From: wilson@cs.ucf.edu (tom wilson)
Subject: Re: MIAMI'S CHANCES (RE: THE
Organization: University of Central Florida, Orlando
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1992 09:36:12 GMT

jaz.johol@compdyn.questor.wimsey.bc.ca (Jaz Johol)  wrote:
>From: wilson@cs.ucf.edu (tom wilson)
>jaz.johol@compdyn.questor.wimsey.bc.ca (Jaz Johol)  wrote:
>>>The Miami team
>>>in the early years will be terrible.  Terrible teams don't have good
>>>attendance records.  Consequently, the MIAMI team will FOLD or move
>>>to another city that will support NHL hockey.  The same will be true
>>>also for TAMPA BAY it will also fold or move.

>>Can you predict the weather too? Why will the Miami team be terrible?
>>I suppose you predicted that Tampa would be terrible too. You just
>>discredited yourself. How good the team is will depend on two things:
>>how smart the owners are by getting someone who can pick the proper
>>mix of players and how good a job the coach can do with the players
>>he has.

>I did not discredit myself both Ottawa and Tampa are both poor teams.
>In the expansion draft Ottawa took the long term approach which means
>drafting younger players and taking its lumps for at least 5 years.
>Tampa went for older players for short term gains but in the longer term
>will suck donkeys.  Espo knows that if he can't get a winning team fast
>the team will FOLD!!!

You contradict yourself here. He has a winning team. Therefore they are not
a poor team. Who in his right mind would expect Tampa to make the playoffs?
No one. Therefore their success is that they are competing in their games,
and winning quite a few of them. I don't think it will happen, but they have
the chance to set some expansion records (already tied one). Sounds to me
like the short term success is already under way.

If that's true, it is enough to attact the fans so that when your so-called
long-term failure arrives, the fans won't leave. I don't see the long term
failure arising. The Lightning drafted experience, but not all of the players
are over the hill. Reference the recent thread on who has the younger team.
It doesn't matter who has the younger team, but that Tampa's team is not old
compared to Ottawa's. The goalies down on the farm are young. The youngest
player in the league (I think), Hamrlik, is already playing full time with
Tampa.

The only bad part to Tampa's season will be that they won't be drafting low
enough next year (or are they guaranteed 2nd pick, can't remember).

The only think that I see that will ruin the franchise is inside failure. If
Espo and company don't fulfill their promises of an arena and other things,
this might drive away the fans. The supposed concept that people down here
just aren't interested in hockey is nonsense. The majority of people may not
worship hockey like Canadians, but we don't need that many fans to fill the
building. It will require some people to become new fans, but we don't need
to convert the state to a system of farm leagues that mirrors preseason
baseball.

When the playoffs roll around, other teams will be trading for players on
teams out of the playoffs. This usually turns into draft picks, which means
added youth. So the problem of age is not so severe. It only takes a couple
of injuries to a team's veteran defenseman to make Rob Ramage not look so
bad. His absence makes the average age go way down 8-).

[gobs of quoted text deleted]

Tom
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