Quote:
Originally Posted by Mister F
There's no evidence to back up this view. This is just the default "American is better" attitude so many Canadians fall back on. If anything it would be the opposite. The Canadian NHL teams, on average, make more money and have stronger followings than the American ones. A hypothetical Canadian league would be second to noone.
.
|
Exactly. Plus, the assumption that a US NHL would be stronger than the Canadian league is based on the false premise that all of the teams in the American league would be strong.
The reality is that it would be the exact opposite: all of the current NHL clubs in Canada are strong or stable financially. Close to half of those based in the US are on shaky ground. At best the number of strong NHL franchises at the moment in both countries is equal. Plus all of the weak American teams are propped up by money from the money-making Canadian and American clubs. That Canadian money is gone if Canada forms its own league, so either the strong US clubs pony up more cash (weakening their bottom line) or they jettison some of the money-losing clubs, which leave the US NHL with far fewer clubs than the current NHL has in the US today.
Basically, the likely scenario if Canada split off from the NHL is a league in each country with about a dozen teams each, and these two leagues would be of comparable calibre.