Of course not.
Waterloo hometown billionaire Jim Balsillie got himself an NHL team, and now he's thinking of parking it in... Hamilton? Cambridge?
Let's not kid ourselves. Hamilton, with the eager folks at Copps Coloseum, is a more convenient location. But sport isn't about business. Bringing the teams back to the fans is about heart and pride and patriotism and all that good stuff. This is about bringing the players back to the country they represent in the Olympics. This is about hometown pride. This is about ending the diaspora.
What more can I say. Come on, Jim, bring 'em home to Waterloo. Please.
2 comments:
My guess is that it's his eventual goal to bring the team to K-W, but until a new arena is built, he can't. In the meantime, he'll have them play in the only NHL-worthy arena (and that's borderline) in the area, which is Copps. He'll probably still call them the Kitchener <whatever>s or possibly the Waterloo <whatever>s.
However, if it's about bringing people back to their home country, then it shouldn't matter whether it's Hamilton, Cambridge, or Winnipeg, should it? It's not like he's going to stock the team with southern Ontario players and trade away everyone else.
And "sport isn't about business"? Rrrrriiiight. Tell that to Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment. For Balsillie, maybe it isn't so much, but sports team owners who are buying a team just because they want one, knowing they will likely lose money on it, are few and far between.
You can't ignore the fact that both the New York Giants and the New York Jets play their "home" games not far from Newark in East Rutheford, New JERSEY!!
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