New Arena Looming?

[methodology]

New Jersey plays in the Meadowlands, about 3 miles from MSG as the crow flies. Boston is just under 200 miles from the most northern point of the Bronx. Why don't you talk about Buffalo too? At least they are located within the tri-state area.

Are you sure its the Meadowlands and not the Prudential Center in Newark?

 

[Husky25]

No I'm not. I thought it was the Meadowlands at one point, but I could be wrong. Regardless. Newark is not much more further and an argument could be made that even Newark is within the Ranger Media Market. Certainly not 100 miles like New Haven or Hartford or 200 miles like Boston.

 

[Husky25]

If there really is money out there for a new arena, I'd rather see it used to refurbish the XL and expand the Rent.

There is a widely subscribed to school of thought that it would cost less to build anew in Hartford, than to refurbish.

Basically it is too small, and the luxury boxes are not so luxurious. They are at the very top of the arena, where a ticket 1/10 the price gets you a better live vanage point. Yes they have Televisions, but if you wanted to do that, stay home...No one, corporation or individual, sees major league value in that.

 

[methodology]

Thats the point that is being overlooked here.

NYC is a different animal than all the other NHL cities. The population is so large in the tristate area that the normal rules that protect smaller markets from a team infringing dont really apply in this instance. There is still a large enough population that even with 4 teams in the tristate area they would still have market sizes above the average NHL market.

The average NHL market size is 4.5 million. The NYC market alone is 21 million.

 

[Husky25]

That is population. How many of those people are hockey fans? More to the point, how many are hockey fans, willing to spend disposable income on a new team and potentially change alliances due mainly to proximity?

Take me for example. I am a Bruins fan. Yes, I would probably watch them play a game in Hartford from time to time. I would probably not change my alliance to a CT based team though, especially with all the outlets through which I can follow the Bruins.

That's all I'm trying to say...

 

[Glastonhusky]

There is a widely subscribed to school of thought that it would cost less to build anew in Hartford, than to refurbish.

Basically it is too small, and the luxury boxes are not so luxurious. They are at the very top of the arena, where a ticket 1/10 the price gets you a better live vanage point. Yes they have Televisions, but if you wanted to do that, stay home...No one, corporation or individual, sees major league value in that.

I could never figure out why they put those boxes at the top of the arena. I thought I read somewhere that any renovations would involve moving them to mid-level, I guess that would be expensive. If a new arena is in the works, I'm all for it as long as UConn hockey and bball can use it.

 

[John]

Not true. When we move up to middle school, we upgrade our birthday parties from the roller rink to the ice rink. Incidentally, you look up the bottom of NHL attendance the last few years, and the teams you see over and over again are Winnepeg, NY Rangers, Phoenix, Columbus, Colorado, Anaheim, and NJ. They shuffle around, but a safe bet your bottom 5 is coming from that list.

as far as the Rangers go, I wonder if it's the ticket prices? I was going to take my son to a game until I saw the prices that MSG was offering for what can be kindly called crappy seats. I then checked out the Islanders website, and those prices were much more reasonable for much better seats.

 

[John]

I could never figure out why they put those boxes at the top of the arena. I thought I read somewhere that any renovations would involve moving them to mid-level, I guess that would be expensive. If a new arena is in the works, I'm all for it as long as UConn hockey and bball can use it.

weren't the boxes added after the arena had already opened?

 

[CL82]

New Jersey plays in the Meadowlands, about 3 miles from MSG as the crow flies. Boston is just under 200 miles from the most northern point of the Bronx. Why don't you talk about Buffalo too? At least they are located within the tri-state area.

New Jersey plays in Newark (Pru Center, same place as the Seton Hall games.) It is just at short PATH ride to NYC from there so your point holds.

 

[whaler11]

Whaler you are wrong. The Rangers would have zero say in a team being in CT. Also you are clamoring that Rangers fans living in CT would have zero interest in a CT based hockey team.

First off the population and demographics make it more than feasible to support 4 hockey teams within a 250 mile radius. If you took the population and divided it among those 4 teams their market share would still be higher than other NHL cities. It is absolutely bogus for someone to claim that 4 teams are unable to be supported in this area. The population is here and the expendable income is in this area of hte country is here. Its the same concept with baseball. If baseball truly wants to limit the unfair built in advantage of the New York Yankees (because of their location and demographics) they would relocate or add a team to Brooklyn or the tri state area. They would only take a very small slice of the pie and Yankees would still hold supreme but it would be a long term move in an effort to build a fanbase of decades. You would say they would struggle thisn and that and the third and no one would go to see them play, etc.... You would be incorrect. They would still succeed business wise and the Yankees would still be the most dominant brand of baseball in the world.

There are 1000s of people like me in the state of CT who are not HUGE hockey fans. I dont watch all that much hockey but I do watch playoff hockey. I dont have a favorite team since they dont exist anymore. If the NHL came back to CT I would buy season tickets no questions asked. I know of atleast 10 others who would buy season tickets also. There are also those fans who went o Rangers and Bruins fans that use to be Whalers fans who would most likely switch back. You then have a younger generation that would grow up and love their only CT professional sports team. And then there would be the people who would be fans just because they are doing well or whatever (there are fairweather fans in every city in every sport).

Then add to the fact that CT would play X number of games against the Bruins, Rangers, Islanders.... That would bring in visiting fans and add to attendance figures.

The Rangers would absolutely have say on a team in Fairfield County. If you think that the tri-state area has supported 3 teams well over the years that is far from reality. Listen to WFAN they talk about hockey about once every 3 months unless the Rangers are making a playoff run. Ranger fans wouldn't change teams - there was a team here and they were Ranger fans then - why would a FFLD Cty Ranger fan move to a Hartford team?

Maybe you aren't old enough to remember what already happened here. There would be even less corporate support today than there was 15 years ago. A generation already grew up here with their own professional team - how did that work out?

There are more basketball fans in CT than hockey fans. We don't support the highly successful men's basketball team in Hartford over fewer games and lower dollars. How could anyone expect long term solid attendance for an NHL team?

 

[whaler11]

And Whalers is the only one talking about Fairfield County. No one is saying to put a team in that part of hte state. I did mistakenly bring Boston into the mix but if he is talking about the Devils then the Bruins have to accounted for also.

I feel New Haven would be the best place logistics wise and Hartford is the other option.

Whalers just sounds like a kid at the park who decides he doesnt want anyone else using his ball and decides to go home. Fact is there is enough population in this area of the country to support 4-5 teams from the Boston-CT-NYC-NJ area.

CT and the tristate area is more than capable having 4-5 teams

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/articles/baseball_markets.shtml

By that logic there is enough population to support 5 MLS teams. Or 5 Australian Rules football teams. The population doesn't matter. How much bigger is Atlanta than Winnipeg?

New Haven would be the disaster of all disasters. You need corporations to support professional sports - they don't have any.

I have no idea what your take your ball and go home comment means. I'd love to have the NHL back in Hartford. Barring someone coming buying a team, funding a new arena and moving it here it's not going to happen. So unless you've seen a billionaire hanging around Hartford with a hankering to spend his money on a team and an arena... it doesn't happen.