Isn't funny that there are only 7 hockey franchises in Canada and 23 franchises in United States and hockey is considered Canada's Pastime and also was created in Canada? Hockey has always been known as Canada's pastime (its on the money for goodness sake!) and broadcast every Saturday to everyone in the country much like Football is here. So then why is there more U.S. Franchises then there are Canadian franchises? The reason why the NHL has more franchises here in America than the Canada is solely due to financial gain.

What this article talks about is why the NHL looks more at the larger U.S. Markets that may not have as large fan bases instead of smaller Canadian markets that would house large fan bases. When the study happened they found that locations in Canada would be much better place to house new franchises which resulted in the merger with the declining WHA (World Hockey Association) and let former WHA franchises as the Edmonton Oilers, the Quebec Nordiques (Which was located in Quebec City), and the Winnipeg Jets breath new life in the NHL. It also explained why the NHL expansion franchise The Flames relocated from Atlanta, Georgia to Calgary in 1980. Seredynski, Jones, and Fergurson(the ones doing the study) determined profitability of existing franchises in other locations by estimating attendance and operating costs and finding even though Canadian cities such as Hamilton, Saskatoon and Ottawa would be more viable places in the early 80's then U.S Cities St. Louis and Washington D.C, even better places than those Canadian cities would be U.S. Cities such as Denver, Houston and even Tampa Bay. The reason all comes down to money. If a Weak U.S. Franchise moved to Canada they would be subjected to unequal television revenue and tax laws that are not as nice looking than those back in the United States. Small-Market Franchises are also more vulnerable to financial disadvantages due attendance numbers from small and far locations and would the media revenues from those of larger markets. Because of this smaller market teams will have higher ratio of salary to non-salary costs.

There are four options that these small market franchises have: revenue sharing, a salary cap, government subsidization, and finally relocation. With revenue sharing with small market franchises, big markets would find ways from there revenues and profits being redistributed from them to these teams that can't afford to play at there level. A Salary cap works in favor for Owners but the players and there union would oppose it since its less money for them unless it could tie into sharing the revenue which owners appose, you can see that is not going anywhere. Government subsidy is difficult to defend purely on economic criteria as it says in the article. So that only leaves only relocation as you read in the last paragraph, the United States would be much better to relocate a franchise than Canada with the tax laws and television revenue so it be much more profitable to move to the United States than Canada. Examples of this Include the move of the Winnipeg Jets to Phoenix and also The Quebec Nordiques move to Denver, Colorado.

Works Cited

http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=VoNVyCcZuhsC&oi=fnd&pg=PA49&dq=National+Hockey+League&ots=26ww-xVlOX&sig=kt-0xFXj6q3AGJ6n9KtHIuLQcN4#v=onepage&q&f=true