaw: They'll need to find a new name for the Oilers when they move to the coast. Anyway, back to making the effigy of Daryl Katz. It's gonna burn real good.

Well you still have the rest of the CFL season going. You an enjoy the firepower of the Eskimo's offence..

HAHAHHAHAHAHAHAH

Your ginger babysitting touching GM only trades for running backs. How's that working out for you?

/Rider fan

Oh yeah? How's being .500 feel? Congrats you suck exactly as much as you don't suck!

Hard living in Moose Jaw and being an Als fan. I have to ITG because I'd be be overwhelmed my hordes in green if I tried it in real lie.

Well since they have won 3 out of the last 4 I'm feeling pretty good about it. And Moose Jaw? You will be found and sent to an appropriate re-education camp. You will learn that a watermelon is a hat for example.

SnarfVader Bring the NHL to Portland instead. You only have an NBA team here and not the competition for attention from MLB and the NFL. Plus there's already a great arena in place with NHL quality facilities (The Rose Garden).

Actually there was some study the NHL did a decade ago that said the 2 most likely cities for expansion teams were Portland, OR and...OKC If the T-Birds weren't happy with Key Arena that could be problematic(I'd read the Sonics were merely a victim of the Starbucks CEO's divorce)

BigJake: SnarfVader: Bring the NHL to Portland instead. You only have an NBA team here and not the competition for attention from MLB and the NFL. Plus there's already a great arena in place with NHL quality facilities (The Rose Garden).

The problem with this being that Portland sucks.

That's what she said.

Actually, I kind of agree for sports. They kicked out a perfectly decent AAA baseball team just to please the MLS bozos. Still, I really want to go to some NHL games and not have to bust out my passport to go to Vancouver. Portland would be ideal, but I'd settle for Seattle if I had to. It'd be easy to take the train up there and make a day of it.

/checks thread
Hooray Canadian jingoism!

Lots of ifs and buts in Seattle. We have to get a couple of franchises the way we lost them in the past. Might mean losing the victim mentality, a longshot

I have no problem with hockey being played in warm climates, I have a problem with hockey being played where nobody gives a damn about the team.

Ishkur: It's a no-brainer. Vancouver would finally have a nearby NHL city that doesn't require a plane to travel to (the Canucks habitually have one of the longest travel schedules in the league), there would be insta-fan interest from across the border and all the way down to Portland (It's hard enough for Canucks fans to get decent priced tickets in Vancouver; Seattle would be a welcome surrogate franchise), the Northwest division would be a lot more compact instead of spread out over three time zones, and the I-5 Rivalry (the I-Fivalry!) between the fans would be the stuff of legends.

If Bettman is smart, he must do this.

I think I see the flaw in your cunning plan

I think an NHL team in Seattle or Portland would be very popular, people in the NW seem very passionate about sports (like the anti-Florida).

4NSpy: I have no problem with hockey being played in warm climates, I have a problem with hockey being played where nobody gives a damn about the team.

[images.memewow.com image 343x604]

Same thought. Move the coyotes to seattle, don't expand the league.

this thread is veering off from its primary purpose, which is to come up with very creative insults for Gary Bettman.

The fark link to this effect some days ago when the lockout was announced calling him a "shape shifting leprechaun who needs to be punched in the throat" was a good start.

i cant believe that guy has a job. or that someone hasnt kicked his ass or something yet. Or published photos of him doing something highly illegal, which any man as smarmy and creepy looking as he must surely be doing.

zerkalo: Lots of ifs and buts in Seattle. We have to get a couple of franchises the way we lost them in the past.

Seattle is a "bad sports town", in the sense that the consumers are actually savvy. The word I use for fans who support a local team with hard-earned money year after year when the owner has even publicly stated the team is just a cash cow with no intentions to improve its state isn't "loyal" but "retarded".

Seattle actually holds its local teams to a level of accountability. The government had to go around the will of the voters twice to give the Mariners and Seahawks the publicly funded stadiums they wanted, but by the time the Sonics walked up to the table they were out of cards to play (not to mention the worst recession in 60 years was in full swing).

Seattle is toxic to sports owners for all the right reasons. I'm actually proud to hail from a city where the denizens aren't mindless slaves to a damn uniform. Field a quality product and they'll show. Expect the market to support your incompetence like it's an entitlement? Go to hell.

If Seattle doesn't get an NHL team it won't be for lack of a market. Rather, the NHL could probably find a city more willing to bend over and give it everything it wants.

IAmRight: I like how people blame Bettman like he's the one who told the owners "Hey, you know what? Let's strike and shut down the league." He earns his pay in all the sh*t he takes that should be directed at the owners.

