(07-19-2018 06:42 PM)NoDak Wrote:  

(07-19-2018 12:58 PM)seaking4steel Wrote:  

(07-19-2018 12:02 PM)Bobcat2013 Wrote:  

(07-19-2018 10:46 AM)NoDak Wrote:  

(07-19-2018 10:38 AM)Bobcat2013 Wrote:  Why would anyone in New Mexico care about hockey? It's pretty hard to get into a sport that no one grows up playing.

Like in Las Vegas where they have sold out all their season tickets and games when many were saying it will be a disaster.

Like in Brookings where the NAHL team is drawing well but no one under 50 played the games and they still don’t have HS sponsored hockey.

Like Sioux Falls where the USHL Stampede is the biggest thing ever where hockey was virtually unknown.

But hockey will be forever hard to get into for old codgers like you.

Again you post total ignorance.

Vegas is the newest team in the biggest league in a major city. Of course there will be initial enthusiasm. I thought hockey was really big in the Dakotas? I guess I was wrong. In either case that's a different animal than college hockey. Especially when you have to travel across the country to find teams to play.

And I'm willing to bet you're older than me, but that doesn't really matter.

Once Vegas experiences mediocrity their attendance will drop. They might end up like the Arizona Coyotes, who had a strong start when they first moved to Phoenix and are now near dead last in league attendance. Hockey in the desert can work, but the teams need to be successful (and not have arenas that are almost inaccessible)

Building in Glendale was OK for football, but hockey makes no sense. Have relatives that live in the East Valley and they had to commute in tough traffic weeknights. They dropped their old season tickets and now just go to weekend games, when traffic is not so bad and they actually don’t have to be rushed when thing are at a standstill. The Coyotes have recognized the location issue and are trying to get an arena built in downtown, Scottsdale, or Tempe.

The entire AHL affiliate for west coast NHL teams have moved to the west coast and those teams are drawing splendidly. California now produces so much hockey talent that it could have several college teams with its own players. The Ducks, Kings, Sharks, and Knights are really kranking up the game out there. Phoenix should be up there, but ownership couldn’t have made worse moves. Listening to Glendale developers was one of the worst.

They tried to partner with Arizona State for an arena in Tempe and it fell through. Now their owner is trying to sell the team after owning it for <3 years due to debts inherited from previous owners. Had they stayed downtown they most likely have as many issues as they do now. It's sad to see the rest of the west be successful while Arizona has been struggling for almost a decade.