Comments Thread For: Bam Rodriguez-Juan Francisco Estrada More Proof of Phoenix's Rise

[boxingitis]

An NHL tean leaves Phoenix. What business decision was that of hosting an NHL team in hot Phoenix with more than 40 percent Hispanic population, whom are not very fond of ice hockey.

They thought it was soccer on ICE.

[MulaKO]

One of the best fights I've been to, great atmosphere, as it usually is out here. Glad to see this renaissance over the last 5 years of boxing here in the valley and hope it continues. Definitely feels like promoters have realized this is a boxing hungry market here, looking forward to more great fight nights like tonight

Love to hear that from a TRUE boxing fan and that is from reading your posts
Hoping your old lady is giving it to you as much as I am
Kudos Z

[MulaKO]

The problem wasn't the market, the problem was they didn't have the right venue to play in. They started out in the Suns arena which had poor sightlines for hockey as it wasn't built with the sport in mind. Then they moved out to Glendale in the burbs, which made it like a 45 minute drive to get to the arena from where most of their fanbase lives. That's fine for an NFL team like the Cardinals who play once per week a total of ~10 times per year, but an NHL team that has 2-4 home games every week (often on weekday nights when people have work or school the next day) for 41+ dates is not going to draw consistent crowds in that circumstance. Eventually the team was too unprofitable there and they got evicted, so they ended up in that craphole 5500 seat college barn. When they couldn't get a new venue built the writing was on the wall and they moved.

The NHL has done well enough in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Anaheim, San Jose, Dallas, Raleigh, Miami, Tampa, Nashville, and Denver. Because all those cities have arenas that were built with an NHL team in mind and owners that have the resources and knowledge to run a franchise.

That was almost Ontario , Canada
Betteman who I despise , is a genius of sort
Although I think slowly but surely, Canada will lose it’s national sport
Long live anarchy but not many would survive