unimaginative2
Senior Member
I'd certainly prefer K-W, but I am petrified of them deciding to locate the arena in a Cambridge industrial park next to the 401.
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ShonTron
Moderator
My bet would be SportsWorld area. It would end up by the 401 if going to K-W if only to make it easy for people to arrive from the West 905, London, Hamilton, etc. If it's by SportsWorld, at least it would be on the main transit corridor.
unimaginative2
Senior Member
I agree, but the talk locally has been about the Cambridge industrial park. There was a mention in the Record as well of the land already bought.
Bogtrotter
Senior Member
"K-W might be the best choice given the economics and politics even though I'd prefer Hamilton."
Balsillie also wants it there. Apparently he's bought land in Cambridge, '81ks' from TO, which is about the right size for an arena.
Balsillie also wants it there. Apparently he's bought land in Cambridge, '81ks' from TO, which is about the right size for an arena.
ShonTron
Moderator
Where abouts exactly? By Toyota? Or south of the 401 towards Cambridge Place? Anyway the words "Cambridge Industrial Park" do not sound promising.
unimaginative2
Senior Member
Yup, they definitely don't sound promising.
An NHL team for Cambridge? Well, we can dream, can't we?
JEFF HICKS
(May 25, 2007)
An NHL team in Cambridge? Please, say it will be so.
"I would love to see that happen," said city councillor Karl Kiefer yesterday. "That would be the cat's meow."
Actually, it'd be more like the growl of the Nashville Predators, who are to be sold to local billionaire Jim Balsillie and could be moved to Cambridge.
Yesterday, such wild speculation raced through the city that straddles the 401 on a hot day in May.
Let's start with Mr. Balsillie. You remember him, don't you?
Research In Motion dude.
Co-chief executive of the merry BlackBerry makers from Waterloo.
Loves pucks. Lots of bucks.
Backed out of buying the Pittsburgh Penguins for $175 million US last December. Didn't like the conditions the NHL slapped on the purchase.
The NHL wanted the Pens to stay put.
Speculation is Balsillie dreamed of moving them north to Waterloo Region. That all fell through. Now, he's got the Preds.
Balsillie was a no-show at yesterday's presser announcing the sale of the Preds for $220 million. His absence was not a good sign for the true fans of NHL slash-and-dash in Nash, where attendance dipped below 14,000 per game this past season. According to outgoing owner Craig Leipold, the club lost $15 million in Tennessee last year. Surely, Balsillie will move the team north, perhaps as early as the season after next, Right?
How about Cambridge?
Think it can't happen?
Think about this.
In February, RIM purchased a large plot of land -- 26 acres, Kiefer said -- in Cambridge off Can-Amera Parkway, between Lingard and Townline roads.
Picked it up from a home builder.
Paid about $3.8 million.
Might be a simple plot on which to build grand new digs for bursting-at-the-seams RIM, now occupying 21 buildings in Waterloo.
Or the site could land in Balsillie's hands and become a perfect place to erect a big rink for a big-time team.
Close to the 401.
Close to the Breslau airport, where international flights are welcome.
Most importantly, it appears to sit about 82 km from the Air Canada Centre in Toronto. You see, the Toronto Maple Leafs hold a veto power over any plans to drop another NHL club within 80 km of their ice palace.
The Leafs seem out of the picture.
Cambridge looks to be in frame. Balsillie was not responding to Record requests for an interview.
So how do the locals feel?
Let's ask NHL forward Scott Walker, a 33-year-old ex-Predator who lives about a minute from the potential arena site. We're talking an NHL team in his hometown. We're talking an NHL team just beyond his backyard.
"Wow," said Walker, when informed Cambridge was a wild possibility.
"That'd be amazing. That would be unbelievable. That would be a shocker to everybody, wouldn't it?"
Not just a shocker.
It would be a wonderful jolt of big-time energy in the city of the Sutherland Cup champion Winter Hawks.
The NHL is a big jump from the Jr. B outfit Walker once played for.
But why not dream big?
So what if it's all just speculation, as Kiefer and Cambridge Mayor Doug Craig admit. It's a good day to dream.
