I think it would. They have an 18.5k arena about to open up later this year as well.

# of avid NHL fans according to 538:

Winnipeg 580k
Québec 530k
Breakeven level of local fandom for profitable franchise 300-400k
Seattle 240k
Las Vegas 91k

The main problem though is that it is a very French speaking city, much moreso than Montreal. The last time around they would run into problems every now and then attracting non-French speaking players.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sport...ticle23471555/

Is 9k in a month good? The jets have that in 10 minutes but obv not comparable. Any data on drives from earlier expansion markets?

If you build it, they will come

Hockey might work in Vegas...Since it brutal heat so spending few hours with the fmaily indoors air conditioned and ice rink...Think itd be good for the NHL too adding a big spectator site in Vegas...NHL needs help in USA

Lets go Islanders!

Tavares MVP MVP MVP!!!!

^^^I dont think I weatched 1 fuill Islander game this year lolz. But im ready for playoffs. = Hockey needs help in USA lolz

That's a really cheesy name.

This is solid. Much better than gambooolers. I guess Buttman wants to keep hockey in warm places so he can see games without freezing his ass off.

But terrible idea. Phoenix has failed. Atlanta also failed. Both are much bigger cities with similar weather and also get a decent amount of tourists. I don't see this working at all.

Vegas gets 41 million visitors per year andAtlanta gets 35 million. It's not really a valid argument.

I'd go see a Vegas hookers & blow game.

Vegas and Atlanta may get an equal number of tourists but that's pretty much where the comparison ends. Vegas tourists have a very specific goal, get f*cked up, gamble and be entertained. Maybe the only other comparable tourist base in the U.S. would be New Orleans.

They would need to somehow tie-in to the convention circuit to be more successful - having conferences/conventions buy large numbers of tickets could go a long way to filling seats on a nightly basis, particularly since the convention circuit timing somewhat mirrors the NHL season.

Yeah, I understand most people go to Vegas for entertainment purposes only, but large, warm weather cities have consistently failed in being good hockey towns. Miami can't get anyone to go to games either, granted the arena is 30 miles from downtown. People also go to Miami for the weather, whereas that's only an ancillary factor in going to Vegas.

I just don't see that being a go-to place for tourists. Most people going to Vegas probably live within a reasonable distance to a hockey team. And besides, sporting leagues care about how many season tickets they sell more than anything, so tourists don't even factor into that.

New article that seems to lend credence to the idea that Vegas would struggle.

http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/h...-ticket-sales/

it's still gonna 100% happen

skimmed the article, does he even include Vegas data in there? it'd be weird anyway because there is no team yet, but still. seems like he's saying that people are searching for the Coyotes, so don't put a team in Vegas? seems like more lolNate really. i mean based on this latest model he thinks there should be NHL teams in like 50k Canadian cities, lol.

His forecast for Vegas was the other article, and is like half as much as the lowest team on that chart.

Basically the article is "some people didn't like my methodology for estating demand for NHL tickets but as it turns out that methodology is shockingly great at predicting exactly that.

so people aren't searching for a team that doesn't exist? k

put the team in Flin Flon then!

#Brazil2014

"I haven't read any of the really short easy to follow articles but let me shoot my mouth off anyway"

getting 4k out for the 3rd tier of North American pro hockey? terrible





makes sense.



#Brazil2014

as someone who watches about 30 minutes of hungover outdoor nhl on New Year's Day, and maaybe 30 minutes total the rest of the year, if you told me youngstown was getting an nhl franchise downtown I'd probably get a 10-game season ticket package and watch with the same pattern/intensity I do the indians: 80% of games are at least on, and I'm in and out of paying attention.

I'm sure out of 300k people in Vegas at least a few are like me. then you also would have a LOT (I assume) of opposing fans every home game that scheduled their annual Vegas trip to include a night their team is playing.

probably would get a bunch of walkups too I'd imagine. '**** it lets get drunk at the hockey game for a period or two' sounds like something people could say, depending on where the arena was (I've never been to Vegas nor have I read where it would be). there's been multiple times we've been in Cleveland with no plans necessarily to go to a cavs game and are just partying nearby in a bar and as the scalpers realize it's 5 mins into the first quarter, I'd run outside and offer em like $20 total for two $60 tickets and wtf are they gonna do?

"awww cmon maan at least gimme $50"

"nevermind man idc gonna go back inside and finish my sammich and take more non-$14 shots"

one time we watched a kid keep trying for a few mins and at like 725pm on a 705pm tip off, he sullenly walks into the bar and goes, 'you still gimme $20?', 'YEP and I'll even buy you a shot let's go'.

went in, watched the 2nd quarter, drank at halftime and left at the start of the 4th when they stop selling beer.

GOTTA be a lotta people that would do **** like that in vegas, right? I mean, I get if you gotta go out of your way, find/take a taxi or whatever, but I've never been to a hockey game and I bet if I were in Vegas id find myself pumped to go to one...those Google #'s can't account for drunken wipers and those like him.

No

It doesn't take a genius to know Vegas would be as bad as the Panthers in terms of attendance. I mean Dallas is a big area, and that's pretty terrible amount of fans they have.


wiper's scenario is like what no one else does.

What 300k in Vegas? There is like 1.5-1.8 million or so in the metro area within a 30 min drive of the arena. Of course if you extend that out to a 2 hour radius it's still only another 150k people or so.

Just do it. No one gives a **** so it is a good experiment.

Move the team to saskatchatoon eh!