NHL in Canada

By 2000, Canadian teams were under pressured to compete in terms of finance with American markets, and Toronto was the only Canadian club that consistently played to sell-out crowds. The NHL’s Canadian Assistance Program gave aid only when clubs could demonstrate their viability, and for most teams in Canada, viability was threatened by reducing attendance. In 1999, Rod Bryden, owner of the Ottawa Senators, informed that unless the federal government was willing to support financially, the Senators would be the next Canadian team being bought by the US. In January 2000, the federal government informed that it would consider support annually to Canadian NHL hockey teams until 2004. However, widespread criticism of the proposal was so extreme that it brought about an instant retraction. The Senators remained in Ottawa, and since 2005 attendance has remained stable for most Canadian franchises.

Overall, Canadian clubs have proven to be more financially stable than a number of American teams. In 2012, the Toronto Maple Leafs was the most profitable clubs in the NHL with revenue of $81.9 million. Certain that Canada could aid NHL clubs, an ambitious Canadian businessman named Jim Balsillie, owner of the wireless technological company Research In Motion, did his best to line up another franchise north of the border. Balsillie made several bids to relocate American teams to Hamilton (in southern Ontario), trying to buy Pittsburgh in 2006 and Nashville in 2007. In 2009, Balsillie tried once more to relocate the Phoenix Coyotes to Hamilton, but the NHL and Arizona bankruptcy judge Redfield T. Baum rejected the offer.

Southern Ontario was not the only place in Canada that tried to acquire an NHL franchise. In 2009, True North Sports and Entertainment (TNSE) made a significant bid for the Phoenix Coyotes (the same franchise that relocated from Winnipeg in 1996), but a last-minute settlement was achieved between the NHL and the City of Glendale to keep the Coyotes in Arizona. However, the Atlanta Thrashers had problems, and TNSE finalized a deal to relocate the Thrashers to Winnipeg on 31 May 2011. The team was renamed the Jets, the same name Winnipeg’s hockey team had during their glory years in the World Hockey Association.