"It could be the Cambridge Predators -- sounds great," Craig said. "We certainly have land down here in Cambridge for such an enterprise. Then again, it's up to Mr. Balsillie and his group."
If attendance continues to sag below 14,000, the Preds could become a free-agent team as early as next spring.
Walker could be one on July 1.
He made $1.5-million with the Carolina Hurricanes this past season and is talking contract with the Canes right now. But, come Canada Day, he could sign with any team he wants too.
Walker, who was the poster boy for the Preds franchise during his seven seasons in Nashville, wouldn't mind becoming a Predator again. After all, he was on the first Predators team after Nashville claimed him in the 1998 expansion draft. When Walker was traded to Carolina last summer, he was Nashville's franchise leader in goals with 96, points with 247 and penalty minutes with 465.
"We were talking about Nashville and that was before Jim got the team," Walker said. "It'll be interesting to see what they're plans are, if they're going to stay or move or what. It definitely piques my interest a lot more."
But what about Nashville as a hockey town? Why, after a decade of Predators hockey, hasn't the capital city of country music reserved a place in its hokey heart for hockey, alongside Minnie Pearl and the Grand Ole Opry?
"Our first year, it was new and a lot of people and the music industry caught onto it," Walker recalled.
"It was kind of the place to be the first few years. It was the hip place to be. It seemed to die out after that. You still always had your diehard fans."
Walkers figures the fan base wasn't the true problem in Nashville.
He blames the business side.
"I think it was the corporate sponsors that really kind of hurt -- they didn't get them," Walker said.
"The football team did."
Hockey is no match for the Tennessee Titans of the mighty NFL.
"Right at the beginning, they played in a little stadium," Walker said of the Titans. "Now they have a brand new big one right down the street from ours. It's just a different animal. It's a southern state. They love the hockey but football is kind of what they grew up with. It was a tough thing to try and battle."
Should Balsillie move the Predators north -- perhaps to Cambridge or somewhere else in Waterloo Region where a plot of land stands in need of an arena -- hockey's battle to hold Nashville high ground will be lost.
But Waterloo Region may win big.
"I think it's great for the region if it comes somewhere in the region," Craig said.
Even if Walker doesn't end up playing NHL hockey in his hometown, he would enjoy taking his family -- wife Julie and kids Cooper, 5, and Anna, 3 -- to see a big-time game in the area.
He's never met Balsillie.
But the dream of bringing an NHL team to the Region can work in reality.
Walker is convinced of that.
"It'd be great for the community," Walker said. "I really do think that Waterloo, Cambridge and Kitchener are booming enough and Toronto is growing outside enough that it'd be exciting. I definitely think they could do it. I don't know all the legal aspects of it but I definitely think you could support a team here. Plus, you've got all the people coming from smaller towns outside -- Woodstock, Stratford and London."
Now, it's up to Balsillie.
The Preds are his.
Maybe, they'll soon be ours.
jhicks@therecord.com
An NHL team for Cambridge? Well, we can dream, can't we?
JEFF HICKS
(May 25, 2007)
An NHL team in Cambridge? Please, say it will be so.
"I would love to see that happen," said city councillor Karl Kiefer yesterday. "That would be the cat's meow."
Actually, it'd be more like the growl of the Nashville Predators, who are to be sold to local billionaire Jim Balsillie and could be moved to Cambridge.
Yesterday, such wild speculation raced through the city that straddles the 401 on a hot day in May.
Let's start with Mr. Balsillie. You remember him, don't you?
Research In Motion dude.
Co-chief executive of the merry BlackBerry makers from Waterloo.
Loves pucks. Lots of bucks.
Backed out of buying the Pittsburgh Penguins for $175 million US last December. Didn't like the conditions the NHL slapped on the purchase.
The NHL wanted the Pens to stay put.
Speculation is Balsillie dreamed of moving them north to Waterloo Region. That all fell through. Now, he's got the Preds.
Balsillie was a no-show at yesterday's presser announcing the sale of the Preds for $220 million. His absence was not a good sign for the true fans of NHL slash-and-dash in Nash, where attendance dipped below 14,000 per game this past season. According to outgoing owner Craig Leipold, the club lost $15 million in Tennessee last year. Surely, Balsillie will move the team north, perhaps as early as the season after next, Right?
