Metro Toronto could handle another NHL club

Comedians who love to needle the Toronto Maple Leafs about their ineptness since last winning the Stanley Cup in 1967 are rubbing their hands together with the anticipation that the National Hockey League might soon expand, with a metro Toronto arena in Markham, Ont., as a potential home base for a new NHL club.

"Finally," the comedians will say in some fashion: "Toronto is finally getting an NHL team."

Markham city council recently wrestled with the question of erecting a multi-million-dollar facility that could house an NHL team, but league officials have apparently told the mayor and council not to get their hopes up too high.

Still, it makes sense, doesn't it? Greater New York has three NHL teams (Rangers, Islanders, New Jersey Devils) and the Greater Toronto area, with its 10 million-plus population, could certainly accommodate two teams. Regular rumours say the Leafs have control over their market, however, and will not allow a second team into the region.

Considering it's easier to get into Fort Knox or out of a federal prison than it is for a non-season-ticket-holder to get into a Leafs' game, a second team in the suburbs of Toronto couldn't help but be a huge marketing success.

Quebec City, however, has the unspoken first dibs on an expansion (or relocated) NHL club. Since Quebec and Winnipeg lost their teams in the 1990s, and Winnipeg has since returned to the league, Quebec is automatically (logically and politically) next on the list. Expansions only happen in multiples of two, however, which means that if a sadsack NHL team in the south (Florida, Carolina, Phoenix) doesn't relocate to Quebec, expansion is the answer. And that possibly brings a second Ontario team into the equation.

Expansion talks have heated up since the resolution to the recent NHL lockout. Owners missed half a season of revenue and a quick and easy way to recoup a few hundred million dollars is to add a couple of expansion teams and spread the lucrative fees among the existing owners. While the calibre of hockey might suffer, the owners' bank accounts certainly won't.

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