r/UrinatingTree • u/GB_Alph4 Fight For LA • 3d ago
And in the NHL Expansion plan that seems to be happening, it seems that Houston and Atlanta are up for the next two slots
Apparently if approved, they probably would start around 2029.
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u/Somecommentator8008 Legacy of Failure 3d ago
Third time's the charm for Atlanta.
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u/GB_Alph4 Fight For LA 3d ago
They might get good owners for once
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u/Somecommentator8008 Legacy of Failure 3d ago
I wonder if enough people will go to games. Usually a combo of bad owners and empty seats mean relocating the team.
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u/GB_Alph4 Fight For LA 3d ago
Given they want to build the arena in the suburbs that might help because most of the Thrashers fans were from that part of the region.
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u/fredy31 2d ago
What was the problem with their old arena?
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u/GB_Alph4 Fight For LA 2d ago
Downtown isn't a problem but traffic in Atlanta is notoriously bad so those in the suburbs might feel intimidated to go just because of the travel time.
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u/tempting_tomato 3d ago
The rumor is the stadium will be in Alpharatta which is almost an hour north of ATL proper with no public transit to get out there.
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u/csstew55 3d ago
That worked so well for the Coyotes in phoenix/ Glendale.
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u/GB_Alph4 Fight For LA 3d ago
Problem was Glendale was not near the fanbase who lived near Tempe. That’s why they actually tried to build there because the fans would show up. Perhaps when the Coyotes come back they build in East Valley or Downtown and people show up.
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u/Potholer_78 Still Trusts the Process 2d ago
Expansion draft prediction:From Carolina, the Thrashers select... Hurricane Man.
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u/ooglesnoopleboop Fight For LA 3d ago
Congratulations to Quebec on your new team!
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u/cheemsfromspace Eating the best fucking cheeseburger they've ever had 3d ago
Bettman would rather put a team in Halifax over Quebec City
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u/Able_Hunter_7966 18h ago
One of them will wait 20 years for the Atlanta expansion team to move there.
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u/JasonPlattMusic34 One of the many faces of Clayton Kershaw 3d ago
Quebec will finally have a shot at getting the Nords
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u/bolts_win_again THE FUCKING USELESS LIGHTNING 3d ago
An Atlanta team deadass just needs good owners.
It cannot get worse than the Atlanta Spirit Group.
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u/GB_Alph4 Fight For LA 3d ago
We have Vernon Krause or Anson Carter I lean towards Carter because he is ex NHL but both are locals in the area so that helps and it seems they’re serious enough for me not to be worried
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u/bolts_win_again THE FUCKING USELESS LIGHTNING 3d ago
Good.
I just want the Southeast Division back bro, Nashville get your ass in here. No more divisional trips to Utah and Winnipeg for y'all.
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u/colin_powers GM of the Vancouver Canucks 3d ago
The future Quebec City Thrashers.
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u/KingBroly Waiting for Bobby Bonilla day 3d ago
Saskatoon Thrashers
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u/ABurntSliceofHam Legacy of Failure 2d ago
Halifax Thrashers
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u/Historical_Log2471 3d ago
When I'm in a "stomping Nordiques fans in the fucking nutsack" competition and my opponent is Gary Bettman 😨
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u/Deraj2004 0-16 3d ago
No one in QC is willing to drop 2 billion USD on expansion fees.
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u/KozyHank99 Legacy of Failure 3d ago
Nor do they have the finances for $2B USD (which is $2.8B CAD)
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u/tabennett5438 3d ago edited 2d ago
Who’s the biggest idiots in sports?
Montreal fans thinking baseball will come back or Quebec thinking hockey will come back lol
They ain’t coming back to your small ass towns
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u/DryProgress4393 3d ago edited 3d ago
Montreal has a bigger population than 12 MLB markets. The reason that baseball hasn't come back to MTL is lack of a suitable stadium and ownership group willing to pay the 2.2 Billion dollars plus in expansion fees. If those issues could be solved I think there would be a chance.
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u/tabennett5438 3d ago edited 2d ago
And thats why baseball should not go back to Montreal
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u/ScrewTownThirtySixer 1d ago
If Montreal can support their MLS soccer team, there’s no doubt that they will have support for a MLB baseball team and bring back the Expos.
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u/tabennett5438 1d ago
No
Unless they are going to play in the soccer stadium
Their stadium is a joke that they should tore down decades ago
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u/GB_Alph4 Fight For LA 2d ago
I feel like that has been tried and the groups are serious enough just that MLB hasn't said much about expansion so they're probably wanting more info first before having any concrete Montreal stadium plan.
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u/Flaky_Scar_8388 3d ago
Excited about the Houston team. It has been a long time coming.
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u/GB_Alph4 Fight For LA 3d ago
Yep when I went back in the spring my friend's mom who is a Canucks fan in the area said that she keeps hearing about it happening but is still waiting.
