From: green@ie.utoronto.ca (Marc Green)
Subject: Re: Anaheim and Miami. WHY?!!
Organization: University of Toronto, Department of Industrial Engineering
Date: Sat, 12 Dec 1992 15:53:30 GMT

farenebt@craft.camp.clarkson.edu (Droopy) writes:

>green@ie.utoronto.ca (Marc Green) writes:

>>kellerjb@sage.cc.purdue.edu (Jeffrey Keller) writes:

>>>In article <farenebt.724080071@craft.camp.clarkson.edu> farenebt@craft.camp.clarkson.edu (Droopy) writes:
>>>>The subject line says it all. You've got places like Milwaukee,
>>>>Hamilton, Seattle, etc and they choose Southern California and 
>>>>Southern Florida! Despite the change in leadership, apparently
>>>>the same dolts are calling the shots. Also, this is so inane to
>>>>believe but i heard the Anaheim team would be called the "Mighty
>>>>Ducks". I thought this new leadership was supposed to bring the
>>>>game MORE credibility...
>>>>

>>>I agree.  This is terrible.  I thought the point of the NHL expansion was to
>>>expand the game to more places.  Instead, they put one team in a city that
>>>already has a team and the other team in a state they just expanded to.  These
>>>choices don't make much sense to me.  Anaheim gets a team because Disney made
>>>a movie about hockey?!  What kind of qualifications are those?  Are they trying
>>>to create an NHL version of the Clippers?  Seattle, Milwaukee, and Hamilton
>>>all make more sense to me than either one of these cities.

>>>-- 
>>> _     _  _     _
>>>|_|| ||_|| \| ||_        JEFFREY B KELLER        |   Hoosier by birth,
>>>|  |_|| \|_/|_||_   kellerjb@sage.cc.purdue.edu  |   BOILERMAKER by the
>>>=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-   grace of God!

>>Then obviously you have very little sense. I know that it's hard to
>>believe, but the NHL has made a masterful move. Disney has it's own
>>cable channel that goes into virtually every cable connected household
>>in America. This means everybody is going to get hockey on TV. Then
>>there are the promotional opportunities through their Disney stores and
>>theme parks. Similar, though less dramatic, promotional opportunities
>>exist through Blockbuster video. 

>>And I don't understand the crack about the Clippers. The Kings have sold
>>out every game for a couple of years. Why shouldn't Anaheim be a success?

>Because the "Mighty Ducks" (I cant stand that name) will not have Wayne
>Gretzky. Period.

In case you haven't noticed, that don't have Wayne Gretzky this year, and they
still sell out every game. In any event, if they avergaed 100 a game it
would still be a good move. 

A good proportion of peiod reading r.s.h seem very slow, so we'll go through
it one more time:

The goal of the NHL owners is to make money. The way to make money is a
national US TV contract. The way to get a TV contract is to market. Disney
and Blockbluster are two media giants which provide virtually unlimited
resources for marketing. Who cares if they don't draw. It's irrelevant.

The NHL is not a charity, so there is no reason to put a team in Hamilton,
a small steel town with virtually no TV market of it's own. Hamilton
does not "deserve" a an NHL team any more that it deserves the a
McDonald's or an Eaton's. Hamilton would just end up being another small
market, cash strapped team. And don't forget that hockey is a declining
sport in Canada. Baseball has become far more popular and the number of
kids playing hockey is steadily declining. Most interesting, a recent
study found that the most popular athlete in Canada, among kids, is
Michael Jordan! 

Marc Green
Trent University