Lemieux to visit, assess: NHL’s Penguins exploring a move; Alexander mum
Pittsburgh coverage of Penguins’ woes
NHL legend Mario Lemieux is expected to lead a delegation from the Pittsburgh Penguins to visit Houston and Toyota Center this week, according to an individual expected to be part of the talks. Lemieux, the Penguins owner and a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame, said in December that the franchise, whose lease expires after this season, would “explore relocation offers in cities outside Pennsylvania.”….Pittsburgh (21-17-8) is in third place in the NHL’s Atlantic Division, and the Penguins are considered a team on the rise because of a pair of young stars ‚Äö√Ñ√Æ centers Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.
For a city whose leaders like to fancy Houston as “major league”, the lack of a National Hockey League team must seem like a huge hole in need of plugging. Now that the Pittsburgh Penguins are casting glances toward the Bayou City, you’d think that this would be cause for all sorts of wild speculation…right? If not for the deafening silence over the news of Mario Lemieux’s visit, though, you’d be hearing a whole lot of well…not much of anything, really.
The NHL is still a league and a sport in search of a niche. Though aspiring to be considered a major sport, the NHL’s commissioner, Gary Bettman, orchestrated a lockout that cost the league it’s entire 2004-05 season. Losing that season cost the NHL their television contract with ESPN, which was the only real hope the league had of gaining a national foothold. Now mired on Versus, a minor sports network with bigger aspirations than it’s minimal market penetration, the NHL is really only popular in the markets where teams are in place. In other markets, it might as well be the World Poker Tour.
To make matters worse, the league’s salary structure is still completely out of whack, though not as badly as it was prior to the lockout. This makes tickets prohibitively expensive, which means that, without significant corporate support, most teams would be in receivership.
I’m no big fan of minor league hockey. The Aeros are fun to watch, but I haven’t been to a game in two years, and as much as I love the game, there’s a good chance I won’t see one this year, either. Nonetheless, you can still get a ticket to an Aeros game for something like $15. Do hockey fans in Houston really want to be paying upwards of $40 to see an NHL game…even if it is without a doubt the best hockey in the world? It’s a good question, and one that I have no answer for.
Sure, the idea of seeing Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin is exciting. Having the Penguins move to Houston certainly wouldn’t be a bad thing (even if they did beat my Minnesota North Stars in the 1990-91 Stanley Cup Finals). I’m just not so certain that it would be a good thing.
