Way back machine: when the Penguins were threatening to leave Pittsburgh in search of an arena not named Civic Arena, and allegedly Kanas City was the golden land, has anyone else said, self, Kansas City still has not secured an expansion or an established team move to that city? Phoenix? Winnipeg? Las Vegas? Nashville? Seattle?
The Penguins move to KC. Maybe some paid investigation team could examine the proposed move, and report back. Myth, plans in place, KC arena for games to be played in, ... ? I am open to learning about how close the move was.
If not Pittsburgh, where?
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BigMcK
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stonewizard51
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Re: If not Pittsburgh, where?
At the time, I was hearing a lot of talking about how Mario didn't want to move and some posturing was being done to get PA to come up with funding help. That being said, I also remember hearing that KC had a move in ready arena and that was very appealing so, who knows how close the move was to actually happening. IMHO, closer than the talking heads were thinking, especially if PA didn't come up with some funding relief.
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ahawk9
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Re: If not Pittsburgh, where?
From what I've heard (so take that with a ton of salt) it was mainly a ploy to get Pittsburgh moving to figure out how to get the arena done, especially with the windfall that legal gambling was about to offer the area. I really can't produce a link right now but I swear I remember hearing that Bettman essentially told people that they didn't want the Pens to leave Pittsburgh, so I think the whole "Lemieux Visits Kansas City" was designed to get public outcry involved in arena talks. It worked, obviously.
All that said, I just did a little digging and found this link to a story in Pensburgh from 2012 that says they were actually closer to leaving than Lemieux would have us believe.
https://www.pensburgh.com/2012/2/14/279 ... n-hed-like
The wild thing to think about is that the current arena is about 15 years old, which means that we may be going through the exact same thing in only 15 more years.
All that said, I just did a little digging and found this link to a story in Pensburgh from 2012 that says they were actually closer to leaving than Lemieux would have us believe.
https://www.pensburgh.com/2012/2/14/279 ... n-hed-like
The wild thing to think about is that the current arena is about 15 years old, which means that we may be going through the exact same thing in only 15 more years.
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pfim
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Re: If not Pittsburgh, where?
I don't think KC was ever a real option. It may have been the most talked about at the time, but it didn't make a ton of sense: it was a lateral move at best and there were better options out there.
The biggest threat was always Jim Balsillie moving them to Hamilton.
The biggest threat was always Jim Balsillie moving them to Hamilton.
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ahawk9
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Re: If not Pittsburgh, where?
I still remember Balsillie's presser when he kept talking about the "Penguins will be in Pittsburgh..." blah, blah, blah, and showed their logo on his Blackberry. He was greasy from the get-go. He would have moved them quickly (or at least tried to), and he was going to do the same with the Preds. He was a good one for the league to turn away.