Nordique Nation, the NHL's Teaparty Movement

A funny thing happened on the way to the Nassau Colieseum on Saturday night. Over one thousand fans of a team that no longer exists showed up for the game. These band of rebel rousers were taking a grassroots approach to securing an NHL franchise for their city. One could ask why they choose Long Island as the launch of their cross continent campaign? The Islander's play in a grossly outdated building and two amateur hockey teams, the London Knights and Quebec City's own Ramprants both outdraw them. Which would lead one to believe that is crew was set on poaching the Islander's from their forty year home. Well that was not the case as many of these die hards told the Islander fans that they had no interest in their team and simply were looking for other NHL team's fans, particularly American teams to support their cause.

All I can say it won't be easy. It is safe to say that the newest NHL city will be in Canada. With the Canadian dollar at par with the American dollar and all six Canadian teams selling out every night, the NHL has no choice but to have a team move or expand to Canada. Winnipeg has gone as far to take the "Field of Dreams" approach and have already built an NHL ready facility. Clearly though the Southern Ontario market is where the league has set its eyes on. Even the powerful Detroit Redwing franchise has endorsed a new team in Southern Ontario going as far as insisting that they play in their division, hence lowering their travel costs.

The old Nordiques were truly a sad story. Part of the WHA-NHL merger in 1979, they were closest thing the NHL had to the Green Bay Packers. Nords fans would fill Le Colissee to the rafters despite spending most of the late 80's and early nineties in the cellar of the Adams Division. The beginning of the end happened when first round draft pick and next superstar, Eric Lindros refused to report to the club. With a low Canadian dollar and a new threat of Quebec Separatism in the air, the Nordiques were doomed no mater how many people went through the turnstiles. To make matters worse their incarnation in Denver Colorado would win the Stanely Cup in their first year. A second one would follow in 2001. All of these factors alone should make Quebec City the "People's Choice" for the newest NHL city.

Clearly one set of hockey fans have decided that enough is enough and they are taking it to the streets. Half empty arenas in the Southern United States could be the next target of the NHL's Teaparty movement. No longer will Canadian hockey fans tolerate Stanley Cup parades in shopping mall parking lots, hokey on ice promotions and consistently seeing their heroes sign with clubs simply so they can play golf in the afternoon. Will this movement go as far as dumping the original architect of this fiasco, Garry Bettemen. The same man who never saw a hockey game until he was forty years old has been at the forefront of two labour stoppages and no network television deal in the US. Perhaps during their time in New York they could storm his plush office and take over the league and see that true hockey fans have the right to see the best of the best play, not just the corporate suits currently occupying most of the Canadian NHL arenas.

The Home Team Super Bowl Curse?

Last weeks Grey Cup was special because for the second year in a row the league's most passionate fans' team, the Saskatchewan Roughriders were in the final. Not to mention that those fans had only an eight or nine hour drive to the host city, it made for an interesting partisan crowd, almost a home game for the green riders. Home teams at the Grey Cup are nothing new. With only eight teams there is bound to be a team that makes the final in the year their city hosts the big game. Which lead to another question? Why has a team never played in their home stadium at the Super Bowl?

Two examples come to mind in which the designated host team did in fact make it to the final game, but didn't play in their home stadium. Both the Los Angles Rams in 1979 and San Francisco 49ers in 1984 were the designated home team, yet private boxes had not become the big business that they would eventually therefore those games were played at college stadiums to maximize attendance and revenue. The NFL has since abandoned this practice, going as far to recommend to cities like Miami and Atlanta that they must upgrade their luxury boxes if they want to host any future Super Bowls. The last college stadim Super Bowl game would happen in 1993 as a last minute back up after the game was pulled from Phoenix Arizona.

The NCAA finals last year had the improbable happen when the designate host team made it to the final, not in their home building though, but still an astonishing feat in a field of 66 playoff contenders. Why can't a team in a field of 32, with only 12 in the playoffs make it to the final when their city is hosting the big game?

Back in 1971, it was learned that the NFL was about to award a Super Bowl to Texas Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys, but the bid was blocked by a group of owners lead by Al Davis claimng the Cowboys had a good chance of playing in that game. Instead the game was moved to New Orleans, where the Cowboys faced off against the Miami Dolphins. Perhaps this was a sign of things to come. From 1974 to 1982 the NFL rotated from New Orleans, Los Angeles and Miami. This could have been seen as simple math given those cities infastructure as tourist towns, but also 2 of those teams did not enjoy allot of success in the 7o's. Miami on the other hand would play in three Super Bowls in a row, but none would take place in their home stadium, the Orange Bowl, fueling curse theories. The Los Angeles Rams would shock the football world by making it to the big game in 1979, ironically after not hosting any playoff games. As far as the New Orleans Saints, that would not have a winning season until the late 80's.

The three city rotation would end in the 80's as Super Bowls would be held in Tampa Bay, Detroit and San Diego, but still no host team. Miami would leave a bad taste in the mouth of NFL with the 1979 game, with hotels charging high fees and cocaine dealers attending the festivities. The game would not return for another ten years when the new Joe Robbie Stadium was built. The absence also could be looked on with the arrival of Dan Marino in 1983, making Miami look like a perenial contender, thus a pontential host team. By the time Super Bowl came back in 1989, the Dolphins weren't even a playoff team and Marino had not lived up to his earlier successes.

This season it looks as though the curse will continue as the Dallas Cowboys are unlikely to make the playoffs, the first year they have ever been the host team. With the league's desire to balance between domes and outdoor venues the curse may come to an end. Although the Colts look shaky this year, next year they host the big game and could very well be playing in it. New Orleans will be next, but this time the Saints will be three years removed from their own Super Bowl victory, unlike in the past. With the decision to play in New York in 2014 and both the Jets and the Giants loaded with young talent one of them or maybe both will play in the first cold weather game. Traditional Super Bowl teams like Pittsburgh and New England may never see the big game held in their cities, other up and coming franchises like San Diego, Houston and Arizona may have short bus rides to their date with destiny.