Kukla's Korner Hockey
Gary Bettman Stresses New Arenas Needed In Calgary And Ottawa
by Paul on 11/18/17 at 08:54 AM ET
Comments (4)
from Chris Johnston of Sportsnet,
Amid growing talk about Houston’s desire to land a hockey team, and with Seattle pushing towards finally getting an NHL-ready building, Gary Bettman gently pointed out that his league has some budding dance partners. Lest anyone forget in the only two cities where teams are known to be lobbying for a new facility.
“We believe in all of the places that we have franchises now,” Bettman said Friday after a luncheon with Montreal’s chamber of commerce. “We think all of our markets are capable of supporting our clubs. We’re not looking to threaten markets, but there is a certain inevitability if a club needs a new arena to stay competitive, to stay viable and have stability, that if it can’t for whatever reason get a new facility then at some point ownership has to look at what options it may have.
“It’s great to know that there are lots of places that are interested in having a franchise that don’t, but we’re not running around actively soliciting interest. We listen to whoever wants to come and talk to us, and we’re aware of the interest, but our preference is to have our franchises right where they are.”
Filed in: NHL Teams, Calgary Flames, Ottawa Senators, NHL Talk, | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: gary+bettman
Comments
It always sounds stupid when someone says “we’re not threatening anyone”...but
it would be shame if something happened to that nice hockey team you cheer for.
Gary and his clique of owners are all about extracting ever more from average taxpaying
citizens and hockey fans - and choosing lockouts every time they want a higher share from
the players.
“Growing the game” etc. are just corporate talking points.
Posted by Lefty30 on 11/18/17 at 06:24 PM ET
Gary Bettman Stresses New Arenas Needed In Calgary And Ottawa
Then maybe he can pay for them instead of threatening the taxpayers who only lose in publicly funded arena deals.
Posted by Nate A from Detroit-ish on 11/19/17 at 12:06 AM ET
The last thing Ottawa needs is for the taxpayers to get saddled with building an NHL arena on their backs. We’re in the midst of paying for light rail and that’s going to be going on for the next decade at least. And, a significant portion of the government workers here aren’t being paid properly because of the Phoenix pay system debacle.
Why in the world would we agree to pay for an arena when all this other stuff is happening. Melnyk is a supposed billionaire. He can pay for it.
Posted by Canucklehead from Ottawa, Ontario on 11/19/17 at 09:36 AM ET
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“We’re not looking to threaten markets…”
GB saying this is probably the clearest indication that the NHL is trying to threaten markets. Just wish he’d call it what it is.
Posted by HaHasek on 11/18/17 at 10:03 AM ET