NHL Expansion into Southern Cities As the population continually increases in the Southern states, the NHL moves its teams to major Southern cities. In an effort to increase its profits and popularity, the NHL increased the number of teams in the league and moved into southern cities that had never had hockey teams before. The problem is that hockey is not as popular in the South as it is in the North. This expansion into the South resulted in huge monetary losses for Southern teams and very low attendance. The NHL should not have expanded the league to southern cities and should keep NHL teams further north. There are several reasons why the NHL began expanding into southern markets. But one of the most important events that opened the door to expansion south was the Wayne Gretzky trade to the Los Angeles Kings. In 1988, the NHL's best player brought hockey attention to the South. Gretzky's name and popularity drew people to the arena and allowed other NHL teams to expand south. After the Kings acquired Gretzky, the first new team to expand south was the San Jose Sharks in 1991. The Sharks were followed by the Tampa Bay Lightning who joined the league in 1992. In 1993, Florida received his second team in two years, the Florida Panthers. California also received its third team, the Anaheim Mighty Ducks. In 1998, Nashville received an NHL team named the Predators. Then, in 1999, the Atlanta Thrashers were born. All of these teams were expansion teams, meaning they were simply created and not moved from elsewhere. These teams were located in southern markets because the NHL was trying to take advantage of growing cities. In 1970, two years in the middle of paper, lower salaries and ticket prices, the NHL should concentrate where it is wanted and loved, the northern United States and Canada. Hockey means a lot to Canadians and children. It makes no sense for the NHL to focus on the South and not help Canada's teams or attract more teams to Canada. When the NHL understands where hockey matters and where people want hockey, it will be able to be profitable and increase fan support. There is no point in trying to impose hockey in the southern United States, because we don't want it there. Time and money should be spent helping loyal fans attend games in the North, rather than trying to attract new fans in the South. The southern hockey experiment should end now before loyal fans get tired of professional hockey. If the NHL doesn't do something soon, it may be too late and NHL fans will be lost forever..