Having confronted Dr. Dave, Ed Grinnell, International Man Of Mystery, 
exclaimed:
 
 DN> And the fact that they drew 1000-2000 fans for their 2nd home game of
 DN> the season.
 EG> What do they care if they get paid by the city?
 
     Except they're not.  Peter Kormos has deep pockets, but he's losing 
money faster now, than when he was in Hartford.  He's just hoping to 
hang on for two years until the new arena is built in Raleigh.
 
 DN> Colorado and been huge successes both on and off the ice.. and
 DN> therefore, you see nothing wrong.  I see a small market franchise in
 DN> Canada leaving for big bucks in the States.  For me, it's more of a
 DN> moral issue.
 EG> That's THEIR problem. The NFL is even talking about having its
 EG> established franchises help with the next expansion bunch as far as
 EG> funding so that cities would be more receptive. If these NHL cities
 EG> would have built new arenas or just added luxury boxes, they wouldn't
 
     Canadian teams also have the added problem of a weak Canadian 
dollar relative to the American one.  I benefits us in regards to motion 
picture and television productions but it kicks the crap out of our sports 
franchises...
 
 EG> have lost their teams. Don't think so? The Calgary Flames got their
 EG> franchise from Atlanta by merely promising to build a better arena
 EG> than what they had in Atlanta. The Flames didn't do that badly as far
 EG> as attendance, however, they could do a lot better in Calgary. Houston
 
     Not badly?  Atlanta players in '76 had to take a pay cut in order to 
keep the franchise from folding!  By 1980, the CBS hockey deal in the US 
was dead and buried, and Atlanta was still battered by the recession, 
while Calgary, thanks to oil revenues, was booming.  With one exception, 
all the franchises in the NHL have moved as a direct result of poor 
attendance: Kansas City, Oakland, Cleveland, Atlanta, Colorado, Minnesota, 
Winnipeg, and Hartford.  Buffalo Sabres is the next team most likely to 
move.  They had to bring in new ownership just to make payroll and have 
allowed themselves to be completely shut out of the southern Ontario 
market.
 
 EG> lost its football team to a MUCH smaller city so don't give me this
 EG> big city/little city garbage (Quebec lost to Colorado, which has a
 
     However since the NFL has revenue sharing, market size isn't really 
relevant is it?
 
 EG> slightly larger arena and only 16 luxury boxes but are in the process
 EG> of building them one that will seat 2,000 more than Quebec and with 84
 EG> luxury boxes). If these cities would have ponied up to the bar, they'd
 
     Which won't mean squat if the fans in Denver go back to the old 
ways and don't turn out to support a losing team.  They would have been 
better to have left the team in Quebec in the aging Colisee where they 
would at least have had sellouts.
 
                                      Sincerely Yours
                                      
                                      David G. Riess
                                      EchoHockeyGhod
... MilliHelen: Qty. of beauty required to launch one ship.
--- Blue Wave/DOS v2.20 [NR]
---------------