Why does fucking FLORIDA have TWO NHL Franchises

[TheMightyFavog]

Yet Wisconsin has none?

This does not make sense to me.

Personally, if I was NHL commisoner, all teams south of the Mason-Dixon Line (With the exception of the LA Kings) would either be moved to more appropriate climes or be disbanded.

[taterguy]

1. Because it has enough fucking fans to support two NHL teams

It's not like they play the game outdoors.

[Art_from_Ark]

16. Florida gets a lot of vacationers from Canada in winter

I wouldn't be surprised if Canadians made up a large proportion of "Florida" hockey fans

[flvegan]

2. Well, first the NHL allowed Mr. Huizenga to buy the Panthers.

But then both the state of Florida and the NHL insisted Florida have a team to NOT be ashamed of, and we were granted the Tampa Bay Lightning.

[SwampG8r]

14. lol

dude you crack me up
where are you on the limp dick of america?
i am over where they used to shoot rockets off in the old days

[Lyric]

3. Because nobody in Wisconsin wants to fork over the cash

to start an expansion team or buy a franchise, and somebody in Florida DID?

:shrug:

[petronius]

4. I've always thought the southern shift in the NHL was very odd, although

completely rational in the economic sense. However, for the honor of the game, perhaps all ownership-change and franchise requests should be weighted by the mean winter temperature of the destination city, or the per capita purchase of ice augers, or some other wintery measure...

[Bucky]

13. Can't fight market forces. Besides, where do you think all those retired Wisconsinites move to?

Hint: it ain't Montreal.

[realisticphish]

15. look at the northern shift of NASCAR

as much as people talk about it like its a southern thing, you have tracks in Delaware, New Hampshire, California, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, even freaking Quebec if you count Nationwide series.

[Initech]

5. To quote Lewis Black (after Florida won the Stanley Cup) :

"Here's how lame hockey is: The country that invented it got beat by the country that doesn't care about it, by a team from a state that HAS NO NATURAL ICE!!!"

[KamaAina]

6. Florida has only been to the Cup finals. You must mean T*mp* B*y.

:grr: :banghead:

[Tripper11]

7. Gary Betteman needs to go.

Simple as that. That fuckwad has destroyed the game. I understand how it needed to move forward, but he's taken it way too far. There are way too many teams.
Dump Betteman, get a proper hockey person in there and sort it out.

edited for spelling...

[TZ]

8. Yes, clearly our FOUR FEET OF SNOW in DC disqualifies us

from having the appropriate Hockey weather here in the deep south of Maryland. Thats kinda an idiotic thing to say if you are basing it on winters. Plenty of stuff below the Mason-Dixon line is cold. I also think Alex Ovechkin might object to having his team yanked.
Should we now take away the Minnesota Twins because they play outdoors in a place thats not always baseball weather?
This is a stupid post. Climate control is easy in arenas. And some places in the North can be quite warm during hockey season as well.

[zipplewrath]

9. 4th largest state in the union.

By population anyway. You go where the money is.

Florida 18.5 million
Canada 33 million
Wisconsin 5.6 million

[NoGOPZone]

10. Good question, but keep in mind hockey happy Minnesota was without a franchise for almost a decade

and Minneapolis St. Paul is a bigger metro area than Milwaukee.

Both Tampa Bay and Florida have mediocre home attendance at best, and teams like Phoenix, Atlanta and Nashville have been mentioned in relocation rumors, so maybe a franchise would become available. Wisconsin could certainly support a team, but so could Quebec, Winnipeg and maybe even Hartford and Seattle.

[KamaAina]

11. Would San Jose be considered "south of the Mason-Dixon line"?

The Sharks actually have pretty decent fan support hereabouts, as evidenced by the ubiquity of these:

[Blue_Tires]

12. the state is flooded with retirees from up north

I was in Daytona on business a few years back and could not believe the sheer number of Jersey/Brooklynese/Boston accents I heard from the locals...