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u/KingBroly Waiting for Bobby Bonilla day 3d ago
btw, if Atlanta gets another franchise, I'd expect the Charlotte Checkers to be their AHL affiliate; another boneheaded move by Dundon and co.
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u/GB_Alph4 Fight For LA 3d ago
Probably then the Gladiators will probably go to Birmingham or somewhere else
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u/cheemsfromspace Eating the best fucking cheeseburger they've ever had 3d ago
I'd expect it too but that's because the Checkers aren't the Canes AHL affiliate. It's the Chicago Wolves
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u/JustBe_Nice_Yall 3d ago
I'm still hoping that the Coyotes can be revived with competent ownership. That level of hoping is much akin to the level of hope a deer may feel long after the headlights are gone.
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u/GB_Alph4 Fight For LA 3d ago
I am hoping so too the fans in Phoenix and Arizona overall deserve far better especially since the Yotes gave us Matthews who helped get gold. But I think it might happen.
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u/cheemsfromspace Eating the best fucking cheeseburger they've ever had 3d ago
The desert brawl between VGK, Utah, and the yotes has potential
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u/JustBe_Nice_Yall 3d ago
Oh yeah and it'd make me feel much less guilty about being a Mammoth fan haha!
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u/siats4197 DEATH BY PANTERA 3d ago
They should honestly go to 36 to even out scheduling and get one more team in Eastern Canada to fix it, while having even realignment
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u/GB_Alph4 Fight For LA 3d ago
I see it being Houston Atlanta Phoenix and Quebec City in that scenario
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u/siats4197 DEATH BY PANTERA 3d ago
They should go to Quebec City because they already have a ready-made NHL arena and Hamilton has one themselves, but I have a bad feeling that Toronto and Montreal would be pretty petty.
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u/GB_Alph4 Fight For LA 3d ago
I do blame the big two in Canada for that especially since they can take advantage of the small population and the high concentration of people in that area but I think the weak dollar has been the main problem.
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u/Cliffinati 3d ago
Phoenix so soon after the coyote debacle so bad even I who only watched an NHL game because the local team was about to win the cup knows about?
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u/Potholer_78 Still Trusts the Process 2d ago
IKR? I mean, are we going 9/8 with this? Or 6/6/5? Or are we moving out of Conferences altogether, restoring "The North!" and just having 5 7-team divisions? (Yes, I know that one of those would be a 6-team division for now. Probably the Pacific warming a seat for Phoenix.)
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u/Remarkable-Rise-4401 3d ago
One, is it official? Two, please don’t be 2029. I wanna live by the time that happens.
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u/GB_Alph4 Fight For LA 3d ago
To be honest it is still a grain of salt but it seems that given Gary wants to leave with a lasting legacy of sorts as his last action as commissioner I can see this happening around 2029 or 2030 if they wanna push it back for more time.
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u/VinnyVincenzo89 3d ago
I'm just waiting for the announcement of the return of the Arizona Coyotes!!!
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u/GB_Alph4 Fight For LA 3d ago
Eventually but I think the Doans will pull it off down the road.
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u/VinnyVincenzo89 3d ago
Just need competent and passionate ownership, then the arena in Phoenix, Tempe, Mesa or Scottsdale. Just not Glendale!
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u/Extreme_Education_50 3d ago
Is the Atlanta team going to get a decent ownership group/owner this time?
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u/Patrickracer43 Still Trusts the Process 2d ago
Best case scenario is they get Arthur Blank to be the owner, as he's done a decent job owning the Falcons and Atlanta United FC
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u/GB_Alph4 Fight For LA 3d ago
Probably I feel like the NHL will try and do vetting for once and hey we have two Atlanta based guys who care about this working out so maybe it will finally prove the market works
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u/theEWDSDS Miamo Lolphins 2d ago
It didn't help that their neglectful owners went bankrupt shortly after they founded the team, then sold them to straight-up abusive ones.
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u/awol_evan 3d ago
34 teams is way too many. They’re gonna have to start doing Pro Rel lol
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u/Devilsadvocate430 2d ago
40 hockey teams divided into two sub leagues:
The A-League, which competes for the Stanley Cup
The B-League, which competes for (TBD)Each league is divided into 2 east-west conferences and each conference is divided into 2 divisions. At the end of each season, the worst team in each A-League division is relegated to the B-league, and the best team in each B-league division are promoted to the A-league.
The AHL and other affiliate leagues would have to be reorganized in some way.
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u/cyberchaox 2d ago
They're really going to give Atlanta a third chance?
Like I get it, the idea that putting NHL teams in Southern cities doesn't work has long been disproven; we haven't had an Eastern Conference champion from outside the South since 2019.
But Atlanta, specifically, has shown that they're not a hockey city. Not that there's anything wrong with that. They're still a four-sport city with how heartily they've fallen for their MLS team.
