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Cleveland Sports Mt. Rushmore (expanded)

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  • ballpeenB ballpeen

    @the-gipper said:

    Well...I wish we could have included the NHL Barons,  but they only lasted here like 1.5 years.   More of the Barons history was in the minor league AHL.

    Just to clarify that point...at that time the AHL was more than a minor league team.  True, the NHL teams sent players to the AHL, but the AHL teams held their own contracts as well.  It was more like a alternate league.  Kind of like the early days of baseball when the American League was thought of being lesser than the National League or in football when the AFL was looked at as being lesser than the NFL.  You could even go back to the AAFC and the NFL.

    Sports was different back then.  There were no real TV contracts, at least on a national level.  All local stuff, mostly radio.  There was a reason why the National League merged with the American League, why the NFL brought in several of the teams from the AAFC, then merged with all of the AFL.  The owners realized they might not have as much of a cod lock on things as they thought.

    The GipperT The Gipper wrote on
    #21

    @ballpeen said:

    Just to clarify that point...at that time the AHL was more than a minor league team.  True, the NHL teams sent players to the AHL, but the AHL teams held their own contracts as well.  It was more like a alternate league.  Kind of like the early days of baseball when the American League was thought of being lesser than the National League or in football when the AFL was looked at as being lesser than the NFL.  You could even go back to the AAFC and the NFL.

    Yes, I like this explanation.   After all, from like the mid 20s to the mid 60s there were only  6 NHL teams.  There were probably fewer combined  NHL and AHL teams then than there are NHL teams now.  So the AHL could be considered say a "Major B" league, rather than a minor league. 

    Sports was different back then.  There were no real TV contracts, at least on a national level.  All local stuff, mostly radio.  There was a reason why the National League merged with the American League, why the NFL brought in several of the teams from the AAFC, then merged with all of the AFL.  The owners realized they might not have as much of a cod lock on things as they thought.

    Yes, again.  In the 1970s there was  "expansion by merger):   NFL/AFL  merger completed;   NBA/ABA merger;  NHL/WHA  merger.  Not to mention pure expansion. 

    I am of the opinion that 32 is almost a perfect number for a North American Major Sports league.   That is what we have in the NFL now.  The NHL is about to complete expansion to 32 teams.   Las Vegas being #31 and Seattle, whose commencement may be delayed by the virus situation will be #32.    That leaves the NBA and MLB to expand by 2 teams each IMO.    Where could they go? 

    For the NBA,  I can see them expanding in the west to either   Seattle/Las Vegas or San Diego.    In the East,    a good spot I think would be the Tidewater/Richmond area of Virginia....which has a population of over 3 million.....and no sports franchises (almost as big as  Cleveland metro area).....or the likes of Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Columbus.....or maybe the Lexington/Louisville area...about  2.25 million combined population.   Unless they also want to give Canada another team, then try Vancouver again....though they did that once with the Grizzlies.

    For MLB:   Top possibles are  Carolina (either Charlotte or Raleigh), which seems a natural....Portland,  Salt Lake City,   or San Antonio/Austin.

    Or...unless they actually wish to expand into Mexico?  Monterrey rather than Mex. City  would be best there IMO. 

    32 teams works out well for divisions/conferences/leagues/and playoff set ups.  All in my opinion. 

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