How about Cambridge?
Think it can't happen?
Think about this.
In February, RIM purchased a large plot of land -- 26 acres, Kiefer said -- in Cambridge off Can-Amera Parkway, between Lingard and Townline roads.
Picked it up from a home builder.
Paid about $3.8 million.
Might be a simple plot on which to build grand new digs for bursting-at-the-seams RIM, now occupying 21 buildings in Waterloo.
Or the site could land in Balsillie's hands and become a perfect place to erect a big rink for a big-time team.
Close to the 401.
Close to the Breslau airport, where international flights are welcome.
Most importantly, it appears to sit about 82 km from the Air Canada Centre in Toronto. You see, the Toronto Maple Leafs hold a veto power over any plans to drop another NHL club within 80 km of their ice palace.
The Leafs seem out of the picture.
Cambridge looks to be in frame. Balsillie was not responding to Record requests for an interview.
So how do the locals feel?
Let's ask NHL forward Scott Walker, a 33-year-old ex-Predator who lives about a minute from the potential arena site. We're talking an NHL team in his hometown. We're talking an NHL team just beyond his backyard.
"Wow," said Walker, when informed Cambridge was a wild possibility.
"That'd be amazing. That would be unbelievable. That would be a shocker to everybody, wouldn't it?"
Not just a shocker.
It would be a wonderful jolt of big-time energy in the city of the Sutherland Cup champion Winter Hawks.
The NHL is a big jump from the Jr. B outfit Walker once played for.
But why not dream big?
So what if it's all just speculation, as Kiefer and Cambridge Mayor Doug Craig admit. It's a good day to dream.
"It could be the Cambridge Predators -- sounds great," Craig said. "We certainly have land down here in Cambridge for such an enterprise. Then again, it's up to Mr. Balsillie and his group."
If attendance continues to sag below 14,000, the Preds could become a free-agent team as early as next spring.
Walker could be one on July 1.
He made $1.5-million with the Carolina Hurricanes this past season and is talking contract with the Canes right now. But, come Canada Day, he could sign with any team he wants too.
Walker, who was the poster boy for the Preds franchise during his seven seasons in Nashville, wouldn't mind becoming a Predator again. After all, he was on the first Predators team after Nashville claimed him in the 1998 expansion draft. When Walker was traded to Carolina last summer, he was Nashville's franchise leader in goals with 96, points with 247 and penalty minutes with 465.
"We were talking about Nashville and that was before Jim got the team," Walker said. "It'll be interesting to see what they're plans are, if they're going to stay or move or what. It definitely piques my interest a lot more."
But what about Nashville as a hockey town? Why, after a decade of Predators hockey, hasn't the capital city of country music reserved a place in its hokey heart for hockey, alongside Minnie Pearl and the Grand Ole Opry?
"Our first year, it was new and a lot of people and the music industry caught onto it," Walker recalled.
"It was kind of the place to be the first few years. It was the hip place to be. It seemed to die out after that. You still always had your diehard fans."
Walkers figures the fan base wasn't the true problem in Nashville.
He blames the business side.
"I think it was the corporate sponsors that really kind of hurt -- they didn't get them," Walker said.
"The football team did."
Hockey is no match for the Tennessee Titans of the mighty NFL.
"Right at the beginning, they played in a little stadium," Walker said of the Titans. "Now they have a brand new big one right down the street from ours. It's just a different animal. It's a southern state. They love the hockey but football is kind of what they grew up with. It was a tough thing to try and battle."
Should Balsillie move the Predators north -- perhaps to Cambridge or somewhere else in Waterloo Region where a plot of land stands in need of an arena -- hockey's battle to hold Nashville high ground will be lost.
But Waterloo Region may win big.
"I think it's great for the region if it comes somewhere in the region," Craig said.
Even if Walker doesn't end up playing NHL hockey in his hometown, he would enjoy taking his family -- wife Julie and kids Cooper, 5, and Anna, 3 -- to see a big-time game in the area.
