• I received Triesence through a 27 gauge needle once again, yesterday. Photo from a previous time.
• It costs $80 CDN, per injection.
• The eye drops that go with the treatment to keep the eye pressure down and prevent glaucoma, cost $85 CDN. Brimonidine Tartrate requires one drop twice a day to keep the eye pressure normal.
• The steroid injection keeps my special bionic eye powers going (I can especially see baloney, by God's grace), but my eye was swollen from mid-afternoon yesterday until mid-morning today.
• Besides the swelling which is more extremely uncomfortable than painful, the injection creates 'fake colds'.
• I am getting better, but the floaters still need to go away, likely today.
• How Gretzky going to the Canucks would have led to the destruction of the NHL. March 23 2031
• Cited: 'The death of the NHL in California
Here’s the biggest issue with Gretzky going to the Canucks instead of the Kings: it could have killed hockey in the southern United States. And that, in turn, could have killed the NHL.'
• I disagree. If the Vancouver Canucks would have traded for Wayne Gretzky and perhaps won the Stanley Cup, it would have strengthened Canadian hockey, which many Canadians and people take for granted, falsely assuming there are no new fans to be found.
• The Los Angeles Kings had already been in the National Hockey League since 1967. The internet, increased media as examples would have continued to grow the game of hockey in the United States of America and California, even without Wayne Gretzky being traded to Los Angeles.
• It is not true that everyone in Canada supports a Canadian team.
• New Canadian teams in sold, solid, markets, not just anywhere, would create new fan bases and thousands of people filling arenas that were not previously.
• Thousands of people buying products from their new team.
• I, for example, would more likely support a hypothetical National Hockey League team, more successful than the Vancouver Canucks than I would the Vancouver Canucks.
• Too bad the Vancouver Blazers had not been tremendously successful and part of the 1979, National Hockey expansion from the World Hockey Association.
• Reasonably the Vancouver Canucks, sharing the market, would have become more competitive and their overall value would be more today than it is.
• In Canada, I think in ways, many are brainwashed by American culture. They reason if something is not popular in America it is not worthwhile.
• This is a country of monopolies. A real shame in this country is that unlike for example, European football, which has for decades had more than one team in key markets, Manchester United/Manchester City, Liverpool/Everton, AC Milan/Inter Milan, Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, all have National Hockey League monopolies.
• Losing the Montreal Maroons before hockey became more popular was/is a real loss to Canadian hockey, in my view. They would likely be a third big Canadian club from the 'original seven'.
• I would drop the English Canadian team idea. They would be primarily French Canadian just like the Montreal Canadiens (Quebec Nordiques).
• Ever wonder why Tampa Bay, Anaheim, Carolina have been better than the Canadian teams as far as winning Stanley Cups? Well, in part, they have to for survival, because they do not have the traditional, loyal hockey fan bases that the Canadian clubs do.
• They also have more sports competition than every Canadian market, other than perhaps Toronto.
• Cited
Without that foothold in California, there’s no Anaheim Ducks and no San Jose Sharks. In fact, there’s no Mighty Ducks film franchise at all, movies that helped hockey gain a foothold in popular culture that pushed its popularity across the U.S.
• Doubtful for reasons noted.
• Why should my priority as someone with a Canadian passport be a foreign country? I am more concerned with the success of Canadian hockey which has been downgraded for decades by the National Hockey League, than America or anywhere else.
• I have been a fan of the New York Islanders, Pittsburgh Penguins and New Jersey Devils, Stanley Cup runs.
• The English football supporter is generally not concerned that, hypothetically, West Ham United might make more money if they played in New York City and could somehow with the travel fit into the English Premier League schedule. It might be true, that New York is more profitable than a section of London, but who cares? The supporters are English not American.
• But we are brainwashed here in Canada. English football clubs owners are primarily concerned with growing the game of football in England. Canadian National Hockey League clubs should be primarily concerned with growing the game of hockey in Canada.
