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To me, it seems weird to have a team in Tennessee, but I hope they get this thing worked out and stay.

"All of which begs a question: Why didn't somebody see this coming?"

Holy ****. Seriously. I'm not sure if any of you noticed in Nashville, but I believe the whole Hockey world saw this coming from a mile away.

Yes, Leipold, take LESS money from Boots and the City (wink wink, nudge nudge Gary) and shut out Balsillie. That'll turn out well!!!!

You mean the very act of placing a hockey team in Nashville wasn't obvious enough?

You mean the very act of placing a hockey team in Nashville wasn't obvious enough?

ShinyPup
As I've written in these pages before, GET HOCKEY OUT OF WHERE IT DOESN'T BELONG

BETTMAN S***S

Bettman was in such a hurry to screw the Canadian bidder, I think he skipped the background check! Bettman needs to go!!!

It's time for Holmgren to call Poile and start raiding the Predators again!

Move them to Hamilton.

Wow Hank, took the words right out of my mouth, although the Winnipeg Predators has a nice ring to it. Although you couldn't do that to that city. They would have to be the Jets.

Winnipeg is good too.

Know when to say when.

One word can fix their problem: BALSILLIE!!!

It'd be kind of funny if someone else moved them to Hamilton, then what would Balsille do?

Rough to be a Preds fan nowadays...

I think everyone who posted has forgotten that Nashville was the fifth highest TV market in the U.S for the Stanley Cup playoffs, and the growth of hockey in Nashville has been directly tighed to the Predators. People need to have some patience and give hockey in Nashville a chance, they have some great fans as we saw in the Preds-Wings series.

It is crminal how the NHL refused an offer ( Balsillie) that was incredibly higher than this criminal (Boots)... why this league remains in the dark ages when it comes to revenue creation and marketing. What other league rejects a billionnaire owner willing to spend whatever it takes to spread your profit? Look at what George Steinbrenner, Jerry Jones and Mark Cuban have done for their respective sports... even though they may rub people the wrong way, other owners love them because they know how to make money hands over fist.

I love how everyone likes to scream "move hockey where it belongs". *shaking head* And just WHERE would that be? Hold on. Give me a sec here. I'll answer this one for you hecklers since I keep hearing this same BS spouting forth on a constant basis... "Where the fan are". Hmm... last time -I- went to a Preds game, the place was packed. Actually, the place has been fairly packed for most of the season.

Compared to other places where hockey is, what... SUPPOSE to be played? A cold enviroment?

Let me ask you guys, as I have in past, the same question I've always posed. Have ANY of you BEEN to a Preds game? Really? I think that if you HAD you'd have noticed how great our fans are here. Great. We're not rude to other teams fans. We're loud. We have fun. We support our team.

So get off the tired horse of "put hockey where it belongs" crap. Hockey belongs where people support it. Like here in Nashville. This repeated bile I keep hearing from people is just making you come across as arrogant and selfish, something this sport doesn't need. Try this next time... try supporting the league and help make it better. How about that. And make an attempt to go to games instead of watching them on TV.

Make sense or do I need to spell it out a little better?

So get off the tired horse of "put hockey where it belongs" crap. Hockey belongs where people support it. Like here in Nashville. This repeated bile I keep hearing from people is just making you come across as arrogant and selfish, something this sport doesn't need. Try this next time... try supporting the league and help make it better. How about that. And make an attempt to go to games instead of watching them on TV.
Make sense or do I need to spell it out a little better?
Jigger |

1) No arrogance or selfishness intended, just common sense. No bile either
yeah,okay, the place is packed...for now...What happens when the team goes through a bad spell? Will the place still be packed as it is in more "traditional" hockey towns? The Rangers went 54 years without a Stanley Cup, put some pretty lousy teams out there in that period, but there was almost always 18,200 people in MSG, and I never heard talk in my 47 years of them leaving.
2) It isn't a matter of not "supporting the league". Let's face a bit of reality here...the commisioner has no respect for the game and the league, based on some of what has gone on. Witness NHL players in the Olypics, that cursed trapezoid, and now debating making the nets bigger, all in the interest of more goals to make it "more exciting". Anyone who watched the most recent finals and didn't find those games exciting enough needs rethink their chosen sport. Bettman's main ideal in money...that's it. Which brings me to;
3) I would love to go to the games regularly. I have a family of 4, and I can't afford to go with any regularity.
4) To all the people in Nashville, Raleigh, Dallas, and all the rest. Saying to put hockey, "where it belongs" (not my phrase..it was Jigger's) is not an indictment of your fine cities, just of NHL Management (an oxymoron if ever there was one) edicts. So please cease the martyrdom.
BETTMAN S***S

I still say so what that the place is packed. If all a place needs is packed seats that wouldn't be an issue. But you need schmucks to buy sweaters, mugs, beer mugs, etc. You need more than a full arena of loud know nothing fans to call yourself a hockey market.

A town of 100,000 in Canada could sell out a 16,000 seat arena on a regular basis.

BFD.

Let's not forget that fun little report that leaked a few weeks ago that detailed how over 33% of the league's revenue comes from the league's 6 Canadian teams. It was just a little coincidental that less than a week after this report on the league, Del Boots' financial 'difficulties' came to light. The same owner Mr. Bettman preferred to Basillie a year previously.
Now I know there are territorial issues with the Leafs and Sabres (mainly with Buffalo because the fans who travel south from Toronto for a 'cheap' hockey game would no longer need to leave the country to do this). But Bettman should figure out these territorial issues with the nearby organizations and aid the Predators' move to the Great White North.
This is not a comment on Nashville directly, I'd prefer to move teams such as Tampa Bay, Florida, Carolina, Phoenix or Columbus, but right now the Predators are the only team with current ownership difficulties. Nashville seems to support their team well but as an earlier poster mentioned they cannot match the capabilities of the Canadian markets for team merchandise sales.
Anyways, I hope this matter is settled sometime soon and in a totally unrelated point I hope Canada gets a 7th NHL franchise sometime in the near future. WE FINALLY EARNED IT, WE'RE MORE PROFITABLE! NOW GIVE US OUR 7TH BABY!

"I think everyone who posted has forgotten that Nashville was the fifth highest TV market in the U.S for the Stanley Cup playoffs."
Oilersrule | 06/16/08, 02:14 PM

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The simple explanation for that odd phenomenon is that they were playing the DETROIT RED WINGS!!! That's who they were watching. Not the Predators!

It would be a crying shame for the NHL to endure yet another team move or disbandment. I personnaly know one of the guys that was intrumental in getting the team there and he is just heartbroken over this. Anybody got a spare 9 mil I could borrow?