Las Vegas Tigers of Hamilton

This is being written tongue in cheek but with the upside down world of reality in the NHL you have to wonder some days.

Jim Balsillie wants to put a team in Hamilton and Gary Bettman would love to have a team in Las Vegas. Are we at an impasse? I say no. Why don’t they put their heads together and come up with a solution that gives both of them what they want. I say they come out of these negotiations and announce the “Las Vegas Tigers of Hamilton” who play all their home games in Hamilton.

Ridiculous you say? Well the NHL Board of Governors has encouraged the Ice Edge group to move ahead and make a bid that includes playing some of Phoenix’s home games in Saskatoon, so they have set a precedent that they would consider this type of arrangement. I’m just saying that we take it a step further and play all of Las Vegas’ home games in Hamilton. Yeah, that’s the ticket!

We’re borrowing the concept of the team name from MLB. They already have the Los Angeles Dodgers of Anaheim. On the schedule and in the standings the team is already just being referred to as Los Angeles. Originally the team was the Anaheim Angels and contractually they have to keep Anaheim in the team name, but MLB thought it would be better to promote the name Los Angeles so voila, they accomplished both.

The NHL can just take this one step further. Jim would have his team. Hamilton would have NHL hockey. Gary can ignore the tiny detail of where the games are being played and sell the new “Las Vegas” franchise to the television networks. This will even provide some logic to the idea of having the NHL awards ceremony in Vegas each year.

Can’t you just see the team winning the Stanley Cup and Gary handing them the trophy at Copps Coliseum. He would then smile that big smile of his and say, “Gee, hockey sure looks like it’s doing well in Las Vegas!”

The more you think about it, this could be a match made in heaven. Even the Tigers name is perfect. It has tradition in Hamilton and even makes sense for Vegas. As a compromise the tiger could be white in honor of Siegfried and Roy. That would give it that Vegas connection and to respect the fans of Hamilton it would of course be set on the base colours of black and gold.

I don’t think Gary would have any ethics issues here, but if that were the case, then maybe one or two home games could be played in Vegas as a compromise. All the games would likely be sell outs and this “Las Vegas” franchise would be a sure fire success.

I think we better get this idea over to the boys at league headquarters right away.