Should the NHL be based in Canada?

Ok look, I’m American but I currently live in Ottawa. There’s always a perception that Canadians think that America doesn’t know Canada, well it goes both ways. Americans do play hockey. A lot? No, just northern states, and most are from the north east. And yea, there’s 4 major leagues in the states, with the MLS growing fast too now. And yea it’s probably only 20% of the league are American, but look at 20%, they’ve got some of the best players (look at the 2010 Olympics), top 2 goalies (Miller & Thomas). Look at the Habs roster, Gionta, Gomez, Pacioretty, now Erik Cole, Pyatt, Gill, Mara, draftee Jarrett Tinordi, former Hab Komisarek, list goes on. And as for Canada being financially stable, uhhh right…that’s got nothing to do with Canada having teams. These owners are already millionaires and billionaires when they own a team (look at the Molson family), you just gotta have a large enough population to sell tickets that will watch the game, that’s the reason why Atlanta moved. Atlanta is comprised of mostly African-Americans, and this is not being racist, black people don’t play hockey, they just don’t. Point is that Canada is still too small, population of like I think 34 million people? So, smaller than the state of California. You can’t support a hockey team in Red Deer, AB or a team in St. John, NB, or even a team in St. John’s, NFLD. And Americans do appreciate hockey. Look at the Bruins, Wings, Sharks, Pens, Flyers, hell even the struggling Minnesota Wild has one of the loudest crowds.

Ya, this is completely unrealistic, and stupid. Americans do care about the game in places (Detroit, Boston, Chicago, New York, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Washington, etc..). The league makes enough money to keep players in large part because of those teams (yes, the Canadian cities do well), since you need to be in major markets to make money. KBUnitz is right, saying “You can’t support a hockey team in Red Deer, AB or a team in St. John, NB, or even a team in St. John’s, NFLD.” There’s just not enough people for it to be viable. Heck, Halifax, NS would have a hard time, although the team would draw all the East Coasters. On top of that, you’d lose out on jersey sales to America by contracting their teams, and you’d kill the league. I also don’t get the point. I’m glad hockey’s all across NA, and not just Canada. They just made some mistakes in choosing markets, and more importantly, they put out a bad product in those shaky markets. Fans won’t come to see a bad team like Atlanta do nothing for 11 seasons (one playoff season where they got swept).

Plus, there’s the additional problem of where the heck you put teams. Toronto could support 2 teams, Vancouver 1, Calgary 1, Edmonton 1, Quebec 1, Montreal 1, Halifax 1, Hamilton 1, Ottawa 1, Winnipeg 1, but that’s 11 teams. Where else would you put them? If you put two on the East Coast, only one would make it as there is just not enough people to support two. Vancouver could maybe have 2, but no other city outside of them and Toronto could. This isn’t England.