On the topic of fixing the stadium, I would like to see something build in the west endzone.
Perhaps a restaurant with luxury boxes and stadium seating up top.
Then, the rest of the stadium could get upgraded, one section at a time.
First of all, after what the NHL did to us in the early 90's, I could care less if it ever comes back
Second, I live a few blocks south of Copps, drive/walk by it every day and I didn't have a clue it was even happening till about tuesday of last week.
This was a horribly promoted game. Did some old Ti-Cat owners have something to do with it?
I’d rather not have the embarrassing 4-11 Ticats on the front page of any paper. To me the season is finished.
Let the new hockey season begin !!!
And let all the Leaf fans again say "Leafs will win the Cup this year."
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:While the rest of us laugh until we die. What's the other saying - "better get the parade route ready."
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:They sound an awful lot like Ticat fans.
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:NHL blows since Bette-Midler-man invoked communism on the league.
i would love for the blackberry company in kitchener buy the penguins and move them to copps.
but we go back to the territory rights that toronto and buffalo will be compensated.
and why on earth would toronto share the tv rights in the hamilton market with another team in ontario? Toronto has the market all sewn up.
according to foxsportsnews.com they say a canadian group is the front runner.
so it will be interesting where the penguins do end up.
another rumour could be the NHL buying the penguins and selling them to an american city.
Kansas City has some serious bidders trying to pry the team to their city
Could not agree more. I wouldn’t go to an exhibition game for free, nor a regular season game unless I am suffering from sleep deprevation. Bette-man…kiss the ring.
Well, it turned out that RIM owner Jim Balsillie did buy the team. You can click here for the news on that. But article mentions that, unlike what I’ve heard suggested before, the team will not be moved to Hamilton. He apparently plans on keeping the team in Pittsburgh. But for how much longer?
If you guys watched the leafs game tonight on TSN..
He has signed an Exclusivity clause with Hamilton and Copps Collisum, now that doesnt mean much unless Gary Betteman allows the team to move, but if Hamilton can fix up Copps it seems to be a front runner for the Pens new home IF and only IF the team is permitted to move.
yes the team stays in pittsburgh because the contract is signed until summer 2007. And in my opinion the City of pittsburgh has no intention of building a new arena so I am hoping this is the case and the Penguins will move to the Steel City.
Ya I can just see people in this city being able to afford season tickets at thousands of dollars each season . With probable payouts to Toronto and Buffalo ticket prices is the only way to recoup this money . The tickets would have to rival Toronto prices .
An NHL team would be good for the city and help revitalize the core. Now I have no intentions of getting seasons tickets since I'm maxed out now with the Cats and football, IMHO, is a much better sport to watch live than hockey (have to admit though with my new surround sound speaker system hockey is great to watch with all the mikes around the boards, it even makes hockey's love tap type hits sound like bone crunchers, cool). And being in the outdoors, even the rain like last week, beats sitting in a sterile arena any day of the week.
Could Hamilton fans support an NHL franchise?
I don't think so.
The biggest problem is the season ticket prices - Ottawa and Toronto the cheapest season ticket prices are around $80 per game.
Forty-two home games X $80 = $3,360
If you want to go with your wife - $6,720 and take your kid too = $10,080
Then you have to pay for parking, snacks, beer etc........ouch
I would rather stay at home and watch on TV.
Selling tickets shouldn't be a problem.
No doubt many people will come from out of town, and there are lots of hockey fans in the area.
The challenge will be to get the corporate sponsorship.
Also, they should try to schedule games in sympathy with the Leafs schedule as much as possible so that the two teams don't have home games on the same night.
I would try and arrange to allow the Leafs to have Saturday nights for home games and allow Hamilton to have Friday nights, as much as possible.
But, all of this is just dreaming for the moment.
No one knows how much the Leafs and Sabres really want for compensation.
75 million each is a number that is often repeated, but I don't know if that number is accurate or if it was just made up by some reporter.
Now, having said all of that, I kind of hope that the Penguins stay in Pittsburgh, because I don't like it when a team moves from what I consider to be a legitimate hockey town.
If we're going to steal someones team, it would be better to get a team from the sun belt perhaps.
