Linked below is a list of metropolitan areas in the country:
While the largest city areas in Canada have 5.5 million and 3.8 thereabouts, the third largest metro, Vancouver, is comparable to Greater Cincinnati size. Cincinnati's draw for baseball towers Vancouver's much like the Canucks do over Cinci in hockey. While the NBA's Grizzles swam big country and crawled from the bay to the banks of Memphis, and with Montreal's Expos exiting for another capital town, we all already know that there is a hesitancy for more of the Big Four sports to return to soils so north.
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| I spy baseball fields in Saskatoon. |
I just rattled away the top three towns in Canada. The rest of the list has lackluster market eyeballs for the aforementioned Big Four. However, hockey passion throughout the land is the X-Factor and there is always campagning and buzz for more NHL in Canada. So, I probably should say that the business lackluster lies more with the Big Three. Ottawa (about to land the NHL once more), Calgary and Edmonton round off the million inhabitants list.
Let's talk about those three areas - Spaces between Montreal to Toronto to Vancouver.
More in the midlands, Edmonton and Calgary are 170 miles apart. That's more of a drive than it would take someone from Cleveland or Cinci to get to a Blue Jackets game, and much closer than a Reds to Indians drive. What could be made of this provincial proximity that is in Alberta Oilers and Flames territory?
In the middle of it all, what if we consider, as part of a triangle and connection between Alberta's big cities and either Winnipeg, Ottawa or Vancouver? Or even stretching to Montreal. Baseball, basketball....whatever. Would a team called the "Northlakes Trifecta" sound neat? A travel-tag-team for Canada? It would play "home" games in each town. If all of the sports like baseball, basketball and football had league teams in Montreal and Vancouver, the heart of Canada could be represented in a Calgary, Edmonton and Winnipeg triangle. Or consider Ottawa in that expanse.
Imagine, the three tips atop the national Leaf being pointed at by Ottawa, Winnipeg and Alberta as a crown. Alternate the idea with Vancouver and Montreal and consider the thought as an NBA team.
With the term "Trifecta" in use, it would've been a neat indication if the Expos were already in town still (2 teams in country already).
Montreal, Vancouver and a location for a big new ballpark on the north end of Calgary (suiting easier access for Edmonton area people) would be a neat town-tag-team for a traveling club representing the stretched hearts of Canadians. Winnipeg, while geographically centered and would be a clean spread image to view the distancing, isn't even half of what Alberta's center area can provide in number of people. Not to say it can't be done. A bulk of the series can take place at the big cities sitting in the west and east, Vancouver and Montreal, respectively, while a handful of games could be touted in Manitoba's capital. Not to say that a 25k or 30k seat gem of a beautiful ballpark couldn't sustain itself in Winnipeg for a few series here and there. 35 games each could camp in Vancouver and Montreal, while 10 could be elsewhere in smaller confines. 30/30/20. 34/34/12. You get the idea.
NBA (Vancouver/Montreal) ?
MLB (Montreal/Vancouver/north-side Calgary)?
NFL (CFL Canada)?
MLS (Trifecta, Edmonton/Calgary, Winnipeg, Ottawa)?
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| All hail the University of Regina in Saskatchewan. |
See way more expansion, co-location and alternative relocation talk for football, baseball,
basketball, hockey and soccer on my blog prosportsexpansion.blogspot.com/
