Friday, June 08, 2007

 

Stupid Butt-man Tricks

by Jes

Let's have a show of hands here. How many of you think that the NHL ought to expand to 32 teams?

Wow, nobody...except the idiots at the NHL's Front Offices ...

Even when the NHL swore that expansion was off the table, no one was buying it.

So it comes as no surprise that the league now appears to be in talks to expand to 32 teams. It's a safe bet those two new teams will be in Las Vegas and Kansas City.

NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly confirmed that the league has been in discussions with powerful film and TV producer Jerry Bruckheimer about owning a franchise in Las Vegas, Sports Business Daily reported yesterday.

Bruckheimer, an avid hockey fan and producer of the Pirates of the Caribbean series, has put together an investment group to locate a team in Las Vegas, meaning the NHL would be the first pro league to settle in the gambling centre.

Daly said "no decisions have been made" and no official agreements are in place.

Las Vegas is one of the fastest-growing cities in the United States and Bruckheimer has Hollywood cachet that the NHL craves.


Having an NHL team in Vegas with some big stars is actually a good idea.

Expanding to 32 teams is not.

Want a team in Las Vegas? Want to bring one back to Canada? Get rid of a struggling team like the Nashville Predators or Florida Panthers.

Of course, this would be lost on the ears of the NHL, who crave even more expansion money from would-be suckers like Bruckheimer.

The league can ill-afford to expand and further dilute the product. One problem that NHL has had selling the game is that the star talent is so thinly spread over the league. Yes, there are many capable of filling in NHL spots, but who wants to pay big ticket prices to watch the likes of Alex Burrows and Andy Hilbert?

Leagues with as many problems as the NHL should be not be expanding. Fix the leaks before adding a wing to the mansion.

Labels: , , ,


Comments:
CFL has already been to Las Vegas.
 
I already don't get to see all the hockey teams play mine during the year, because there are too many.
 
A stupid idea:

First, they need a new arena. The Thomas & Mack Center isn't fit for hockey; I remember when they had an IHL team 14 years ago, and they had to collapse several bleacher sections. (Radek Bonk was the star of the team then.)

Second, most of the people that come to visit The Meadows come from cities that already have the NHL (unless they come from Seattle, Milwaukee, or Houston).

Third, unless they schedule games at, oh...2 am, how are they gonna compete with Siegfried & Roy?
 
I like at least two aspects of this idea. First, expanding to 32 teams means the NHL could drop the number of divisions to four, which would result in a playoff format that would make more sense. And second, adding two teams to the west means that Detroit could be shifted back to the east to renew its traditional rivalry with Toronto. (I live in Toronto.)
 
The only thing that is good about a team in Las Vegas is the probability of so many players getting caught with drugs, with hookers, getting DWI's and having drunken fights. Let's keep it interesting, staff the Vegas team with thugs drunks and typical stupid jock sorts.
 
Huh. And here I thought the brain stem only regulated breathing and other basic biological functions. Apparently it also plots short-term, quickie money grabs for an already battered league via adding a couple more floundering expansion teams.
 
Post a Comment

<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?