Kansas City Predators?

I had already planned to make a post about how the NHL should just give up on Nashville and let the team move to Canada, but after the latest news, I just couldn't wait to say something.

The current owner of the Predators is reportedly turning down a $238 million deal from a buyer who wants to move the team to Canada and is instead taking a $190 million deal from a buyer who wants to move the team to Kansas City. Rumor is that he's taking the lower deal under pressure from commissioner Bettman, who wants a team in KC.

There's so much wrong with this, I can't even begin to explain it. The team is failing in Nashville due to a lack of interest, and they think that moving it to Kansas will help? Granted, I don't think Hamilton, Ontario is the best place to put it (there are three teams within 200 miles of the city: Toronto (about 20 miles), Buffalo (about 70 miles), and Detroit (about 200 miles). But Canada would fully support any team moved up there. Kansas, on the other hand, would probably have no clue what hockey even is.

Ostensibly, the reason for moving a franchise to KC is to encourage hockey in places where there's otherwise no support for the game. The idea is that moving a team to a place where no one plays hockey will show them the wonders of the sport, and help garner popularity for the game among the American populace. Of course, the problem with this theory is that was the entire reason Nashville was given a team in the first place, and we see how well that worked out.

If the team moves to KC, it will fail, just as the Kansas City Scouts failed from 1974-76. The city isn't enough bigger than Nashville (2 million people versus 1.5 million) to warrant uprooting a franchise. If the NHL wants to promote the game in nontraditional US markets, they should stay in Nashville, where they at least have a fan base and a history of winning. Moving to a completely new city with almost no pre-existing hockey support after dropping your payroll into the $30 million range and letting all your big names go to free agency is not the way to do it. Canadians would put up with that just to have a hockey team, Kansas Cityites (Kansas Citians? Maybe Kansas Citizens? What's the real term here?) will not.

At the very least, couldn't they move the franchise west of Dallas so we could get into the Central Division? This whole Pacific Division, two timezone difference thing sucks.

The other thing I've been confused about is why would Leipold, who currently owns the team, care where the team gets moved to? I can see him taking a smaller deal to keep the team in Nashville, but why would he take $58 million less so the team gets moved to KC over Canada? Seems to me like if the team you used to own is gonna get moved, you may as well get as much as you can for it.