Why can't Saskatoon join the NHL?

[LittleOzzy]

Saskatoon has handled the story of a group making a bid to bring an NHL team with remarkable restraint.

Not even Don Cherry, it seems, can get this city in a frenzy.

You can spend a dozen days here taking the temperature of 'Toon Town and fail to find many pounding pulses with the news of a bid presented to the NHL by On Ice Management Group Inc., led by Toronto-based businessman John Graham, promoter of several recent Saskatoon NHL pre-season games.

It's like people are trying to pretend it's not out there, in case they get led down the road such as they were in 1983, when this city of 260,600 was on the brink of landing the St. Louis Blues franchise thanks to the late, great Edmonton hockey icon Bill Hunter.

People here haven't managed to forget that Hunter and Saskatoon backers Bill Mitchell, John Selinger and Les Dube had actually purchased the Blues from Ralston Purina when the NHL turned the town down.

The NHL did everything but laugh at them. It was reported there were only three votes to approve the sale and the move to Saskatchewan.

But there's one citizen who is here to tell you there's way more than meets the eye or the ear here and an entirely different ending is plausible this time.

He is Saskatoon Silver Springs MLA Ken Cheveldayoff. His brother is Kevin Cheveldayoff, the general manager of the Winnipeg Jets.

"The group is very serious and are going about it in a very professional way," Ken Cheveldayoff said.

"I know Mark Chipman has been very supportive," he said of the principal owner and chairman of the Jets. "I have seen the correspondence. I've seen some numbers. They're very compelling."

Cheveldayoff, who grew up with his brother in Blane Lake, north of Saskatoon and west of Prince Albert, thinks the NHL is going to give Saskatoon a serious look because of what happened this year with the return of the NHL to Winnipeg.

"I think Winnipeg changed the modeling for the NHL," he said. "There are U.S. teams getting revenue from less than 5,000 fans a game when they could have 15,000 full, sold seats every night. Saskatoon has the same number of seats as Winnipeg."

And in there somewhere is the "now" factor Winnipeg took advantage of in the quick turnover of the franchise in Atlanta. If NHL owners have had it with underwriting the Phoenix Coyotes losses, where in the Western Conference is there an NHL-ready building the league could move to?

"Kansas City and Saskatoon," Cheveldayoff said.

http://www.torontosun.com/2012/03/13/sa ... r-nhl-talk

[Raps in 4]

I just looked up the stats for the city and I had no idea they had a population of 260,000. I always thought it was around 20,000, lol. That's more than enough to support a team. I think that every Canadian city with a reasonable population should have an NHL team. Tickets are guaranteed to sell out every single night in any Canadian city.

[ranger001]

Season tickets are only part of the paying public. You also need corporate boxes and sponsorships. Somehow I've never thought of Saskatoon as a corporate hotspot.

[trwi7]

And after Saskatoon we could put teams in Des Moines and Omaha!

[Nolan]

I'm orginally from Saskatchewan and I can tell you Saskatoon would have no trouble supporting a team a team at all. You can't just look at the population of Saskatoon its self either because the entire province would be behind the team and if you don't believe just look at the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

Corporate sponsership wouldn't really be a problem either with the booming mining and potash industries.

[whysoserious]

I think before the NHL goes to Saskatoon, Quebec City needs to be considered first. Even though Saskatoon may be much more ready to put in a bid at this point.

Nothing wrong with having another team back in Canada. My only concern with these three teams (Winnipeg, Saskatoon, and Quebec City) is what happens if the American dollar comes back up and the Canadian dollar drops. The Canadian dollar where it is now is what's helping the Oilers, Flames and Jets survive. If there's any change we could be right back where we were. Although the NHL does have a better system for revenue sharing I guess.

Would also love to see Hartford get a team back as well and a second team in the GTA.

[Kaizen]

The NHL has too many teams as it it. List the cities that would move to the new ones you just listed. I agree that the dollar being so high is what saves a few of the current teams in Canada. They will be in serious danger again when the dollar goes down. How is Saskatoon in a better position than Quebec City? They do not have an arena or owner. Pretty much the biggest things you need to get a team.

People want to be nostalgia but there is a reason teams move. We need to stop trying to force teams back into markets that will just fail again.

[Crowned]

There are a few places they'd consider over Saskatoon, including Seattle and Quebec. If they had a reasonable stadium, and the support was there with both sponsorship and season ticket interest, then sure...why not.

[WEFFPIM]

Hell, if you're gonna put one in Saskatoon, I want one in Rockford.

[whysoserious]

The NHL has too many teams as it it. List the cities that would move to the new ones you just listed. I agree that the dollar being so high is what saves a few of the current teams in Canada. They will be in serious danger again when the dollar goes down. How is Saskatoon in a better position than Quebec City? They do not have an arena or owner. Pretty much the biggest things you need to get a team.

People want to be nostalgia but there is a reason teams move. We need to stop trying to force teams back into markets that will just fail again.

I'm not totally on side with all those cities just saying they are possibilities from a Canadian market perspective.

I'd say teams that could or should be relocated : Carolina, Phoenix (although the NHL seems hellbent on keeping the team there), possibly the Panthers. There are definitely US markets that the NHL seems to want to try too. The one I think in Canada that should get one first is Quebec City.

[trwi7]

Carolina is a fine market, Florida has a long lease and the owners make money with all the other arena events even if the Panthers aren't profitable.

[WEFFPIM]

Carolina and Florida are fine. Carolina more than fine, actually.

[breaker91]

There are a few places they'd consider over Saskatoon, including Seattle and Quebec. If they had a reasonable stadium, and the support was there with both sponsorship and season ticket interest, then sure...why not.

I'm originally from Saskatoon and old enough to remember the St.Louis Blues purchase. The question I have about Quebec City is what sort of corporate base exists there? I thought it was all civil servants. As Nolan mentioned potash is bringing lots of money into town, it has a low unemployment rate. Saskatoon also has a decent size arena that can hold 16,000 people, but it was built in the late 1980s and would need some upgrades. Saskatoon has a lot going for it, but I think the biggest barriers are that isn't going to add a big bump in TV revenues and they're going to have a lot of trouble attracting and keeping players who can play in more desirable locations.

[Selanne]

the population of Saskatoon is 272,000. Even if some of the 180,000 residents of Regina drive the 259 kilometers to Saskatoon, the NHL will never award the area a team. There's not enough population.

[Omar CominYo]

Saskatoon will get an NHL team when Gary Bettman finally gets a clue and does an expansion. An expansion gives roughly 20 million to every team in the league which would be a lot of help to those teams in financial trouble, and the 2 markets they expand to are guaranteed to be profitable for at least the first 5 years if they are Canadian cities.

The Owners have been begging for this for a while now. As far as teams moving, Quebec and maybe Kansas City are the front runners.

[WEFFPIM]

The last thing the league needs to do is expand.