Why doesn't Wisconsin have a pro hockey team ?

edmundfitzgerald

Anyone from that region know why ? Why couldn't Milwaukee or Green Bay support one ?

nightcrawler

Ask Winnipeg.

But for less of an ignorant answer. Lets just wonder why the said salary cap has anything to do with it.

I'm thinking owners want money, so much $ that it defeats the average sized city. Even in a supportive market.

Blacklabelsociety

<< <i>Anyone from that region know why ? Why couldn't Milwaukee or Green Bay support one ? >>



Good question.

MPeter

Milwaukee Admirals

Goot

A similar topic was recently brought up on the HF boards and there was talk of Wisconsin.


LINK

bking

I'm guessing the Blackhawks have helped prevent it.

Estil

<< <i>Milwaukee Admirals >>



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milwaukee_Admirals

I was just about to point that out!

coinkat

good question

lanemyer85

I'm guessing the Blackhawks have helped prevent it.

no

mysterycoinman

It would look bad if Milwaukee was to beat the Blackhawks and Red Wings all the time! That's why!

illinifan912

the milwaukee admirals are a good team.

bking

<< <i>I'm guessing the Blackhawks have helped prevent it.

no >>



Well, THAT was certainly convincing logic. Good job.

Why would the Black Hawks be different than every other professional sports team when it comes to protecting their territorial rights??

jradke4

well as some one that was born and raised in milwaukee i can fill in a few details.

the Bradley center, the home of the Bucks and the Admirals was built in part with the hope of bringing in an NHL team. the family that built the bradley center wanted to bring in a team. in fact the husband of Jane Bradley (kinda think of him as the Queen's Mother) Lyod Petitt was also a long time radio voice of the chicago blackhawks wanted to bring a team in the late 80's. he explored it again in the early 90's when expansion was going on and basically said the price was too high to make a decent income in the area.

a little blurb from Wika


Pettit moved to Chicago, where he was a sports broadcaster for a variety of different teams, including the Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox during the 1960s. He usually worked as the sidekick for the main TV announcer, Jack Brickhouse. His baseball broadcasting style could be described as low-key and businesslike, compared with the excitable Brickhouse. He also broadcast the Chicago Bears, when Brickhouse was busy covering the Cubs or White Sox.

Pettit is most fondly remembered by fans of the Chicago Blackhawks of the National Hockey League. His first love in sports was ice hockey, and he shone at coverage of that sport. He was the original choice to broadcast the NHL's national games on CBS-TV, but Jack Brickhouse, who ran WGN-TV's sports operations, would not release him from his contract to do the games, and the assignment went instead to Dan Kelly of the St. Louis Blues. That dispute led to his moving to WMAQ Radio in 1970. During his career, the Hawks had a number of highs and lows. Regardless, Pettit covered the games with enthusiasm and expertise. His signature catchphrase, which was even worked into the Blackhawks official fight song, "Here Come The Hawks," was "There's a shot... AND A GOAL!!!" He retired from broadcasting in 1980 to pursue other business interests and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1986.

After his broadcasting career finished, Pettit and his wife Jane returned to Wisconsin full-time. They had bought the Milwaukee Admirals of the International Hockey League (they are now in the American Hockey League) in 1976. They were instrumental in getting the Bradley Center built, which became the home of the Admirals and the National Basketball Association's Milwaukee Bucks, with whom the Pettits had minority ownership. In the early nineties, they pursued an NHL expansion franchise for the arena and were considered a front-runner, but withdrew their bid when they felt the expansion fee was too high.

lanemyer85

Well, THAT was certainly convincing logic. Good job.

If you followed hockey at all you'd already know that if Milwaukee could support an NHL franchise they would have had one in the 90's when Bettman was awarding franchises to any market that wanted one. An investment group took at look at it in the mid-90's when Bettman was looking to mass expand, and they decided MIL wasn't worth the risk.

Why would the Black Hawks be different than every other professional sports team when it comes to protecting their territorial rights??

Firstly there is no space in Blackhawks. Secondly, despite the appx 90 miles distance, no part of WI is territorial to Chicago sports. Most importantly, MIL is not getting the Hawks games on CSN Chicago or the WGN terrestrial games anyway. If the Hawks cared about any possible market share in WI they'd be lobbying to get their games on WI TV instead of the Wild games WI gets on FSN North. There's 9 million people in the city and burbs, the Chicago sports market expands to mid state IL, the better half of IN including it's 4 largest cities, and some seeds in IA and NE. There's no need for the Hawks to concern themselves with a team in Milwaukee, or any part of WI for that matter. Madison is homebase to WI's hockey popularity anyway, and there's a reason the NHL dropped a franchise in Columbus OH and not Cleveland or the Nati. Milwaukee would be in the same situation, and the Hawks don't need Milwaukee to sustain any part of their market share. They are of no consequence to our market in any sport other than adding an opportunity for a short road trip for Cubs fans locked out of the ticket crunch.

alnavman

You would think Cleveland would have a team also but they just never supported the one they did have.....even though it was a transfer from somewhere else back in the day....the area used to support the old Cleveland Barons but never really got behind hockey.....even now the crowds are small for the minor league hockey that is played at the Q.....

lanemyer85

You would think Cleveland would have a team also but they just never supported the one they did have

Atlanta didn't support the Flames either and they still received a second franchise that still isn't being supported.

jradke4

<< <i>Well, THAT was certainly convincing logic. Good job.

If you followed hockey at all you'd already know that if Milwaukee could support an NHL franchise they would have had one in the 90's when Bettman was awarding franchises to any market that wanted one. An investment group took at look at it in the mid-90's when Bettman was looking to mass expand, and they decided MIL wasn't worth the risk.

Why would the Black Hawks be different than every other professional sports team when it comes to protecting their territorial rights??

Firstly there is no space in Blackhawks. Secondly, despite the appx 90 miles distance, no part of WI is territorial to Chicago sports. Most importantly, MIL is not getting the Hawks games on CSN Chicago or the WGN terrestrial games anyway. If the Hawks cared about any possible market share in WI they'd be lobbying to get their games on WI TV instead of the Wild games WI gets on FSN North. There's 9 million people in the city and burbs, the Chicago sports market expands to mid state IL, the better half of IN including it's 4 largest cities, and some seeds in IA and NE. There's no need for the Hawks to concern themselves with a team in Milwaukee, or any part of WI for that matter. Madison is homebase to WI's hockey popularity anyway, and there's a reason the NHL dropped a franchise in Columbus OH and not Cleveland or the Nati. Milwaukee would be in the same situation, and the Hawks don't need Milwaukee to sustain any part of their market share. They are of no consequence to our market in any sport other than adding an opportunity for a short road trip for Cubs fans locked out of the ticket crunch. >>



well except for pappa bear's paranoia about milwaukee getting an nfl team decades ago.

lanemyer85

well except for pappa bear's paranoia about milwaukee getting an nfl team decades ago.

If that were the case, he wouldn't have used his own money to help keep the Cardinals afloat back in the 30's even though they were his rival. From what I've read, the Packers were in danger of moving to Milwaukee because the local yocals of Green Bay didn't want to build Lambeau Field in the 50's, without which the franchise would have folded or moved to Milwaukee. I don't know how that's paranoia...he helped get the place built so you guys could show up in your varmint shooting gear on Sundays.