He's never met Balsillie.
But the dream of bringing an NHL team to the Region can work in reality.
Walker is convinced of that.
"It'd be great for the community," Walker said. "I really do think that Waterloo, Cambridge and Kitchener are booming enough and Toronto is growing outside enough that it'd be exciting. I definitely think they could do it. I don't know all the legal aspects of it but I definitely think you could support a team here. Plus, you've got all the people coming from smaller towns outside -- Woodstock, Stratford and London."
Now, it's up to Balsillie.
The Preds are his.
Maybe, they'll soon be ours.
jhicks@therecord.com
ShonTron
Moderator
Sure is close to the 401, and the regional airport. Pearson could even be done in a pinch.
But ewww. Kanatastic.
Can-Amera Pkwy and Townline
But ewww. Kanatastic.
Can-Amera Pkwy and Townline
unimaginative2
Senior Member
Haha... that's exactly the word I was looking for. I've been screaming to everyone who will listen that this will be a disaster and a repeat of the Palladium fiasco. Honestly...nobody builds arenas in industrial parks anymore. It just doesn't make any sense. Why not build downtown where there will be a spinoff effect on all the other businesses, instead of locating next to the highway so people can drive in and drive out without seeing a bit of the city or spending a dime.
Bogtrotter
Senior Member
I think many of the fans wouldn't be from KW- thus a site closer to the 401 would be more desireable in terms of draw.
I'd prefer to see a site chosen for a new arena there that would have good access from both the 401 and from the proposed K-W/Cambridge Light Rail line.
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Skeezix
Senior Member
Ha! I'm from Kanata, and I think that is the funniest (and truest) thing I've read all day.
I don't know that I would call the Palladium/Corel Centre/Scotiabank Place a "fiasco", as unimaginative2 called it, as it's a fairly good arena (similarities to a big, pink oild drum aside). Yes, it's as far out in Ottawa's western suburbs as possible, and transportation to and from is just one of the problems associated with the distant location. Mostly, I think it is just a very sad missed opportunity to have put the arena somewhere more central, where it would have contributed more to Ottawa's urban fabric. But a fiasco? No, not unless on top of everything else it was a white elephant, which it is not.
An arena in KW would likely be a different case, though. As Bogtrotter said, any KW franchise would be drawing fans from all over southern Ontario, and easy 401 access would be key. There is more justification in KW for putting the arena out by the highway than there was (is) in Ottawa.
J_Wallinger
New Member
DEFINITELY Hamilton .... and they deserve it. love the T.O./Hammer rivalry too, let's make it happen 
wyliepoon
Senior Member
Globe
Link to article
Bettman "intrigued" with idea of NHL returning to Winnipeg
PIERRE LEBRUN
Canadian Press
ANAHEIM, Calif. — NHL commissioner Gary Bettman gave his strongest indication yet Monday that having a team return to Winnipeg could happen one day.
Bettman, in his state-of-the union address to the media before Game 1 of the Stanley Cup final, referred to an editorial in a Canadian newspaper he read this week which suggested that if the NHL did add another Canadian team it should go back to Winnipeg first because they have a new building and the NHL owes it to them.
"I'm not opining on whether or not that's an opinion that I agree with, but it is an interesting and intriguing thought," Bettman said in a comment that raised eyebrows.
While he stressed that there really hadn't been that much thought put into it at this point and that he had no plans for any current NHL teams to re-locate or for the league to expand, he does see the chance for Winnipeg to get a team back one day.
"When we had the chance to go back to Minnesota, we did. Because it made sense, the right ownership, the right building situation," said Bettman. "The market was strong and vibrant. We haven't studied Quebec City or Winnipeg or anywhere else in Canada, but the notion that if it could work to put a franchise back in a place where one was lost, feels good — provided we don't wind up in a situation where we've created a prescription for another failing franchise.
"So am I intrigued? It's obviously something I've thought about in terms of trying to make right something that one point in our history went wrong."
The Jets left Winnipeg for Phoenix after the 1995-96 season. Bettman believes the salary cap and revenue sharing facets of the new collective bargaining agreement provides a chance for a market like Winnipeg to make a go of it.
