NHL 2012 - 2013

[Strazos]

Unfortunately there's not a terribly good place to put them - they, along with Carolina, are just way out from the rest of the teams. How about?

Atlantic: Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Washington,  New Jersey, Florida, Tampa Bay, Carolina,  Columbus

Metro:  NY Islanders, NY Rangers, Boston, Buffalo, Detroit,  Montreal, Ottawa,  Toronto

Would that have made people happier?

[Paelos]

Yes, that would have made a ton more sense.

[Speedy Cerviche]

The fans would have gone apeshit if they broke up the old Patrick division (or Adams).

Only way was to break up South East div

[Fordel]

I'm willing to bet the overwhelming majority of fans do not give the slightest shit about divisions in any regard outside of playoff seeding.

[Paelos]

I'm willing to bet the overwhelming majority of fans do not give the slightest shit about divisions in any regard outside of playoff seeding.

I think you'd win that.

[Ingmar]

I'm willing to bet the number who would be annoyed by messing with tradition outnumber the ones who are annoyed about shuffling around a bunch of expansion teams.

[Paelos]

Does that make sense anymore with the financial troubles of the league? How do you straddle the line of staying with tradition and creating a successful product?

[Ingmar]

You're not going to solve a failing team by putting them in a division with other teams that you hope draw more tickets when they happen to be in town. That's at best a stopgap measure, and divisional realignment is enough of a pain in the ass that you don't want to use it for that sort of thing. Especially when they just had a shortened season and they don't know how good the bounce-back from that is going to look yet.

Is anyone in *really* bad shape besides the Devils?

[Paelos]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2012/09/18/nhl-lockout-is-all-about-the-benjamins-and-who-doesnt-have-them/
http://www.forbes.com/nhl-valuations/list/

Forbes seems to think that 13 teams are all operating at a loss.

[Ginaz]

You're not going to solve a failing team by putting them in a division with other teams that you hope draw more tickets when they happen to be in town. That's at best a stopgap measure, and divisional realignment is enough of a pain in the ass that you don't want to use it for that sort of thing. Especially when they just had a shortened season and they don't know how good the bounce-back from that is going to look yet.

Is anyone in *really* bad shape besides the Devils?

Ah, Phoenix, maybe for one.   All the Canadian teams and the more traditional US hockey market teams are doing fine.  Its the teams in the "non-traditional" markets that are losing the most money.  Phoenix, both Florida teams, Columbus, the Islanders and a few others aren't doing so well.  Oh, and the Devils.  That's about 1/3 of the league.  Most Americans don't give a shit about hockey and never will.  They like football, NASCAR and college sports.  The NHL ranks only slightly higher than the WNBA in relevance to most Americans, esp. in the south.

[Paelos]

I agree that it's overexpanded into American markets that don't give a shit. It will never do really well in the Southeastern US where people have a college football team that's worth a damn. The reason is that it runs concurrent to football for the most part, and then when it gets interesting in the spring, it's never on any decent TV coverage.

However, it has an advantage over football in that it can be played during the week, and it continues well into spring. That's the part they miss the most right now. Well that, and Americans like watching Americans play their sports. One of the reasons the NFL is as big as it is, because like 90%+ of the players are from America, and they are branded well.