July 09, 2010

Part 6: Why Not Canada? : The NHL looking north again: When the Quebec Nordiques and Winnipeg Jets left Canada in the mid-1990s for Denver and Phoenix, respectively, it wasn’t because Gary Bettman dragged those teams across the border kicking and screaming. The simple matter was, no one in Canada wanted to own them. The investment climate has changed drastically from 15 years ago, because of the strength of the Canadian dollar and the country’s economy. Also key, especially to the smaller markets of Winnipeg and Quebec City, is an NHL economic model with a revenue-sharing system and hard salary cap, affording owners a stronger degree of certainty and protection than under the league’s former open-market system. “I’m not sure that just because a market is bigger, it would be better than a smaller market that had no [other] professional sports, where the hockey would be the only team in town,” said the commissioner.

posted by tommytrump to hockey at 10:15 PM - 1 comment