But another team in Toronto? Bettman is not a fan of that idea, despite the fact there are three clubs in the New York/New Jersey area and two teams here in Southern California.
"It's not something I've given any thought to," Bettman said of having another team in Toronto. "... I frankly think, and I live in the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area, it's tough for all the clubs to get media attention, particularly when they're having tough years on the ice.
"There's some real downside to having multiple teams in one market."
The message seems clear from the commissioner: if Jim Balsillie wants to move the Nashville Predators, the NHL would rather have them move to Winnipeg than Waterloo, Ont., the home of the Research In Motion CEO.
But Bettman also said too many people are wrongly assuming the Predators will move.
"I met with Mr. Balsillie last week and I specifically asked him whether or not he had specific plans or intentions with respect to moving this franchise and he told me that he did not," said Bettman. "So I think there's been entirely too much speculation in terms of what comes next."
Balsillie's purchase of the Predators still needs owners' approval, a vote that could come later in June.
Link to article
Bettman "intrigued" with idea of NHL returning to Winnipeg
PIERRE LEBRUN
Canadian Press
ANAHEIM, Calif. — NHL commissioner Gary Bettman gave his strongest indication yet Monday that having a team return to Winnipeg could happen one day.
Bettman, in his state-of-the union address to the media before Game 1 of the Stanley Cup final, referred to an editorial in a Canadian newspaper he read this week which suggested that if the NHL did add another Canadian team it should go back to Winnipeg first because they have a new building and the NHL owes it to them.
"I'm not opining on whether or not that's an opinion that I agree with, but it is an interesting and intriguing thought," Bettman said in a comment that raised eyebrows.
While he stressed that there really hadn't been that much thought put into it at this point and that he had no plans for any current NHL teams to re-locate or for the league to expand, he does see the chance for Winnipeg to get a team back one day.
"When we had the chance to go back to Minnesota, we did. Because it made sense, the right ownership, the right building situation," said Bettman. "The market was strong and vibrant. We haven't studied Quebec City or Winnipeg or anywhere else in Canada, but the notion that if it could work to put a franchise back in a place where one was lost, feels good — provided we don't wind up in a situation where we've created a prescription for another failing franchise.
"So am I intrigued? It's obviously something I've thought about in terms of trying to make right something that one point in our history went wrong."
The Jets left Winnipeg for Phoenix after the 1995-96 season. Bettman believes the salary cap and revenue sharing facets of the new collective bargaining agreement provides a chance for a market like Winnipeg to make a go of it.
But another team in Toronto? Bettman is not a fan of that idea, despite the fact there are three clubs in the New York/New Jersey area and two teams here in Southern California.
"It's not something I've given any thought to," Bettman said of having another team in Toronto. "... I frankly think, and I live in the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area, it's tough for all the clubs to get media attention, particularly when they're having tough years on the ice.
"There's some real downside to having multiple teams in one market."
The message seems clear from the commissioner: if Jim Balsillie wants to move the Nashville Predators, the NHL would rather have them move to Winnipeg than Waterloo, Ont., the home of the Research In Motion CEO.
But Bettman also said too many people are wrongly assuming the Predators will move.
"I met with Mr. Balsillie last week and I specifically asked him whether or not he had specific plans or intentions with respect to moving this franchise and he told me that he did not," said Bettman. "So I think there's been entirely too much speculation in terms of what comes next."
Balsillie's purchase of the Predators still needs owners' approval, a vote that could come later in June.
unimaginative2
Senior Member
Bettman really has been living in New York. Torontonians forgetting about an NHL team? Has he even talked to a Torontonian?
ShonTron
Moderator
Time for Buttman to get the bum's rush. But he must be serving ML$E well.
As if Chicago forgets about either the Sox or the Cubs, or LA forgetting about the Angels and Dodgers, or New York forgetting about the Mets or the Yankees. NHL here is as big as MLB there.
As if Chicago forgets about either the Sox or the Cubs, or LA forgetting about the Angels and Dodgers, or New York forgetting about the Mets or the Yankees. NHL here is as big as MLB there.