Im tired of wearing my Mike Modano jersey, so lets bite. Plus we get to hear whatever nonsense they want to name a new hockey franchise. Dare we go Houston Americans? Houston Houstonians?
This would be awesome, the Islanders have been my favorite NHL team for years....ever since being down 3-0 to Pittsburgh in the playoffs and coming back to win the next 4....... GO ISLES !! Hockey is so much more exciting in person, it is a great sporting event. When I was growing up we had season tickets to the Houston Aeros....not the remix, but the originals with Gordie, Mark and Marty Howe, Terry Ruskowski and company....great times as a kid. DD
I don't agree with this for a few reasons. 1. While I agree some Sunbelt expansions have been bad for the NHL (Carolina, Nashville) not all have bad. The Stars have done well in Dallas. Anaheim too. Houston is a much larger Sunbelt market then Raleigh and Nashville. And lets not forget about the number of Northeast transplants (like myself) due to the energy and medical industry. 2. Regardlees whos's on the ice for a Houston NHL team, watching a live match aint like watchin the Aeros. NHL action LIVE in person is a completely different animal speed-wise. Its like comparing the MLS to the EPL. And plus, Texans love football so I'm sure they'll love the sometimes violent, hard-hitting nature of the NHL game. 3. As someone posted earlier, the price of tix is cheaper compared to the "Big 3" leagues. This is one reason why the Dynamo have succeded in Houston.
i read an article recently (more of a blurb actually) about if they put another team in toronto, it would instantly be the 4th most valuable franchise in the nhl or something crazy like that. to the poster who wants the nhl to fail, that sucks.
The NHL is way more popular than the mls. Both abroad and in the states. I don't think anyone actually cares about soccer. Especially up north. The average fan thinks soccer is boring to watch. The mls is just too small to succeed as anything more than a niche sport in America. Considering all the best players play in a different league.
What?! No John Tonelli? How could one be an Aeros/Islanders fan and not mention the Greasy Jet? After following the Islanders for nearly 30 years, I finally broke ties completely before the '07 - '08 season. Ovechkin and the Caps won me over. The Isles have been run into the ground by Wang. The will is there, bless his heart, but he is utterly clueless. Just has no idea what he's doing.
I disagree, soccer is getting more and more popular and from the outside looking in I think the MLS is doing a good job growing it's product and building respect. I hope it stays around, as far as Hockey goes it's not that big outside the Northeast/Midwest in the states but having an NHL team>AHL team is what Houston should have. Dallas got their new arena before Houston ie. was able to get the Min team How about Houston Roughnecks since Oilers is taken!
I've wanted an NHL team in Houston for years now. I'd get season tickets right away. I've been a semi-Capitals fan for a while after going to my first hockey game a couple of years ago in DC.
Same here! I remember my brother taking me to a playoff game in the Sam Houston Coliseum (I think against Winnipeg) and I was hooked...
Up North? Like the North East? Philly is getting an MLS franchise. New York is trying to get a second Franchise in the area.
Hmm...lets see. One league has a tv deal with ESPN. The other was dropped by ESPN with no plans to ever bring it back. They are currently on something called Versus. One league has cities clamoring for an expansion franchise for 2011 (St. Louis, Miami, Vancouver, Montreal, Portland, second team in New York). Seattle begins in 2009 and Philadelphia joins the league in 2010. The other desperately needs contraction. I don't disagree that the best players leave to play in Europe. Did you know that also happens in every domestic league not in England, Germany, Italy or Spain? That's simply where the money is. Will the MLS ever get there? Maybe in another 10 or 20 years. In the meantime, they're practicing responsible growth and bringing in and maintaining top sponsors. New stadiums are popping up and more are on the way.
the wnba has a tv deal with espn as does professional bowling. are those two sports more popular than the nhl? not to mention, the league was in talks with espn about bringing them back as early as this year. i imagine you'll see the nhl on espn in 2009-2010 season. there are too many marketable stars right now for that not to happen. guys like crosby and ovechkin to name two. the reason the nhl left espn is because of the lockout season. it takes a while to comeback from missing entire seasons. had it not been for steroids, baseball would've taken a lot longer to comeback from the strike-shortened 1994 season. from what i can tell from those who follow the nhl die-hard, these are good times talent wise for the league and attendance is good. to say mls is more popular right now would be incorrect.
What does that tell you? Actually, the NHL and Versus extended their contract for 3 more years. Look, I know the NHL is popular in the cities that have it. I just get a bit tired of the soccer bashing for no apparent reason. Storm Surge is clearly wrong in his assessment as to whether people care about soccer and calling it a niche sport when the growth is clearly there.
His soccer bashing aside, NHL is much bigger than MLS as far as revenue and profit are concerned. I'm not sure how accurate the numbers are but there was a discussion about it on bigsoccer earlier this year and NHL brings in about $2.2 billion compared to $600 million for MLS. Right now MLS is still a very young and small league, over time I think it will catch and surpass NHL but it will take time. And if you compare soccer in general vs hockey it's a completely different story, a hockey fan calling soccer a niche sport is kind of funny actually.
As well the NHL should be...they have twice the number of teams as the MLS. They've been around in one form or another since 1917. The MLS has been around since 1996. They had a 79 year head start, yet the gap is closing.
well, i didn't mean to imply that i don't like soccer or that i necessarily agreed with him on that. i'm happy the mls is doing well and i hope it continues to do so. i'm ready for that new stadium! i'm not sure if a deal with versus would exclude a deal with espn. they have games on nbc as well.
I do like the MLS or at least the Dynamo. I have to say though, I've wanted an NHL team for a while. I'm like some of you that would have to fully learn the sport. We keep knocking on the door. I wish we could just get one already. There's no way I root for the stars.
One thing about the NHL that I could never figure out: How Chicago's AHL team outdrew and was more popular than the Blackhawks in recent years.
