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Which Western city should get a NHL franchise?


Rwarky

Which Western city should get a NHL franchise?  

31 members have voted

  1. 1. Which Western city should get a NHL franchise?

    • Seattle
      14
    • Portland
      3
    • Spokane
      1
    • Boise
      0
    • Salt Lake City
      4
    • Las Vegas
      7
    • San Diego
      0
    • Reno
      2


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I think Vegas would've had a sports franchise by now, if not for the gambling issue. I think its a matter of when, not if, a major sports league decides to make the jump to put a team in Las Vegas.

In any scenario, I think the NBA would be first to go there rather then the NHL.

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Vegas...maybe, but Phoenix seems to have a pretty good lock on those fans. Seattle I agree would be good. The LA area has both the Kings and Mighty Ducks (yes, they're still Mighty to me), the Bay Area already has my team, the Sharks, and I'm not sure Portland is large enough to support an NHL team. I could possibly also see Salt Lake, as with the skiing, etc. they have a fairly good winter sports culture there and a hockey team might fit in there.

I doubt the NHL is seeking to expand right now, not too far out of the strike, I'd say if anybody is going to get a team it'd be one of the struggling teams like the Lightning or the Blue Jackets moving into a new place.

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Yeah...it's on the border of perhaps being big enough...I don't know, I haven't been there since about 2000 or so, I assume it's grown substantially since then but I don't know by how much. I'm surprised they don't have a team there already as its financial influence far exceeds its population size and it's a city so in love with entertainment. Maybe the problem is that entertainment is geared towards a transient tourist base rather than residents and the mentality there is the same? I don't know...in any case, I agree I'd think they'd get either an MLB or NBA team, maybe even NFL, before the NHL would look to invest in Vegas.
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Las Vegas is very connected to LA, not Phoenix. People are more likely to be Lakers/Kings fans than Suns/Coyotes fans there.

Also the communities within 100 or so miles of Vegas are really more connected to other cities than they are to Vegas (Kingman, Flagstaff, Cedar City, etc). This is in contrast to most other major league cities including Phoenix.

Seattle has an impressive metropolitan population, but I think that a Vegas NHL team would create a general mystique surrounding it especially since it would be the first major team Vegas has had (not counting XFL which doesn't count anyway). It could also certainly serve as a tourist attraction since there's really nothing there in the way of sports except minor league baseball and UNLV stuff. Even in Phoenix people will suggest D'Backs games as a tourist attraction.

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