This.

Bettman is only the messenger doing the bidding of the owners, and getting rid of him would change absolutely nothing.

germ78: Frankly, I'd rather they move franchises instead of expanding the league. The talent pool is thin enough.

The talent pool is bigger than it's ever been and could easily support 32 teams or more. The problem is there aren't that many viable markets to put teams.

zerkalo: Lots of ifs and buts in Seattle. We have to get a couple of franchises the way we lost them in the past. Might mean losing the victim mentality, a longshot

Seattle *is* a victim in the Sonics fiasco. The difference is that this Chris Hansen fella has been upfront and honest from the start, not a farking dirtbag like that asshole in OkC.

HotWingAgenda: germ78: Frankly, I'd rather they move franchises instead of expanding the league. The talent pool is thin enough.

Yup. Florida, and all the other states which have no ice outside a freezer, have no business hosting ice hockey.

Dallas has a large enough fan base to make your argument moot.

Fark me... they should put a team in Hamilton. Make the hated Leafs actually WORK to sell out the ACC.

/Yes, I'm a Leafs fan
//This is what Stockholm Syndrome looks like

ElwoodCuse: germ78: Frankly, I'd rather they move franchises instead of expanding the league. The talent pool is thin enough.

The talent pool is bigger than it's ever been and could easily support 32 teams or more. The problem is there aren't that many viable markets to put teams.

This. I think we should instantly label everyone who says the "talent pool is thin" as a farking moron. Player development through both Hockey Canada and Hockey USA is better than it has ever been. Those systems groom solid, high-quality players. The problem isn't players it is markets that don't give a fark. Even the worst teams in the league actually have quite a few excellent players, they just don't have a good team. There's a difference.

Bob_Laublaw: I'd rather see a reduction in the schedule by a month or maybe ten games. That doesn't preclude an expansion, just a tighter season that doesn't permit for teams mailing it in through November.

Yeah, I'd like to see a somewhat shortened season as well. Would also cut down on the amount of injuries half of the teams have going into the playoffs every year.

Move Phoenix and Florida to Seattle and Quebec City. Expand to Milwaukee and Hamilton. 4 divisions based on geography. Problem solved.

They have to call the team the Seattle Freeze. They won't, but it'd be awesome.

Expansion is a terrible idea. Relocation of teams that suffer from low turnout at games would solve the problems for a few of the teams.

What I'd like to see is that when a team that is the target of a lot of relocation talks happens the league imposes a timeframe (I'd go with 3 years) in which the team cannot be moved. If the local support grows and the team revenue increases then the team has to stay. If the team is still losing money then the owner is able to move the team.

Bob_Laublaw: Representative of the unwashed masses: Your ginger babysitting touching GM only trades for running backs. How's that working out for you?

Considering that the Esks are my second team of choice, I can't say I'm losing sleep over it.


Hmmm... COME BACK HERE AND TRASH TALK ME LIKE A RABID FAN DAMMIT!!!

/Feeling fesity this morning for some reason.

Bob_Laublaw: How DARE you have the temerity to question by beloved Inuit!11!11!11!1111!111 At least OUR boys can count to f*ckin 12 !1111111

Hey - that felt good!

YOUR TEAM IS EVENTUALLY GOING TO BE MADE UP ENTIRELY OF RUNNING BACKS AND BELOW AVERAGE QUARTERBACKS! AND YOUR AWAY HELMETS LOOK FUNNY!

/Ok pretty much got nothing else.
//We learned how to count to 12, we started handing out beers before every play. If you don't have a beer get off the field!

SnarfVader: BigJake: SnarfVader: Bring the NHL to Portland instead. You only have an NBA team here and not the competition for attention from MLB and the NFL. Plus there's already a great arena in place with NHL quality facilities (The Rose Garden).

The problem with this being that Portland sucks.

That's what she said.

Actually, I kind of agree for sports. They kicked out a perfectly decent AAA baseball team just to please the MLS bozos. Still, I really want to go to some NHL games and not have to bust out my passport to go to Vancouver. Portland would be ideal, but I'd settle for Seattle if I had to. It'd be easy to take the train up there and make a day of it.

We let a AAA team with an average attandance of about 3000-5000 leave to better accommodate a soccer team that drew more than that to exhibition matches before they were even MLS.

The Winterhawks do really well at getting crowds to show up, too. I think Portland would do well at supporting an NHL team, but I think Paul Allen is the bigger problem with getting one.

bentleypm They have to call the team the Seattle Freeze. They won't, but it'd be awesome.

You gotta team name with a legacy

you go with it, just like the Toronto Arenas....oh, wait