Nashville has a rabid fan base, and in fact this year Hockey in general drew a larger audience. Hockey in my opinion is on the rise again, along with the nba.
This is exactly right, people here have no clue as to the many rabid hockey fans that are out there in tampa, nashville, and all these "cities" that they think are in obscurity and not supporting their team.
So 14,000 in attendance the past two years (which is their best) is a rabid fan base? They have been above .500 since 2004 excluding the strike season and 14,000 is a rabid fan base now? Maybe we keep throwing Nashville out there because Bridgestone arena sucks and they have had discussions earlier about moving to Hamilton and then Kansas City, not to mention the chapter 11 bankrupsy back in 2008. Hmmm, I wonder why Nashville keeps getting brought up in these discussions? Houston would have a better fan base in no time along with corporate dollars that Nashville can't hang with Houston on. At least if we do steal the Predators from Nasheville we will piss off 14,000 rabid fans lol!
One of the players from the Nashville Predators is married to country singer Carrie Underwood so it's highly unlikely that they are relocating.
http://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/news/2011/06/20/predators-jump-titans-plummet-in.html The fans in nashville seem to think Bridgestone Arena is a great place. This is just one example of the many poor thought out statements. By the way, Nashville took your oilers in case you don't remember, but it is nashville that can't support a team? Oh the irony!!!!
Aight H-Town Hockey Fans: Here's your chance at the NHL. Coyotes are obviously in trouble & now tonight, Nassau County votes down new Coliseum for the Isles. 2 teams up for grabs. Both KC & Houston have arenas ready to go. And no serious plans in Seattle or Quebec City for new arenas. Houston - this is your chance.
I'm not sure where you got your numbers from, and why no one has responded to those. Rockets average : 16,191 percentage of stadium filled : 89.7 Predators average : 16,142 percentage of stadium filled : 94.3 The Houston area has 6.1M people, the Nashville area has 571,000. I think it's safe to say Nashville cares an uncontested stronger love for their Predators than even we love the Rockets.
I still believe Les is interested in bringing NHL to Houston. Remember, he tried to bring Edmonton Oilers or Pittsburgh Penguins, but they were not available, and I guess those teams found ways to stay there. I still think Les is willing to bring NHL team, maybe Coyotes or Islanders, to Houston. Toyota Center is NHL-ready arena, so why not?
The people that run this website were falling all over themselves to lead a public campaign giving Les such control.
Why would you believe that? He last showed interest in 1998. i don't think he ever wanted an NHL team as much as he wanted to make sure Chuck Watson nor anyone else brought one here to compete with his NBA product. all of his efforts undermined the best chance we ever had at a team...the expansion that gave Atl, Columbus and Nashville brand new franchises.
you're right. if we didn't have the rockets, we wouldn't have this board, and you'd have to find somewhere else to get your r****d on. they made the wrong decision.
On the surface, it might sound plausible, but it would likely fail. Houston is to Phoenix as Sugar Land is to Glendale. When the team moved to Glendale, that was the beginning of the end. Now Glendale's taxpayers are paying $25 million this season to delay the inevitable. It's one thing for the public to pay for the building and let the tenant eat the operating costs--and it's a totally different animal for the public to pay the teams costs directly.
i've only been out that way a few times, but glendale seems like a ****hole compared to sugar land. and the stadium seemed to be out in the middle of nowhere, the great big football stadium next door not withstanding.
Having the team in the suburbs just isn't smart. Sugar Land is not that accessible, just like Glendale. Both are on the edges of the metro area. Bet Phoenix's team would do better if they were in Downtown Phoenix. Better access for people. Same with Houston (which is why all of our teams are located where they are). Look how attendance suffers for Dallas area sports teams, for example. They are all so spread out.
True. The good news is that Toyota Center is located in Downtown Houston so we don't have to worry about the lack of accessible to the arena. If we bring NHL team to Houston, our attendance would be a lot better than the ones in Glendale. We shouldn't have any issues.
Toyota Center is the problem, actually. Under the deal with the city/county, only Les can own an NHL team...and we can't build another arena to compete with Toyota Center anywhere else in city limits. Sooooo....if Les ain't interested, Houston ain't getting the NHL, unless the arena is somewhere outside of city limits.
