Sabres in St. Petersburg?

[trapezeus]

A pal of mine works as a consultant to the NHL. He was telling me how the NHL is really a bizarre group and that Bettman truly is an idiot. He said the NHL is trying to grow its presence in Europe and that the sabres have a game in St. Petersburg next year...

And i said, "did they announce that yet?"

and he said, "yeah, i think so."

And I said, "i just don't remember reading anything about that."

and then he said, "oh, maybe it isn't announced. but i thought it was. it's not a state secret or anything."

so my question, was this announced and i totally missed it?

[SabreEleven]

Since we don't have LW around anymore, we'll never know.

[RockStar36]

It isn't this season.

If it were next season, that wouldn't be announced for quite a long time still.

[trapezeus]

yes, i think he said it's planned for the 2011 season. he said the NHL has 30% of its players that are european born. So they want to showcase more games in europe and there are a handful of games they are going to start playing. And he mentioned the sabres in st. Petersberg.

thanks for letting me know that i wasn't going crazy. let's see when this comes to fruition. I'm not trying to be the "inside source" dude.

[RockStar36]

yes, i think he said it's planned for the 2011 season. he said the NHL has 30% of its players that are european born. So they want to showcase more games in europe and there are a handful of games they are going to start playing. And he mentioned the sabres in st. Petersberg.

thanks for letting me know that i wasn't going crazy. let's see when this comes to fruition. I'm not trying to be the "inside source" dude.

The last few seasons have had games start out so this wouldn't shock me at all.

Minnesota, Carolina, San Jose, Columbus, Phoenix and Boston all have games away from the States to start this season.

[trapezeus]

one other interesting thing he said was that bettman is using the kovalchuk's salary thing as a trump card for hte next CBA and that it seems that they are setting up for another possibel lockout. He said it's such chaos with the league.

[TheGhostofJimKelly]

Why would they want a team with no Russian players, they don't draft Russian players, and don't seem to want anything to do with Russian players play a game in Russia?

[DraftBoy]

Why would Russia let them play there and possibly upstage the KHL?

[SabreEleven]

A pal of mine works as a consultant to the NHL. He was telling me how the NHL is really a bizarre group and that Bettman truly is an idiot.

Truer words have never been spoken.

[rbochan]

Can we bring back Telqvist while we're there?

[pjw]

he said the NHL has 30% of its players that are european born.

Yeah, but how many are austrian and not european?

[tampabay25690]

A pal of mine works as a consultant to the NHL. He was telling me how the NHL is really a bizarre group and that Bettman truly is an idiot. He said the NHL is trying to grow its presence in Europe and that the sabres have a game in St. Petersburg next year...

And i said, "did they announce that yet?"

and he said, "yeah, i think so."

And I said, "i just don't remember reading anything about that."

and then he said, "oh, maybe it isn't announced. but i thought it was. it's not a state secret or anything."

so my question, was this announced and i totally missed it?

Wow St Pete Florida???

[SabreEleven]

Wow St Pete Florida???

You wish. Try Russia

[TMu11]

Unlike the NFL, I actually think this can be a good thing for the NHL. There isn't enough American interest, so to include the Euro's could potentially help the Markets.

Not to mention we might actually be represented well by the Sabres in another country. (See: Bills)

[trapezeus]

my pal said that the nhl use to make money off of tournements in Europe/russia (happy now). anyways, he said the actual playing the NHL gmae over there has been told to the NHL that it won't make much money and could be met with a ton of resistance because of already established leagues. they were told to go back to funding the tournements and making the game money and do some marketing around it....but bettman declined.

my pal is fairly sure that the expenses of sending the teams and the logisitics as well as losing a game for local fans is worse than the potential revenue and snafus that could come up. he said this has all been shown clearly to bettman, but he insists. with comes back to his view that bettman is egotistical and clueless. which we all knew before.