Vaughn is not getting an NHL team

This story speculating about a National Hockey League team being located in the Toronto suburb of Vaughn (to give the Leafs company on the golf course) has a number of flaws in its theory:

A group of business people wants to bring a second hockey team to the Greater Toronto Area, and the NHL took the group seriously enough to grant it an audience.

The unidentified group met with National Hockey League deputy commissioner Bill Daly in downtown Toronto last week, according to sources. The group proposes to build an arena at the intersection of Highways 427 and 7 in Vaughan, Ont., on land north of Pearson International Airport that's owned by businessman Victor De Zen.

Now don't get me wrong, I think a second NHL team in the Toronto area, or Hamilton or even London or Waterloo, makes very good sense. I have no doubt Southern Ontario could support a second franchise.

But I question how much business sense it makes to build a new NHL sized, 20,000 seat arena in Vaughn. The Air Canada Centre cost $265 million to build. That's a lot of money, and it will have to be privately financed. No way would governments put in any cash, nor should they. Heck, when the Senators built the Paladium/Corel Centre/Scotia Bank Place in Kanata, the Harris government even made them pay for a highway interchange.

But let's say the backers raise the private capital, on top of the cash to buy an existing franchise to move here as well as to buy off the Leafs and Sabres. Is another 20,000 seat arena located in the Greater Toronto area really economically viable? It wouldn't be sustainable just with a hockey team as the anchor tenant. That's only, what, 40ish nights out of 365. The ACC has the Leafs, Raptors, Rock, and a boatload of concerts. The Vaughn arena would need to find an awful lot of concerts and other lucrative dates to turn a profit. Are those events out there?

A more likely solution would seem to be, if the team is going to be resident in the Greater Toronto area, tenancy at the Air Canada Centre. They'd need to get a share of the concessions from Maple Leaf Sports, pay them rent, but this would also go a long ways to over-riding MLS's concerns about another franchise in the area. In Los Angeles, the NBA's Lakers and Clippers both share the Staples Center.

There would be a lot of complications and issues to overcome with an ACC tenancy, to be sure. But they seem more easy to overcome than the economics of a 20,000 seat arena in Vaughn.

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Obviously Brad May and Stephen Harper have never met

Usually I let Stephen Harper's attempts to ingratiate himself to "average Canadians" via transparent hockey-related photo-ops pass without comment, but Harper (who is writing a book about hockey doncha know) visited with the Maple Laughs in NYC this weekend and I found this quote from Toronto's Brad May rather amusing (aside from May's school-girl fawning):

"I had no idea he was going to come see us," veteran forward Brad May said. "Obviously, it's one of those memorable moments you have not only in your career, but in your entire life. You wouldn't think he would have that much spare time, so it was great that he made time for us."

I can see how Brad would think that, particularly since PM Steve has been laying low lately, avoiding question period and other unscripted public appearances, 'lest he get tagged with this nasty little economic crisis. He must be a busy guy, no?

But I guess Steve still has time for the important things. And good luck with the book. I'm sure Michael Ignatieff would be happy to proof-read it for you, if you ever get it done. He managed to knock one out himself during his Christmas vacation.

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Big win for the Canucks, great night for Sundin

As a Canucks fan stuck in Toronto it's not too often that I get to see my team on television, let alone in person. So I was psyched when I got an e-mail from Leafs' Last Minute Ticket Club last month and scored a ticket to Saturday's Canucks vs. Leafs, Hockey Day in Canada game, and at box office price too. And even more psyched when I realized it was going to be Mats Sundin's first game back in Toronto after signing with Vancouver.

It was the first time I've bought a Leafs ticket (been to a few as a corporate guest) and it was a pretty sweet game. I was surprised by the large number of Canuck jerseys in the audience. Not as many as there'd be Leafs jerseys when I'd go to games in Ottawa or Vancouver, but still a very strong Canucks contingent in the ACC, and loud cheers of “Looouuuuu!” every time Roberto Luongo made a great save. No Looouuuu on that brutal five-hole goal he gave up though, that was Toskala-ish.

I actually thought Vancouver played like crap for most of the game; certainly for the first two period. The Leafs took the play to them, they out-worked and out-hustled them. The Canucks seemed lackadaisical, refusing to hustle and get to loose pucks, loosing a lot of faceoffs, and taking dumb penalties.

I (and everyone else) was interested to see the reaction of Leafs fans to Sundin's return. By and large, it was very positive. There were some boo-birds, but they were largely drowned-out. During a mid-first period TV time-out the Leafs played a video tribute to Sundin that resulted in a two-minute standing-ovation from the ACC crowd. Sundin was on the bench, but seeing the ovation, Canucks coach Alain Vigneault sent Sundin's line onto the ice so he could acknowledge the crowd in an emotional moment.

The Canucks managed to pick it up in the third and tied the game, and there was some frantic and exciting end-to-end chances for both sides late in the third and in the overtime period. Nothing was settled though, setting-up the high-drama of the shoot-out.

Now I felt pretty confident. Who would you rather have in a shoot-out, I asked the Leafs fan a few seats down, Roberto Luongo or Vesa Toskala? The Canucks decided to send-out both their former Leafs for the shoot-out, Sundin and Kyle Wellwood. Good coaching, they've probably had thousands of shots on Toskala in practice with the Leafs.

In the end, it came down to Sundin as the final shooter with a chance to win the game with one-shot and he didn't miss, beating Toskala to give the win to the Canucks. He was named the game's first star, and came back onto the ice for another ovation from the crowd, and to take a bow.

Great night, couldn't have been scripted better.

(Click pics to enlarge)

Mats Sundin takes the opening faceoff.

Faceoff in the Vancouver zone.

The view from my seat, third row of the upper bowl. Great seats.

Roberto Luongo readies to face the first Leafs shooter.

Canucks take to the ice to celebrate the shoot-out win.

Mats Sundin takes a bow after bring named first star.

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