DiscoStu wrote:
While I get your argument that an OHL team needs a population base of a certain size in order to get by....you are basically making your argument (500K, outside the GTA) so that Ottawa and Hamilton are the only cities which can have an OHL team and be successful.
These might be quick and dirty population numbers because I found them on Wikipedia but the data is from the 2011 Canada Census. I decided to do metropolitan areas and include nearby cities instead of restricting to city limits.
Toronto 2.6M
Mississauga-Brampton 1.2M
Ottawa (not counting Gatineau and Hull) 883K
Hamilton-Burlington 721K
Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo 477K
London 474K
St. Catharines-Niagara Falls-Welland 392K
Oshawa-Whitby-Clarington 356K
Windsor 319K
Barrie 187K
Sudbury-Copper Cliff 161K
Kingston 160K
Guelph 141K
Brantford 136K
Thunder Bay 121K
Peterborough 119K
Chatham-Kent 104K
Belleville-Quinte 93K
Sarnia 90K
Sault Ste. Marie 80K
North Bay 64K
Cornwall 59K
Leamington 50K
Timmins 43K
Woodstock 38K
Owen Sound 32K
If the OHL can work in a place like Peterborough, why not in Brantford which is bigger? We know why it won't work in Thunder Bay, because of travel costs, but why not in Chatham-Kent? Then, of course, there are all those people in the GTA, and perhaps it can work, perhaps the right way to do it simply hasn't been tried yet. And then, of course, there is the remote option, like Cornwall, where there are fewer people than in Sarnia but perhaps they will be drawn to what could be the only game in town. After all, why move to North Bay when it has 64K? Because its the only game in town.
Of course, a large population base supports your Hamilton idea, but why disregard the GTA -- because it has been tried and it didn't work? -- then why not disregard Hamilton for the same reason?
---------------------------
In case you are curious (I was) -- here are numbers based on the 2010 US Census:
Detroit-Warren-Dearborn-Plymouth-Ann Arbor 4.3M
Erie-Meadville 281K
Saginaw-Bay City-Midland 200K
The Sting draw from all over Lambton County (including Petrolia, and Corunna ) which has a population of 125 000 and from Port Huron which has a population of 35000 which makes the Sting's drawing area closer to 160 000. The reason the team isn't based on demographics it's based on the abysmal performance of the team over the last 20 years.
Statistics: Posted by jwalk — Wed Feb 05, 2014 8:39 pm