from Tony Keller of the Globe and Mail,

Dear hockey fans in Hamilton, Quebec City, Markham, Saskatoon etc. dreaming of a National Hockey League team: Your prayers will not be answered any time soon.

The United States has a bunch of financially weak NHL franchises, and investors have long kicked those tires, trying to figure out how to move them to Canada, where the fans are. But Rogers Communications Inc.’s $5.2-billion, 12-year deal for the league’s national Canadian television rights changes that game.

Those money-losing U.S. teams once at risk of being relocated north? They’re getting a big cash infusion. NHL teams compete on the ice, but they equally share national TV revenues – and since 23 of the league’s 30 teams are American, most of Rogers’s money is heading south....

Thanks to big subsidies from taxpayers in most U.S. cities, some give-back from the players and now a windfall from Canadian TV viewers, the NHL’s Sunbelt strategy is more of a success than ever. And the day when the NHL grows to more than seven Canadians teams is growing more distant.

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