Bonk
Registered User
RIP Cincinnati Gardens. Anaheim took a quarter million to move the Ducks' affiliate from Cincinnati to Portland, Maine, killing the franchise, and the building eventually went down with it. Not that it was big enough for the NHL, but I still miss it and hate the reason it's no longer there.Definitely Louisville over Cincinnati if the NHL were talking about another team in that arena.
Cincy would probably be "more loyal to Columbus" as a secondary market... but Southern Indiana could go Louisville over Chicago.
Also, the boondoggle of funding Cincinnati's NFL stadium is still a huge thing for the taxpayers; building a legit NBA/NHL arena in Cincinnati would be a really tough sell. And when talking arenas, Cincy doesn't have the demand for an "AHL sized venue" and has let Riverfront Coliseum become a fossil because Xavier and the University of Cincinnati both have new (or renovated) 10,000 to 13,000 seat arenas for basketball.
Yeah, I think fans would be split by state. The Kentucky and Indiana sides would probably go for Louisville and the Ohio side would likely continue supporting the CBJ, especially since they're already established.
There are (unfortunately!) a good number of University of Kentucky fans in Cincinnati but I've never met a Louisville fan that's from this side of the river.