Some blogger fans arguments went along the lines of saying that it robs the two teams participating with home games of their own and robs them of the tickets that could be sold and devalues season ticket owner packages.
I think that this argument was already thought about before they made the decision and accurately funneled money to the proper channels involved. If Americans aren't going to take to the sport, hockey should always look to grow the fanbase elsewhere. Who knows who will become new hockey fans once the league plays there. Maybe the Queen of England, who herself has attended hockey games upon visiting Canada.
But Bill Daly had this to say when they made the announcement:
"Our commitment to grow the game globally has never been stronger," NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said Thursday. "The NHL is extremely proud to be represented in London by two great hockey organizations in the Ducks and Kings, as well as to be recording NHL history at such a fantastic facility in the 02 [arena]."I have already blogged about this when the news first broke. And here is what I said about it. Feel free to comment over on that post too.
2 comments:
if there has to be two teams that go international, these two teams are good to go, since it only costs one little section of fans.
That being said, what is with England though? Why not someplace in Scandanavia?
They tried that last pre-season with the Toronto Maple Leafs going on a tour playing some of the Swedish pro league teams over there.
I don't know if the players liked going there or not, but it helped a lot of the Swedish native players on the TML roster.
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