I WAS a regular (not rabid but regular) fan of the NHL (Canadiens) UNTIL the expansion fiasco of 1990. For me, the NHL has been a non-entity and irrelevant since.
IMO, Hamilton (Ron Joyce bid team) was royally screwed and stabbed in the back by the ethically-challenged BoG of the NHL. Buffalo took most of the heat for territorial rights issues while the Leafs sat (relatively) quietly in the bushes with probably even more to gain (or lose if Hamilton was admitted) by the NHL's decision.
When Toronto can con and "inhale" in (didn't realize the word that sounds like luck AND STARTS WITH S!!! was banned) fans and continue to sell out (with waiting lists to boot!) after producing mediocrity and losing teams for 40 years, why should (or would) they share this lucrative market of masochists? Why kill the goose laying the golden egg?
The NHL has tried for years (decades?) to push hockey into non-traditional U.S. markets and shown little success in increased fan interest, attendance or TV exposure/revenue while continuing to shun and ignore (and move) "hot" Canadian markets.
Doing something over and over again but expecting different results is a definition of insanity.
Or the business model of the NHL, one and the same.
So it's unlikely Hamilton will ever see an NHL team.
(After Buffalo and Toronto put the kibosh on Hamilton's bid in '90, I put a curse on both their houses... may the fleas of a thousand camels infest their jock straps and may they never win the Stanley Cup. Guess the fleas thing didn't work but so far having good luck with the Stanley Cup part 
)
...
Hey remember when Ottawa got a hockey team and a lot of people here were upset because we didn't get it?
How has that worked out for their football team?
(no i'm not saying there would be a direct correllation here, or even that the two are necessarily related in Ottawa..... but there's only so much corporate sponsorship money to go around.)
I like the pens, ever since the days of Mario. I really don't think the season tickets to a Hamilton hockey team would be as bad as everyone is expecting. I don't mean to spread rumors or anything but I read in an article a few months back when this NHL issue arose once again that the Toronto Maple Leafs, have no problem with a team here, they said that if a team was put in place they would waive that territorial fees Hamilton would owe.
It was Buffalo who receives alot of revenue from Canadians that seemed to cry about this the most.
I do believe that Hamilton can sustain an NHL franchaise, and it looks like our friendly neighbourhood RIM owner wants to bring them to the Canadian market. And since they based out of Kitchener they want to move the team close to the head base, sort of mix business and pleasure.
I do believe the season tickets won't be in the league of Ticats nice $350 a season. They maybe a couple Thousand, but if this team is moved, it takes one of the best young teams and moves it to a Canadian market.
There is tons of developing talent in the Pens organization, Malkin, Staal, Crosby to name a few. That is or should be a big draw, Hamilton is an expanding city, Ancaster, Stoney Creek.
Most people in Hamilton are NHL fans, at least thats my guess I have been to bars on hockey nights. We all like hockey as much as we love the CFL, maybe more. I believe that if this is all done correctly, that we can make the Hamilton Penguins work.
Compensation to the Sabres and the Leafs has always been brought up as a sticking point for any potential team locating in the area. However, recently on the FAN590, the panel said that this exclusionary NHL policy would likely not stand up in court on either side of the border. Nor could the league stop an owner from relocating his team (which is a privately owned asset).
I think that the Hamilton area could support an NHL team but it wouldn't be easy. Not only are ticket prices steep (top ticket in Toronto is somewhere around $265 for a single seat), but I believe for the better seats, you also have to fork out $10,000 for a seat licensing fee. Even for a one-time outlay of money, that's a lot to pay for hockey games.
Still, I think it'd be great to see another NHL team in southern Ontario.
An Argo fan
I really think this can work and be a success. I think this would be an enormous benefit to Hamilton's downtown revival, and I'm hoping the city bends over backwards to help this along.
I think it's the right time, too. Perhaps it would help lure commerce to downtown who are looking for an alternative to Toronto.
I also think this could be a big benefit to the Cats if there are some marketing alliances. Plus, it will get those from the suburbs used to coming into the city.
As always,I'm not really getting my hopes up, but it sure would be awesome.
To have 17,000 people downtown for 41 nights a year would be amazing for our downtown and growth.