Canada's Stanley Cup drought as explained by Nate Silver

[Kin]

Why Can't Canada Win the Stanley Cup

Worth a read I thought. Silver put it at 97.5% that a Canadian team should have won one by now.

 

[ZBBM]

Why Can't Canada Win the Stanley Cup

Worth a read I thought. Silver put it at 97.5% that a Canadian team should have won one by now.

Silver's analysis may have some flaws (see the comments section ... some are just rants but there are some real critiques), but his simple analysis of avidity (e.g., the number of fans in Saskatoon exceeds the number in many much larger US cities) is surely correct.

(He's worth reading for sure because his track record in predicting US presidential and senatorial races is literally astounding.  He singlehandedly blew holes in the right-wing's fantasy of "skewed" polls in the 2012 president election.)

 

[KoHo]

Fascinating that Seattle has the highest "NHL fan population" in non-NHL American cities according to Silver. The rankings:

1. Seattle
2. Atlanta
3. Cleveland
4. Hartford
5. Houston
6. Milwaukee
7. Las Vegas
8. Kansas City

 

[seahawk]

Fascinating that Seattle has the highest "NHL fan population" in non-NHL American cities according to Silver. The rankings:

1. Seattle
2. Atlanta
3. Cleveland
4. Hartford
5. Houston
6. Milwaukee
7. Las Vegas
8. Kansas City

Biggest issue in Seattle is a suitable venue. The WHL Thunderbirds play in a 6500 seat venue in Kent. KeyArena holds 15,177 but is poorly laid out for hockey. The scoreboard actually hangs inside one of the blue lines rather than center ice. The Tacoma Dome might be a workable short-term option but would hold around 13-15k.

 

[hockeyfan1]

Maybe this js the solution...

(From the article)
The six United States markets with fewer than 300,000 N.H.L. fans would lose their teams.

This would yield a league with 11 Canadian franchises out of 28 ? just shy of 40 percent ? a level that comes much closer to the share of N.H.L. interest and revenues between among the two countries. And it would all but ensure that Canada?s Stanley Cup drought ends sooner rather than later.