You would call it madness if you weren't aware the people running this league know they can foist off a newly diluted product and make money at the same time. The NHL's plan to go to 30 teams by the year 2000 has consequences we're all too aware of by now, having witnessed the arrival of five new teams in the past six years. The grab-bag of true talent available for the latest NHL expansion is more a thimbleful rattling around in a potato sack. There simply are not enough quality players around to adequately stock four new teams in such short order. It guarantees the level of play will drop even further.
Baseball boasts similar numbers.
Because it can. But it also is expanding because it must expand. Every new expansion is partly predicated upon an earlier one. Alignments restoring some traditional rivalries aside, a larger league is not promising. Star-packed teams are history.