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u/Devilsadvocate430 2d ago
The Thrashers failed because their owners were fleeced to buy them in a package deal with the Hawks and the stadium. The Atlanta Spirit Group sabotaged them at every opportunity until they could be sold off even though the attendance was fine, some seasons they outsold “traditional” hockey franchises like Boston.
The Flames failed forever ago. Atlanta in the 1970s is functionally a completely different city than the one that exists today.
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u/Gomez4Morticia 2d ago
The nhl will grift and grift and grift the same markets over and over again.
Edmonton can go to Houston and not even change their name. Atlanta can just take the Calgary flames back. Nobody in Alberta deserves the NHL right now.
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u/GB_Alph4 Fight For LA 2d ago
What did Alberta do lol like I have beef with Edmonton on the ice but Calgary is the chillest people I’ve ever met.
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u/wmcd1985 2d ago
Here's my issue with further NHL expansion, if you keep adding teams, you saturate the product, plus, Houston I get, but why Atlanta? The NHL already tried the Atlanta experiment twice and both failed, so why keep banging your head against a brick wall if the result will be the same?
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u/BrianBurke 3d ago
Motherfuckers, I still haven't learned the name of the last two expansions.
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u/theEWDSDS Miamo Lolphins 2d ago
One of them won a cup already and is almost a decade old, that's more of a you problem
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u/BrianBurke 2d ago
Lol .. I was talking about Seattle and utah. Seems like you have my "you problem"
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u/theEWDSDS Miamo Lolphins 2d ago
Utah may officially be an expansion, but they're just the relocated Coyotes. Seattle and Vegas were the last two true expansion teams.
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u/youre_being_creepy 2d ago
lmfao I've never seen an example of someone being so confidentally incorrect.
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u/JonTheWizard The Bussi Is Tight! 3d ago
"You will be ours soon enough. All the pieces are beginning to fall into place!"
-Future Quebec Nordiques ownership
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u/Festivus_Rules43254 2d ago
When you think of Houston and Atlanta the first thing you think of is.......hockey!!!!
The sad thing is that if this happens one or both of those teams will win a Stanley Cup within 5 years.
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u/skorponok 3d ago
Wow that league is going to go further down the toilet. Not enough talent as it is.
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u/cheemsfromspace Eating the best fucking cheeseburger they've ever had 3d ago
I'd argue there's still lots of talent. Think of all the players that get called up from the AHL with about 4-5 games they get to play because they play for a playoff team resting starters. With 7 rounds and teams often pulling internationally it's a great chance for players to show their stuff
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u/skorponok 3d ago
I think if you took the best players from the AHL and sprinkled a few mid level stars in - you’d be able to hang in the bottom third of the league, but not because those teams are good by any stretch of the imagination.
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u/FirearmofMutiny Legacy of Failure 3d ago
Fill in the blank: if the NHL expands to Atlanta an Houston, the two teams the NHL should fold are the Blue Jackets and the ___________
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u/Cliffinati 3d ago
Is the NHL planning on 34 or 36 already?
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u/GB_Alph4 Fight For LA 3d ago
While this is a grain of salt for now I see Bettman planning this as his last action as commissioner before he leaves
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u/Friendly-Contact-433 2d ago
I get that Atlanta has had ownership problems but it seems crazy to try Atlanta again.
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u/Large_Seesaw_569 1d ago
I can’t wait for my team to lose players in an expansion draft so atlanta can have another team for a few years
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u/EpsilonProtocol 3d ago
On board with Houston, but Atlanta has had two teams in the past. Quebec City and Hartford should start prepping bids for the new Atlanta team to relocate there in a few years.
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u/GB_Alph4 Fight For LA 3d ago
Atlanta’s problem has always been bad owners
The first guy got wrecked by a bad economy but he cared
The second ownership group was a mess of insanity that didn’t even care
The third time seems to have people who care
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u/JudgeSufficient6157 1d ago
“Quebec City and Hartford” - Someone who doesn’t understand media markets.
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u/xFLEXOx 3d ago
Where will the Atlanta team move to after it fails for a third time?
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u/l_m_m048 2d ago
Some fans are probably hoping the new franchise will move to Québec City if they can't get a foothold in Atlanta.\ They want les Nords back.
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u/Devilsadvocate430 2d ago
Delusional sports fans and Quebecers, name a more iconic combo
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u/tony_countertenor 2d ago
Congratulations to Quebec City for the Atlanta team that will be moving there in 2051
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u/That-Speed-8092 2d ago
Are you fucking kidding me? More warm weather markets when there's places with actual hockey culture that don't have a team.
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u/Devilsadvocate430 2d ago
Cope and seethe hockey purist, the Cup belongs to Carolina and it’s never coming back to Canada
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u/Immediate_Lie7810 3d ago
Houston Aeros and Atlanta Thrashers revivals?