Raise the Hammer

I disagree with you on this one Kirk. A high, consistent AHL attendance displays that the market is loyal to the game and a team, regardless of it's level of play, and as we all know a loyal fanbase is one that shells out the cash.

Lets also look at the AHL markets that possess(ed) NHL sized arenas. Toronto Chicago, Winnipeg, Hamilton, Cleveland, Iowa, Milwaukee, San Antonio and arguably Albany and Charlotte.

Toronto and Chicago already have an NHL franchises. Cleveland and Hamilton have had up and down support (Hamilton actually drew quite well before they became the Habs affiliate and when they made it to the Calder Cup). Iowa, Milwaukee, San Antonio & Albany have fairly consistently been poor in attendance. Charlotte is a new franchise with average attendance (so far), and Winnipeg was consistent, top 5 support.

Only Winnipeg has made the jump from the AHL to the NHL, and many of these locations are in markets that, at least on paper seem like very good NHL markets.

Toronto is not a good example. Toronto does not sell out their AHL team, because they have an NHL team that predates the AHL team's presence. They also are in one of the most competitive sports markets in Canada with boasts seven pro franchises an a junior hockey franchise in Mississauga. The Marlies are also owned by the same people as the Leafs and pretty much stated, they moved them there just to fill dates at Ricoh and to reduce travel expenses (much to the chagrin of St. John's).

The bigger problem though, is that we aren't dealing with reasonable, sane people in the NHL. Despite seeing how successful shared revenue works in the NFL, the NHL has consistently tried to limit and reduce revenue sharing between it's teams and has tried to keep the cap low. The reason for this is, more money banked for the more financially successful teams.

Instead of putting teams in places that you know would make exceptionally high gate revenues (of which the NHL is exceptionally gate driven) and raising everyone's revenue and perhaps not creating a lot of new TV revenue, they instead put teams in places that don't work to keep the cap low (earning money through saving) and continuously have Bettman try to expand and chase television revenue in non-traditional markets (that I will admit would be very high if there was interest) and leaving sucker owners to eat the losses, while dragging the game through the mud.

The fact that Phoenix went through six iterations of the Phoenix Roadrunners hockey franchise, and it folded each time should have screamed the infeasibility of Phoenix as a hockey market. However the NHL still wants to keep losing money there because they think a TV deal might some day come from it, even though it won't.