• Yes, the United States is a larger market and should be pursued by the League and the clubs, overall, agreed.
• Yes, most National Hockey League teams should be in America. Yes, I was wrong, Las Vegas (so far) has been a good market (with a change in expansion draft rules to benefit them, also as the only new team). But, my priority as a Canadian is Canadian hockey.
• Canadian clubs have a connection to Canadian fans and should build 'our' game in a sense.
(Same with United States of America clubs in America)
• There are more interesting, warm and sunny cities in America than Canada.
• I have been to Hamilton. I have been to Phoenix. Phoenix is aesthetically more pleasant, to me.
• So, we in Canada are supposed to pay our cable bill for the 5.2 billion dollar NHL television deal, and watch America win the Stanley Cup every year (or almost) and not have any significant level of disagreement?
• If it just market size, why not push the game in Tokyo, Moscow (already a hockey market), Mexico City, etcetera, provided travel and divisions could reasonably work?
• If growing the game is really essential, why not worldwide? With different divisions for travel purposes.
• Cited: No southern hockey means a financial crisis for the NHL
• I do not agree. Check out the Forbes lists over the years.
Forbes 2020 NHL Most of the highest valued clubs are traditional markets, the original six, Philadelphia and Los Angeles. Los Angeles boosted by two Stanley Cup wins.
• If Toronto and Vancouver had been more successful over the decades, post expansion, I reason their franchise values would be even higher than at present.
•
Hamilton would be among top five in revenue, NHL admits: Kevin McGran SPORTS REPORTER Thu., Sept. 10, 2009 Cited:
Bettman — who will have to testify Friday — was asked by reporters about the league's resistance to go to Hamilton. Its own experts — in previously classified documents that were revealed in pieces Thursday — said Hamilton could be the fifth most valuable in the NHL. Bettman answered in a double negative, suggesting the league has indeed considered expansion to Hamilton.
"It's not a question that we haven't considered, wouldn't consider," said Bettman. "Ithasn't been ripe."
• I will be blunt. Based on the links provided on this article, the League is not primarily concerned about growing the game and becoming a more valuable business. The League is primarily concerned about growing the game in America and becoming a more valuable business.
• No other teams in Hamilton or the Greater Toronto Area, as prime examples.
• The League is primarily owned by Americans that as a culture have an America first attitude within his/her worldview.
• Sadly, many in Canada have bought into this attitude. A market that could be the fifth largest in the world, is rejected, continually, because Toronto would sort of have to share a large market, and also would face pressure to be completive.
• Also, Hamilton is not well-known in America, even if the team was called Ontario, it would not be very recognizable in America.
• Cited (from first link):
The NHL is no more.
• So, it is supposedly good the Vancouver Canucks did not acquire Wayne Gretzky because the League could have ended without Los Angeles obtaining Wayne Gretzky.
• Based on the attitude in this article and elsewhere from many people online, the status quo should continue and Canada should continue not win Stanley Cups, because the League will end, unless America always dominates.
• Fiction...Perhaps other markets would need to be prioritized, actual hockey markets, Canada, America and worldwide. But that is not America first.
• Get it? Sorry, I am just a philosopher that calls baloney when I see it...
• Cited: The Conference Board of Canada released a briefing yesterday which concludes that both the long NHL-denied Hamilton and the former Nordique home Quebec City could host successful NHL franchises.
Cited: The board’s economists say none of Canada’s big markets — Toronto, Vancouver or Montreal — is suitable for a second franchise. That contrasts with a report last spring from the University of Toronto’s Mowat Centre for Policy innovation which suggested 12 franchises could thrive here, including second teams in each of those cities.
The New Economics of the NHL: Why Canada Can Support 12 Teams
Cited: Southern Ontario can support two more teams – one new team in the Greater Toronto Area and another in Hamilton, London or Kitchener-Waterloo. Vancouver and Montreal can each support a second team. Winnipeg and Quebec City could also be successful homes to NHL franchises...
