Sabres aren't the only team in trouble

[Buffarama]

Check out Ottawa

http://espn.go.com/nhl/news/2003/0101/1485369.html

[Ð]

Yep, big time...They were late on their payroll a couple of times last spring, and Bryden has been shopping them around for the last year or so, so he can stop the bleeding of his personal finances.

If you think Buffalo has trouble in a small market, try trying to establish a fan base in hostile territory where at least half of your potential fan base are die-hard Leafs or Canadiens fans.

Bryden has tried numerous times to get gov't help at the city/county/provincial/federal level and so far it's fallen on largely deaf ears. Smart people, us Canadians

[Earthquake Enyart]

If they didn't choke every year in the playoffs, maybe they'd be making some money.

[don137]

Not that it matters much but I was wondering are those figures based on canadian dollar or american dollar? I think it is terrible that all these Canadian teams have had trouble over the years and had left Canada. That's like having the NFL move to Canada. It's just not right. Bettman really made a mess of things and it may be too late for some franchises by the time 2004 rolls around.

[Earthquake Enyart]

This is brinkmanship for the new contract. The players can make big money and have about 20 teams or they can get this under control and have 30 teams.

[Buffarama]

Although I will say that this isn't manufactured by the NHL, it is a real problem that exists.
I really think the NHL should just bring in new players if the league strikes, drop tickets prices, and turn a profit. The players union refusal to negotiate before the CBA expires is selfish and foolish, and almost guarantees a strike.
A salary cap and revenue sharing like the NFL has is a must for the league to succeed.

[HenryRules]

Canada simply doesn't have the big economic cities/regions required to support numerous professional sports teams. And the few large economic areas (such as Vancouver, Ottawa a few years ago, Edmonton, Calgary) are largely reliant on a single industry (IT or Oil in most cases) so the cities are not overly resilient during the down times, unless of course their industry isn't affected.
Another way to think of it, Canada's urban population is not much larger, if at all, than the urban population within a one-hour radius of New York City, so really, you can't expect it to have much more than the 3 teams that fit in that geographic area, especially when NYC has way more income per capita than Canada does.
While I'm not a fan of Bettman, I think its a bit harsh to solely blame him for the blight that exists in Canada, after all, Gretzky was sold from the Oilers during Ziegler's reign, and not Bettman's. And while many blame Janet's wanting to act for Gretzky going to LA, its also because Peter Pocklington was not financially stable and would have had trouble paying the salaries of the players in the near future.