[haltcatchfire]

Sounds like at the end of the day we will need a new arena.

Anyone have any ideas on what the chances are of the team moving to another city? Outside of Houston or Quebec.... or maybe Portland, what other cities would be candidates for a new team?

Edmonton could use an NHL team.

 

[FCC1982]

And they have a new building waiting for one

 

[FCC1982]

Here's a general question regarding the future of an arena in general. Even with this deal falling through, are we likely to see another run at this in a few years, or sooner? It's my understanding that there is concern over the longevity of the Saddledome's structure..... something to do with the roof only being good for another 10-20 years, or something?

I think we’ll see another run at this within 6 months.

 

[YYCguy]

As a councillor on the previous council, was Gondek a willing and enthusiastic supporter of the new event centre? If so, it’s so odd that she was so quick to say goodbye the deal. I wonder what the rest of the current council would like to see happen. A lot of new faces on council and I don’t have a clue on their feelings of the arena deal.

 

[Mountain Man]

The team isn't going anywhere, the league and a majority of owners would need to approve the move and there would have to be a rock solid business case and proven fanbase. There's no way the team will make more money elsewhere.

 

[MichaelS]

As a councillor on the previous council, was Gondek a willing and enthusiastic supporter of the new event centre? If so, it’s so odd that she was so quick to say goodbye the deal. I wonder what the rest of the current council would like to see happen. A lot of new faces on council and I don’t have a clue on their feelings of the arena deal.

I am not sure the level of enthusiasm, but she voted in favour of the initial deal in 2019:

'Public money is being used for public good': Council votes to spend $275 million on new Flames arena

Calgary city council has voted to ratify an agreement that will see the construction of a new $550-million arena that will be home to the Calgary Flames for…

calgaryherald.com

When the Flames came back looking for more money in July 2021, and an additional $12.5 million tax dollars were given to them, along with the removal of CMLC as project manager, she was opposed to it:

Calgary city council approves confidential change to arena deal with Flames ownership - Calgary | Globalnews.ca

Calgary city council voted 11-3 in favour of reconsidering the deal signed between the City of Calgary and Flames ownership in 2019.

globalnews.ca

 

[Surrealplaces]

Hamilton

In a ot of ways Hamilton makes sense. It has two things going against it.
-The old Copps arena (or whatever it's called now) is quite old. I think Hamilton would require a new arena if I'm not mistaken.
- They would have to pay the Leafs and possibly even the Sabres compensation to move there. I had heard $100M for the Leafs, but could be mistaken.

 

[JonnyCanuck]

In a ot of ways Hamilton makes sense. It has two things going against it.
-The old Copps arena (or whatever it's called now) is quite old. I think Hamilton would require a new arena if I'm not mistaken.
- They would have to pay the Leafs and possibly even the Sabres compensation to move there. I had heard $100M for the Leafs, but could be mistaken.

Now called FirstOntario Centre, it seats just over 17,000 for hockey which is a little bit less than ideal for an NHL team. However, it does not have the private box capacity that an NHL team covets so the existing facility would be temporary until a new one is built.
Southern Ontario could easily support another team. There are 7-8 million people that are a 90 minute drive from Toronto. The Leafs have been whining for years that another team would hurt their business. That is just b.s.!

 

[Mountain Man]

There should be at least 2 more teams in the GTA, Hamilton and maybe Markham (they did have an arena proposal years ago). Crazy that LA has 2 teams, NYC basically has 3 but Toronto can only support 1?

 

[ShotArch]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1480561530710028289

 

[ShotArch]

Looks like city is still trying to hold on..

 

[UrbanWarrior]

There should be at least 2 more teams in the GTA, Hamilton and maybe Markham (they did have an arena proposal years ago). Crazy that LA has 2 teams, NYC basically has 3 but Toronto can only support 1?

Despite not having a current NHL-calibre arena (though neither does Hamilton) London might make a better choice as far as a potential fanbase goes, as it is the centre of SWO, with round 2.5 million people west and south of the Guelph/Brantford line.

 

[Vicwest9]

Despite the fact that the London Knights may well be the best team in the OHL/WHL and have been for some time, London itself has a pathetic infrastructure incapable of supporting the myriad of things required to support an NHL franchise. Maybe KW if anywhere

 

[Chinese_T]

In a ot of ways Hamilton makes sense. It has two things going against it.
-The old Copps arena (or whatever it's called now) is quite old. I think Hamilton would require a new arena if I'm not mistaken.
- They would have to pay the Leafs and possibly even the Sabres compensation to move there. I had heard $100M for the Leafs, but could be mistaken.

There should be at least 2 more teams in the GTA, Hamilton and maybe Markham (they did have an arena proposal years ago). Crazy that LA has 2 teams, NYC basically has 3 but Toronto can only support 1?

I showed a friend from Hamilton this thread and here's what he had to say:

The chance of the Flames or any team moving to Hamilton, or even a new team for that matter coming to Hamilton is exactly negative 140 percent.

The first issue is the competition, the Leafs and the Sabres are both against a Hamilton team as they fear it would impact their margins and that is an almost certain fact.

The comparisons made of Los Angeles and New York are ridiculous - Greater LA has a population of what, 18 or 19 million, and GLA probably excludes another million or so from the surrounding markets, greater NYC is over 20 million, compare that to the GTHA which is 7 million but excludes probably 1 million or so from surrounding markets and you can see the comparisons given are bunk.

The second issue is that Hamilton is inherently not a hockey town - a number of years ago, probably close to eight or ten the Bulldogs AHL team was sold off to somewhere else (cannot remember off the top of my head where exactly) and replaced by an OHL team of the same name. There has never been an enthusiasm around hockey or our team here; that is unlikely to change.

The third issue is the arena - FirstOntario centre was originally built with the faint hope that Hamilton could one day host an NHL team here (civic blowhards have deluded themselves for many decades over this “possibility”) but it is now old and shitty and awful. Because it is old and shitty and awful the City has now signed a deal (behind closed doors with zero competitive processes) with one of the bigwig event operator companies (Carmen’s partnership) here to renovate it, make them the operator of it (and develop some of the properties around it because this whole thing is a fucking taxpayer-funded private enrichment program for Carmen’s and their owners, the Mercanti’s), and part of that renovation will be downscaling the arena.

The fourth issue is Hamilton has at least three or maybe four teams now using that one arena - the Bulldogs, the Hamilton Honey Badgers basketball, and most recently the Toronto Rock Lacrosse team (who were basically priced out of Toronto, and then immediately offended Hamilton by refusing to change their name (and Hamilton has a huge rivalry with Toronto on apparently everything for some reason)) and there isn’t really any more space or time for another team. The FirstOntario Centre is also used for the largest events and often acts as a secondary Toronto arena - a few years ago BTS or Pinkblack or one of those K-POP groups came here and it was a goddamn mob scene.

In sum, it isn’t happening. I would be less surprised to see Hamilton become the home of Canada’s only NFL team because of a) how much more enthusiasm this city has for football and b) Toronto would be a no-go for NFL because the rest of the country has a similar hate-on for it and would never rally behind a Toronto team as a Canadian team.

 

[Surrealplaces]

One thing we have to keep in mind is that an NHL team move would require approval from the NHL owners. Approximately none would like to see a move to Hamilton or London, etc... They approved the move from Atlanta but would not likely a move from one Canadian city to another smaller market Canadian city, especially if the team is already viable in its location.